Now what?

I had no idea I'd feel like this.

Sad. Depressed. LOST.

The Gasparilla Marathon -- the race I have been training for since July -- has come and gone, and I shattered my goal of coming in under 6 hours. In fact, a month ago, I ran a 5:43 in Miami, and began getting a little worried about how I'd do in Tampa since I shaved 40 minutes off of my PR from NYC in 2007 when I ran that "training run" in Miami.

Well, Sheryl, Sherry and I ran the entire Gasparilla together and crossed the finish line, holding hands, in 5:37:40. We rocked it.

But now what do I do?

I know, I know ... I keep running. Duh. But as of yet, I have no "goal." I'd love to run another marathon. In fact, I'd love to train for one every year. However, they are HUGE commitments. I trained hard for six months in order to PR -- twice!

The marathon blues should subside a bit today because I'm heading out for a run with the girls -- sans Sheryl, which sucks! -- in a little bit. It'll be the first time we've put running shoe to road in four days. We can do this since we run the Galloway method, which allows you to recover faster from races.

So, I'll just have to keep trudging along, finding a new race and a new goal to strive for. I've talked to a few people over the past couple of days who've gone through the same thing I'm going through now. They all say, "Find something else to train for." Or, "Remember how well you did at your marathons." And, "Just keep getting out there and running."

Yup. I'll do all of those. And I'll especially remember running through that finisher's chute of Gasparilla, holding hands with the two best training partners a girl could have. Sherry and Sheryl: Love you girls, and thank you for being such awesome running partners and even better friends.