After, after the marathon

Needless to say, I fell asleep rather quickly, and easily, Sunday night, and hoping for some sort of miracle, woke up thinking, "hey, not so bad".  Then I moved...oh, all that is holy, I am SORE!  Got out of bed and after convincing my legs that standing wouldn't be so bad (I had to promise them that they would never, ever have to run a marathon again...little do they know that my fingers were crossed behind my back when I made the promise!), I gingerly made my way to the bathroom.  Why, oh why, are toilets so dang low to the ground?!  Once the blood started flowing, I was moving well enough to go across the street for some much needed Starbucks.  The one downfall of the Four Seasons is the fact that they don't have a mini coffee-maker in the room.  Mini fridge, yes, mini coffee, no.  Oh well, Starbucks is a mere 3 minute hobble away.

Coffee in hand, I puttered till I heard from my friends, and plans were made to meet up with M. (here from Germany, and such a fast runner, I don't know how much longer we can be friends!), SM and new friend, B.  I ate some breakfast (yogurt and oatmeal, leftover from Sunday), drank the coffee, showered and changed, and then headed out for the day.

Heading straight up Howe to Robson Square, I sat to wait for two of the three.  We were planning on meeting M at an Indian buffet lunch, so I went hungry.  Luckily for me, the sun was shining (weather in Funcouver has been PERFECTION!), and it was Music Monday.  That meant school bands and choirs to entertain the lunchtime crowds.  What it also meant was last minute rehearsing, so I also got to listen to the same two songs three times each!  Oh well...the sun was shining and I wasn't moving, so all was good.  Got the text that the two missed their bus, so I had another hour to wait, and I was getting HUNGRY.  It's bad to be waiting for someone to go for lunch, sitting beside not one but two lunch trucks!  They smelled soooooo good, but I resisted.  Got distracted by the music (excellent drumming group) and finally met up with the two.  We took off up the street and down Drake to the restaurant to meet up with M.

The buffet was fabulous...butter chicken, rice, chickpea curry, a fish dish, two veggie dishes, salads, rice pudding, watermelon and naan.  All for $7.95!!!  What a deal!  Ate to bursting point (probably shouldn't have gone quite so hungry) and then we wandered down towards Stanley Park.  Somehow got talked into renting bikes (um...probably last rode my bike in '95 - '96!) to tour around the park for the afternoon.  After assuring myself I'd be fine, and that we were sticking to the bike paths and not the roads in Vancouver, we took off.

It turned out to be a great idea.  After a quick picnic of cupcakes (Happy Birthday, M!), we rode all the way around the seawall, stopping for photo-ops and reminiscing about Sunday's race.  Both M. (3:18) and SM (4:58) ran, while B was awesome race support.  The quads objected a few times, especially pedalling uphill, but again, kept the blood going, which is important the day after.  At one point, we stopped long enough to run out into the cool ocean, which I so longed to do right after the race yesterday.  This is where SM proved to be a bit of a klutz, falling in the ocean, and totally cutting up her knees!  Who cuts themselves in WATER?!  Did some emergency medical attention (well, the best we could with the tissues we had on hand) and finished the loop of the park back to the bike shop, where they actually had a first-aid kit. Taped her up, and then we were on our way back down the convention centre, to see the Olympic torch and decide if we were hungry enough for dinner.

B had to leave us (good luck of UBC), but J joined up, and the four of us ended  up at Ceili's in town.  Shared some appies and a pint (real Guinness...oh, so tasty!), before making my way back to the hotel.  It was a long day, fun-filled, but suddenly I was TIRED.  After some stretching (legs totally seized up) and some vitamin I, I crawled into bed and CRASHED. 

Up this morning bright and early (crisis back home, but now averted), showered, walked for coffee, breakfast eaten (last of the yogurt/oatmeal) and now packed up, waiting to check out and head to the airport.  I really like the skytrain for this...easy and cheap.  And the station is just across the street from the hotel.  Loved the Four Seasons, and highly recommend it to everyone.  All in all, race weekend in Funcouver was FUN!  My legs will agree with me soon, I'm sure.

Should have pictures from the weekend loaded tonight.  Meanwhile, happy Tuesday, everyone.

Later,