Recovery is Boring

Recovery is boring. Rather than running, I'm planning out training and
races and other running related things. I have a list of races planned
for the next year in my preparation of the full marathon in October.
Another half in the spring a half in the late summer and as many 10 and 5
k that I can afford, including Warrior Dash.
Some friends have sparked interest for the PoHo Hot Cocoa 8k in January.
Sounds fun. The after party is chocolate themed and you get a neat
hoodie.
I set up an appointment with a sports medicine doctor for a post-race
checkup. Hoping she can educate me on some of my pains, like the one in
my heel and outer foot. The pain has subsided a lot since the race, but I
figured a nice 5 miler the night before will make it surface.

The Detroit Free Press Marathon

I guess my first post to the new blog will be a big one and therefore anti-climatic. A few other blogging runner's begin to write at the start of their training. Not me. Nope. About 4 months ago, I started training for my biggest running achievement to date - my first half marathon. It was a slow-and-steady kind of training that started to lose momentum towards the end, but I stuck with it. Now I can say I earned the right to put one of those cheesey "13.1" oval stickers on my car. I haven't, but I earned the right to. Moving on...
The day started at 4:30 AM. I got up, came downstairs, woke up Emily, my running partner/sister-in-law, and got a move on. I wasn't sure if I was going to go with pants or shorts as I train with both and it was about 45 out that morning, but I went with the shorts; pants are for sub 40. A banana and a Mojo Cliff Bar later, we arrived downtown. I knew it was a huge event, but when you're joining up with your fellow 20,000 colleagues and their cheer support, its really put into perspective.

We met up with the third of our "team", Anthony, near our corrals. Warmed up, shook loose the nerves and dropped off any "extra luggage". At about 6:30 AM we headed off to our respective corrals. I bumped into a old coworker, who happened to be in my corral and we kept company until our start. Being in one of the last corrals, our wave started around 7:20. The airhorn sounded and I was off - alone amongst thousands of others.
The first 2 miles are kind of tough, but not because of terrain or anything like that. You're trying to adjust your pace, meanwhile you have to weave in and out of everyone else as they do the same - people that started behind you are trying to pass you, while you, yourself are trying to pass the slower-paced people who started in front of you. Meanwhile, everyone is shedding their throw-away warm-ups. Its a chaotic 2 miles, despite being straight and flat.