Race Report: Grandma's Marathon 2008...Part III

The Aftermath.

After I crossed the finish line and got all most of the crying out of my system, Coach Ruth and I went to ice our legs. In Lake Superior.

I have never felt anything more heavenly.

Well, except for that heavenly feeling when I crossed the finish line at the marathon. Because did I mention that I Ran A Marathon recently??

But seriously. It felt amazing. My feet were killing me, so after I waded out of the lake, I was So Thankful that I remembered to pack flip flops. I didn't have any serious issues with blisters during my training runs, so I was surprised when I noticed a fun addition to my ring toe...


I swear my feet aren't as chubby as they appear in this photo. Is just, uh, bad lighting. Yeah. Also, please avert your eyes from the mess that is my index toe.

Yup. A fatty jelly-bean sized blister. My other foot had blisters on the big and ring toes, and my big toe was feeling suspiciously sore. I'm afraid I'm going to have to bid my friend Big Toenail adieu - I don't think he's going to be with us much longer.

We came back to the hotel, cleaned up...and traded war stories.

And then it was time for happy hour. We cracked open the champagne and toasted to our PRs, our PWs, our amazing friends and teammates.


Seating was limited so Karen and I shared the hot tub

After happy hour, we headed to Timberlodge Steakhouse for dinner, where we had reservations for 50, and were shocked to find that 44 other Lifetime runners beat us down there. I was secretly glad that there wasn't room for all of us - and eight of us decided to find another restaurant. A restaurant that didn't have animal pelts hanging from the walls. A restaurant that was more vegetarian-friendly. And so we went to a delightful cafe down the street.

It was too early to hit the bars after dinner, so we headed back to the hotel for a power nap. I had been awake since 4am and had run 26.2 miles earlier that day (oh, and also, did I mention that I Ran A Marathon earlier that day??) and the exhaustion was starting to set in. I closed my eyes at about 8:45 and an instant later it was 9:45 and time to go.

I was anxious to bust a move on the dance floor, but the music selection wasn't what we were looking for. It was more "family wedding reception" and less "let's get craaaazy!" so we didn't do much dancing. By midnight we were ready to call it a night.

RIGHT.

We headed back to our hotel, filled up the hot tub, and round three of happy-action-fun-time began. Bar-goers trickled back into our hotel room and we had fun sitting around and shooting the shit, and I also met my Gummy Bear soulmate. Our bus driver/alpha dog/bus owner Randy (aka Boots LaBeaux) was hilarious when he got back - he stripped down to his shorts and did a cannon ball into the vacant jacuzzi. Who cannon balls into jacuzzis??

At 2am, I was ready to call it a night. I crawled into bed, read a bedtime story to my race medal, and fell asleep instantly.

The next morning, we packed up, grabbed some breakfast, and Jen, Val and I headed to Lake Superior to unwind. We reveled in the glorious scenery and bid a proper farewell to Lady Lake.

Because the journey was ending. It was time to go home.

We packed up the bus, posed for a picture...


Jen, Val, Karen, Randy, Ruth, Melissa, Kim, Allison

And headed home.

It was over.

Back to reality.