18 aftermath

I went on so long about the run itself that I thought I'd talk about the aftermath in a separate post.

After SAJ and I got back to her house, I climbed in my car and headed home. I was feeling pretty dazed -- couldn't believe that I had actually just run 18 miles. I came in and went right to the kitchen to make myself a glass of chocolate milk to eat with a rice cake and a banana.

Funny about chocolate milk. I've read many times that it's a great recovery drink and I used to pooh-pooh it. But when I finally tried it, I was an instant convert. It does a great job of saving me from the awful post-run queasy feeling I am subject to after a long slog. And it also primes me to be able to eat something more substantial in another hour or so. I love it!

I only got to rest for half an hour or so -- then head to get in the shower and go to the girls' school to pick up Sweet A for an orthodontist appointment. In the shower, I started to get that yucky "I need to eat so badly that I am nauseous" feeling and realized I'd probably waited too long to eat some more food. Or perhaps the milk, rice cake and banana weren't enough. Regardless, I downed a container of yogurt and went to get the girls.

The yogurt helped and I felt OK for the first half an hour or so. Then, at the orthodontist's office, I started to completely fade away. I really should have been eating a big meal right around the time I went to get the girls, but there just wasn't a way I could make it happen. By the time Big A was done and we were heading home, I was pretty desperate. We stopped at a Taco Time drive-through (an indicator of how desperate I was feeling) and I nearly cried when I saw that there were three cars ahead of us in line. I actually said to Sweet A that I was feeling so tired and hungry that I felt like crying. True to her nature, she said, "It's OK Mommy, you can cry if you want. And we'll be home soon, then you can rest." What an angel.

After what felt like an hour but was probably actually five minutes, we got our food. I drove us home, grabbed my meal and took it straight upstairs, where I laid in bed eating and then immediately fell asleep for an hour before getting up to get ready for the arrival of my best friend SHG.