Whew.

Well, this morning K and I completed the annual Arizona Outlaws Erg Marathon. This was the sixth marathon for the group, and my fourth, and overall it went well. Both K and I set new personal bests, and proceeded to get very, very tired. In my age/weight category, I placed second out of two for the worldwide ranking, and third out of about 9 across all heavyweight women. Not too bad.

K and I also both acquired new sets of blisters on our hands. I've got a puffer, a leaker, and one of those odd puffy blisters that has tiny white flecks in it. I think this kind of blister is the result of a puffer where the skin underneath the top layer (i.e. at the base of the puff) starts to break off in small pieces that float around in the middle of the blister.

Actually, in all honesty I hope that you never have occasion to fully understand what I mean. They aren't the worst of blisters, but they're pretty bad. This one is in an odd spot on my hand, so it will probably heal up and turn out all right in the end without getting ripped open.

I haven't been of much use since I finished rowing. I tried to sleep, but I think the residual effects of GU consumption (=caffeine) prevented that. Oh well.

I also got to thinking about perceptions of distance and effort, because one of our teammates completed a solidarity half-marathon in conjunction with our marathon. I did a half-marathon two weekends ago to prepare myself for the full marathon, and I have to say that it was adequate, but not great, preparation. You might think that effort increases linearly with distance, but I think in this case the effort required for the full marathon is about four times the effort required for a half marathon. Something similar is probably true for running marathons as well.

Well, that's enough rambling for now. Time for a super-early bedtime!