It is now Friday night, 5 days post-Malibu Marathon.  Other than some subtle residual soreness in my lower calves, I'm feeling little effect of Sunday's marathon.

Must have been the dip in the ocean 30 minutes after the race, but I've been able to recuperate from this marathon extremely well. Monday and Tuesday I was sore. My strategy on Monday was to simply walk a mile or so in the morning to get the blood flowing in my legs.

On Tuesday, I walked 20 steps, then jogged 20 steps, walked 20 steps, jogged 25 steps, and so on. The jogging was very slow and deliberate so as not to cause an injury. It felt good.

On Wednesday, I was able to run slowly, pain free. I ran about 4 miles and was amazed at decent it felt.

Thursday was even better and I ran 45 minutes. Today I was slightly more sore in my lower calves, so I took it a bit easier.

One day pre-marathon I tipped the scale in the morning at 138.5 lbs. On Tuesday, I was back up to 144 lbs. I've been eating a lot. I like to splurge a bit after a marathon and eat whatever I want, as often as I want.  But today, I started eating healthy again.

My overall place in the Malibu Marathon was 9th out of 481 finishers. While my 3:05 was one of my slowest finishing times (heck, my first marathon ever was 3:03), I was pleased with my performance given the course, the conditions and my fairly low key training.

The winner of the race, James Nielsen, I discovered was the 50th male in the 2008 Olympic Trials Marathon in Fall 2007 and has a personal best of 2:21. A year ago he ran several marathons in the low 2:30s.  The fact that his time here was a lot slower confirmed the challenging nature of the course. I'd estimate this course in Sunday's warm, breezy conditions is 10 to 15 minutes slower than a flatter course.

All that said, I will soon be pondering my next marathon. This marathon was a positive overall experience and told me that I CAN do a reasonably paced marathon even on mileage less than what I'm used to doing.