The first run back after a marathon is like… well, like your first run. I remember my first cross country practice. I came to practice in some Fila tennis shoes, thinking they were good enough running shoes because they were the sportiest shoes I had. I was doing the short run, which was about a 10 minute warm-up, stretch, and then a 10 minute run back to school. I didn’t “know” how to run, so I put one foot in front of the other, stared down at my shadow, and curled my arms up in fear that I might look like I don’t know how to run. I couldn’t quite get a steady rhythm. My legs were running a muck and my breathing, oh man, I felt like I was blowing out candles but had to do it only breathing out my nose. I thought that if I had to breathe in and out of my mouth that people would know that I didn’t know ho to run. About 2 minutes into the run, I was breathing heavily, dragging my feet, and wanting to give up. That seems like just yesterday.
Wait, it was. I ran for the first time this week, and felt like I didn’t know what I was doing. I tried to run faster than my last few miles of the marathon, but who knows if I really was. Probably not. I ran, did the usual run stuff. I even timed it! But it was awkward and ended up being a rude awakening. It was gonna take time until I got back into it.