Post-race - or, "In which my calf reconfigures itself into a baseballand stays that way forever"

As soon as I finished the marathon Sunday, I (stuffing pretzels in my mouth) staggered to the New Orleans Track Club tent. I said my hellos before unceremoniously dumping my glasses, Powerbars, Gatorade, Garmin, and banana in a corner and trotting off to get my marathon finisher's jacket. I did not want to wait forever in line, and I figured earlier was better! Sure enough, there were no women in line at all, and I got my jacket easily. Have you ever worn one of those disposable surgical gowns? The kind you would wear to make a sterile IV or perform surgery? This jacket is basically the same material. I would think long and hard before attempting to wash it...or even wear it in the rain.

Biodegradable jacket

Back at the NOTC tent, I grabbed a beer, and a friend made me a bag of ice. I alternated sitting on it (for my hips) with plopping it on my knees. Then David showed up with my post-race bag, which was most gratifying, as I finally got to slather more chapstick on. You know how I am about chapstick.
My friend Celeste showed up in no time - she'd tried to catch me on the course, and the funny thing is that I DID see her, but she didn't see me. Or I hallucinated that I saw her. That's just as likely given my Jell-o brain.
Anyway, I got up to greet her, and had the most massive calf cramp ever. I was rolling around like a baby clutching that thing and it just wouldn't loosen up. Eventually it relaxed a little, but I'm typing this Tuesday night and it's still in a big knot.
I kicked off my shoes and OH MY GOODNESS WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO MY FEET. I had huge blisters and my toes and toenails were one big swollen blood blister. I didn't even notice this while running (and I don't usually blister, so you'd think I'd notice). I pulled a safety pin off my bib and popped everything right away to get it to start draining, and the grass pretty much looked like I'd just killed a rabbit when I was done.
Then Audrey and her friend Joy stopped by! That was fun! It was so nice to meet them and get a chance to talk (more or less incoherently, sorry about that). The NOTC had plenty of beer, so we drank some and talked about things to do here in NOLA. Hope you two had a wonderful trip full of super delicious food!
After they left, Celeste biked home, and David and I walked to the car. Slowly. And when we got home I just kind of lay there with a book all day and wished my stomach would stop cramping so I could eat real food, until we had to go to an Oscars party at night (I wore heels. I deserve an Oscar just for that).
Monday, it was back to work standing for 9 hours, but I survived. And then we did a recovery day at track: 100m stride, stretches, 100m jog back x 10. The rest of the group followed that by a 2-mile run, but I went home and did Runner's World yoga with a foam roller. It was pretty good: a combination of yoga using the foam roller as support (much like you'd use a yoga block) plus some foam rolling. It was nice, just enough without being painful. I hope the rest of the week I continue to recover and don't have some lurking injury!