Post marathon blue/illness/general crapiness

It's a weird thing this marathon running. Turns out you can train for a year, get in the shape of your life, become stronger and more lean than you could imagine and then go out and run 26.2 miles non-stop, only to pick up the first little bug to come your way once you stop, and be laid low for days with a dicky stomach.

It seems I'm not alone in feeling really quite crap at about this time post marathon. I've been looking things up on t'internet and apparently post-marathon blues is very common as all the planning and preparation and training is focussed on the one single day and not enough thought about what happens afterwards and how you deal with the come down.
There is some medical science behind it too as you're so full of addrenalin in the weeks up to the run, that once you finish that all drains out of your body and your immune system plunges making you prone to any piddling illness that comes along and tries its luck. A bit like Superman when he's wearing that Kryptonite neck chain and even weedy Gene Hackman can have a pop at him.

So it is that this week I have been laid low, even slain by a troublesome stomach bug that started to make its presence known on Tuesday and by Thursday evening had well and truly moved in and refused to leave, despite many attempts and eviction.
I did even wonder if it was somehow appropriate that as the general election progressed on Thursday into Friday towards its inevitable stalemate, I was feeling worse and worse.
I was really looking forward to staying up to watch this great moment in history live from the BBC's ridiculously over-resourced and pointlessly expensive election studio, (still more bearable than Sky's bloody Kay Burleigh), but in the event I was barely able to keep my eyes open and was most concerned about missing the Bristol West result because of being in the loo most of the night.
But I really don't need to add to the huge expanse of commentary and ill-informed speculation surrounding that event.
I am more interested in this post-marathon stage of my life. I knew that it was important to keep training after the run and in fact I went out for a gentle 35 minute jog on the Thursday after the marathon, which felt fine.
I have got my next goal in sight, which is the Bristol half marathon, but after doing a full marathon it feels like I really don't have to try very hard to train for that.
Right now I obviously don't feel like training at all, but I'm sure that will change once I get over this bug.

But I've heard from a few people who are feeling really aimless and pretty low after the run because that huge event has now been and gone and there is a massive gap in our lives.
I never realised that could happen. I assumed I would be just ecstatic from the point I crossed the line until the day I died because of what I had achieved.
Truth is I felt really flat just as soon as I finished, probably because I had just given my all to finishing the run, and I did perk up after my first pint of shandy shortly after. Also, I was very happy indeed taking full advantage of an open bar at a wedding last weekend, for the first time in many months. I don't think Amy could get over how 'fun Bobby' had returned with such avengance.
But I am really worried about hitting a plateau and putting on weight. The day before the marathon I was 14st bang on, a week later I was 14st 8lbs. Today I'm back down to 13st 10lbs, but that's more to do with that bug than anything. So I'm looking forward to starting to train again for something, and my goal for the Bristol Half Marathon is hit 2hrs, which would be a personal best. What I really want to do though is run a marathon again and to be part of that huge event.

I didn't know I would feel like this and had no idea I'd desperately want to run another marathon. Now I know what it means when they say running is like a drug, I'm really feeling like I've gone cold turkey and really need my next hit. A half marathon is like a methadone substitute when you're desperate for the real thing. Although I'd like to make it clear I've never had to take methadone or heroin for that matter, merely projecting my own sense of withdrawal onto that extreme scenario.
Or maybe I should just go and get another hobby, building battleships from matches or something much less draining.
So, anybody know any good dealers I can get a marathon hit from?