Afterward

One thing I wondered about was how I would feel in the days or even weeks following an Ironman finish. Would I need a wheel chair? Would my GI tract be treating me like I was drinking water out of the East River? Would I be arthritic? 

Thankfully, the answer to all of these was no. In summary, here are the consequences I personally experienced from putting my body through this. As always, YMMV.  

Muscular-Skeletal 

I definitely had some soreness, especially during the first few days after the race. On the Tuesday that I returned to work, I walked slowly and deliberately although I think I managed to avoid displaying the old-man walk. By Wednesday afternoon, I felt good enough to go mow my lawn.

Gastrointestinal 

Fortunately, there were no issues here. Having felt kind of sick to my stomach for much of the run and not feeling all that hungry in the minutes following the finish, I was concerned that I might have some unpleasant after effects. Those never materialized and I was soon back to enjoying food and drink as always.

Appendages

Okay, I sort of made that category up to discuss my toes. They did not look great. My left big toe turned purple under the nail. It was the result of a great big blood blister that I think started on the bike and got worse on the run. My right pinky toe also sported a shade of dark purple. Nothing has been especially painful, but there were definitely impacts from all of the…well…impacts.

Mental

I have heard of some folks feeling kind of a let-down after the big day is over—kind of an Ironman training post partem depression of sorts. I did not have that experience. I was not giddy at being done but just relieved and looking forward to doing some training that will be easier on my body.

Illness

Yep, I got sick afterward. A few days after the finish a minor sinus infection started to take hold. By the next weekend it had gone nearly full blown and by the start of last week it had spread to my chest. It’s been stubborn and over two weeks after the race, I’m still trying to shake it. My single piece of advice on this would be to take care of your resistance as best you can. I wish I had chugged a big bottle of orange juice the next morning.

Tattoo Pain

No, not yet anyway. I am seriously looking into this but I’d like to be over the sinus infection and bronchitis first.

Next

I am thinking about what kind of off-season training plan will keep me conditioned but not wear me out or take excessive amounts of time. I have a few good ideas that I think I’ll put into place.

For 2017, I’m excited about the prospect of doing some short-course racing (watching the Olympics certainly motivated it as well) and in the new year, I’ll be working with my coach on a plan to get better at the 51.5km type of races. 

As always, thanks for reading and always feel free to use the comments section to ask anything I didn’t address here.