MORNING AFTER IRONMAN what to expect and how to speed recovery

First of all it will hit you that you have just succeeded in one of the most difficult challenges of your life. You will also ache in almost every fiber of your body.

Despite the pain, you will be on top of the world. YOU will be an Ironman. Believe me the pain becomes insignificant the morning after ironman if you succeed in your quest for the finish line.

As a matter of fact, in a way, you will welcome it as a testament to the effort it required to reach your goal. The morning after ironman will be an exciting time.

Chances are, shortly after you crossed the finish line the day before, you swore to yourself you would never, never put yourself through this again.

You will be "amazed" how quickly you'll forget how much you hurt right at that moment. Almost overnight you will be wondering where the registration will be for the next years race.

As for getting out of bed the morning after, well, that's another story. You will most likely feel that you'll never walk the same again. Trust me, it gets better. The morning after ironman is a unique feeling, but you'll get over it.

First of all, when you first get up, you would be wise to have some sort of replacement drink, because your body was asked to perform above and beyond during the race and must be refueled.

As much as the thought of drinking anything might disgust you, it's a very important step to aid in a speedy recovery.

Have a nice long shower. You may have to do some serious scrubbing to get those magic marker numbers to disappear from your arms and legs. You may not want to make them disappear completely.

It is not unusual to see faint race numbers all over town, worn proudly as a badge of honor, until days later when they slowly disappear on their own.

Usually your ID bracelet will still be on when you get back home. Some Ironman finishers have been know to put on their finisher t-shirts the morning after and leave them on for a week.

This is important advice when it comes to your finishers t-shirt. You will only ever get one. No matter how many of these amazing races you attempt, you will only ever get one "first" Ironman finisher shirt.

Wear it for a week or so and then clean it well and store it away. This will be really important to you years down the road. Just looking at mine now--over 26 years later brings back such a rush of amazing memories of that first time I crossed the finish of my first Ironman in Kona.

Sometimes I wonder how many of these t-shirts still remain in my country, Canada. I remember, despite this being a big country, there were only around 50 Canadians in Hawaii in 1984.

I could well have one of the few finisher t-shirts left from that race. Even though it seems to have shrunk. At least I hope that's why it fits a bit tight.

Don't forget, once you are officially recorded as a finisher, you can purchase the Ironman Trademark finisher clothes that are on sale for that year.

Make sure you bring along extra money for this. These are finisher clothes you can wear year round at home after you pack your finish line t-shirt away.

O.K. When you get out of the shower, its time to eat something. Your digestive system may be in a bit of a mess, but don't worry, this soon goes away and you will be eating everything is sight later in the day.

For breakfast however take it a bit easy. Your digestive system can be a bit of a mess the morning after ironman.

After you have something to eat, "get out that door and go for a walk!" As hard as that may sound, its for the best. Plus you have to find a newspaper anyway.

Don't leave it too long because souvenir newspaper 'fly' off the rack the morning after an Ironman. It has the entire race story and who knows, your picture might even be in it.

In later years, I started going for an easy run the morning after. Yes! A run! Just an easy walk at first. Then stretch it out into longer strides.

Then try and run really, really easy for a minute or so. Do this a few times. You will be amazed how much this will speed up your recovery. In later years, I was able to run 15-20 minutes quite easily the day after.

Some prefer to go for a swim, but I always found that took too much work to go to the beach and change and dry off etc. A simple easy jog always worked the best.

I used to love taking that morning after paper and finding a really great coffee shop and reading through the entire race story.

Often you will run into lots of other Ironmen who will be more than happy to share their race experience with you. Its just a really great day.

By early afternoon, (after entering for the next year, if I had decided to)I was ready to make the fast food run. As I mentioned on another page, every Ironman town or city has a "fast-food" street.

I would walk up and down that street and have all those forbidden foods I had passed by during training. Fried chicken, pizza, french fries, maybe a hamburger, and my all time favorite--ice cream. Treat yourself. You earned it.

If you go on to do even more of these incredible races, you will develop your own morning after ironman ritual. You will find ways that you just love to spend that day. It soon becomes a part of your total Ironman experience.

Regardless how you spend the next day, enjoy it! You have joined a very special group. You have become part of the Ironman family and that will be yours to cherish forever.

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