As  my last post explained, I ran/walked a half marathon last Sunday, off the cuff with no real training for the event. It took me nearly 4 hours of constant movement, fuelled by 2 Bourbon biscuits (one on the way out and one on the way back through Feizor), Ribena and Nuun tablets. My body was tightening up towards the end but I managed to jog into the finish with a smile on my face.

What struck me tho was what happened afterwards. After a brief foray into Booths (mainly for tea bags and milk!) and a short stroll to deliver a birthday present, I headed back to base to apply those tea bags. (I do of course mean drinking tea by the mugful, not some weird external application of tea bags for cosmetic purposes.)

Sitting down to drink the tea was heaven, looking out on the view at Lowstern in the late afternoon sun was a joy, especially as the wind dropped so the full power of the sun could be enjoyed. Getting up to make the next mug full was a bit of an effort but, once moving again, things felt pretty good, much to my surprise. Eventually I tore myself away from admiring the view and into the shower which continued the improvement. After a short stretching session, I was moving like a normal person.

Apart from the Bourbon bisuits, which I figured would probably be burned off pretty rapidly given my effort levels, the day’s intake had been breakfast of bacon, sausage and eggs and a post race steak pie, peas and gravy. Oh and tea, of course.

I’m asking myself if the lack of refined sugars in my system contributed to the lack of DOMS and the rapid recovery from an effort that was beyond my normal range of  Sunday activity. Perhaps it was the run/walk strategy keeping the exertion levels manageable. Either way, the inflammation in my body was considerably less than I expected. If I can repeat that on a regular basis, I’ll be happy.