The Greedy Triathlete

Can I call it greed when five days later, I'm feeling a bit disappointed with my 2:53 marathon time? Going into the race, my goal was to run 2:53-2:56 and I ran a 2:53 so shouldn't I be happy? Initially I was, but after a couple of days, that feeling of self-satisfaction waned and now I'm left a bit disappointed. Am I being greedy? Or am I afflicted with a really bad case of triathletism, or the inability to be complacent and satisfied. The primary symptom of triathletism is the constant hunger to train more, be faster, have better equipment; in other words, we just can't be satiated. If I break my race down, I ran a near perfect race based on my training. I hit my goal times and paced the race near perfect. My other goal was to enjoy the last mile of the race and I did that; I actually saw people's faces, landmarks, etc... and not just blurs because I was so in the zone. But after five days, I'm starting to fixate on the minutia like why did I have to take 10 salt tablets and 6 gels? In every other marathon in my life, and all of which were finished under 2 hours and 45 minutes, I never took a single salt tablet and maybe had 4 gels max. Have I developed a codependency to salt and gels? Am I a nutrition junkie? Also, why did I crack at mile 22 and mile 23? Had I not mentally cracked during those miles, I could have run a 41:00 final 10K instead of a 42:00 putting my finishing time a minute faster. I could have gone a minute faster. Man, I should have gone a 2:52. Man, I need help. I'm calling the next months my off season. I'm going to take two weeks off from running and see if that corrects the hamstring problem which has been plaguing me since March of 2008. If not, I'll have to go see a Chiro and see what's up, maybe something is bio-mechanically wrong and my tract is off. Time to get back into swim and bike shape. Nothing is mandatory and all workouts should be done as a want basis and not as a need basis. Yeah right, the nile just ain't a river in Egypt. And now, to catch you up on some pop culture: