Preparing for a marathon can take over your life. You spend so much time training, worrying about what training you should be doing, whether you are doing enough training or the right type of training. Your life seems to be dictated to by the “Training Plan” that seems to become the rule book for your life.
You plan your meals to consume enough carbs and protein and making sure you’re eating enough to accommodate the extra activity. You get to enjoy a few extra “treats” because you’re burning off so many calories with your training. Then you’re worrying about your race nutrition – what to eat and when – energy gels or shots? Water or electrolytes? How often do I eat/drink during the race? What happens if I need a wee?
As you get closer to race day every minor twinge or niggle makes you want to dash to A&E because you’re terrified you’ve got a stress fracture and can’t run.
The questions are endless!
When you’re not planning your marathon in your head, you’re talking about it to anyone who will listen. This appears to be more apparent if you’re running for a charity because you need to raise awareness to get sponsorship.
Then there’s the endless fundraising activities – cake sales at work, curry nights, race nights, raffles, bingo, ‘guess my time’ e.t.c.
It all becomes a bit too much, you become exhausted and overwhelmed and you just want to get this wretched marathon over and done with. You’re constantly questioning why you ever signed up for this ridiculous race in the first place.
Then race day arrives and you (hopefully) have one of the most rewarding days of your life where all of your hard work comes to fruition.
The actual race is a rollercoaster of emotions – anxiety and nervousness at the start, which tend to dissipate as you get going. Throughout the race there are times when it feels so easy you are confident you will achieve your goal time, and parts when it feels like you are dragging your legs through quick sand and you’re desperate to give up. Everything hurts and you’ve never felt pain like it, but you keep pushing on.
You dig deep, find courage and strength you didn’t realise you had inside you, and you conquer the beast!
You finish the race absolutely jubilant that you have achieved something that very few people ever achieve. Tears of pure joy and disbelief at what you have achieved.
You are a marathon runner!
You celebrate with family and friends and enjoy a nice meal with a few drinks (that you’ve been avoiding while marathon training). You’re in pain and your feet are in pieces, but you don’t care because you’re emotionally flying high after your massive achievement.
For a few days people are constantly asking you about the marathon and you get to revel in the glory while you re-tell the story – the highs and the lows and show off your shiny new medal.
But then it all stops.
No-one’s asking anymore.
No-one wants to hear your story.
There’s no training plan. You haven’t got a “rule book” telling you when to run, when to stretch or what to eat.
You don’t have to wake up ridiculously early to squeeze a run in before work or before the kids wake up. You can have a boozy Saturday night and sleep in on a Sunday because you don’t have to get up for a long run.
These are things you have been dreaming of during your marathon training, but now you just feel…. lost.
It’s a bit like Boxing Day. The build up to Christmas is so exciting and all consuming for weeks in advance and then it’s over in just one day. On Boxing Day you’re left feeling fat and miserable because you’ve eaten too much, your bank account is empty and everyone’s fighting again now the “Christmas Spirit” has passed.
During marathon training you've developed an online “running family” with months of constant support and banter, and now it’s come to an end. It feels like part of you is missing.
You’re mourning the ‘marathon training’ version of yourself.
You’ve got the post marathon blues.
I absolutely feel your pain! I’ve run 7 marathons, and last weekend was my 5th London Marathon in a row. Working as the London Marathon Expert Physiotherapist and volunteering for Children with Cancer UK supporting over 1200 runners to get to the start line gave me a huge sense of purpose. We have such as great online community and there’s so much love, support and cheeky banter in the Facebook group. Some of these people will be friends for life. But completing the marathon leaves a hole. For some people this may be just a superficial scratch or a minor shrapnel wound, but for some of us it’s a huge gaping blast injury or a full blown amputation!
Here are a few tips to help you recover from the post marathon blues:
1.) Wear your race medal wherever you go – I reckon you can do this for about a week before people start to think you are weird.
2.) Sign up for another marathon immediately - The ballot for the London Marathon 2025 opened the day before this years race. If you haven’t entered the ballot yet – do it now! (although that will reduce my chances, so maybe don’t)
3.) If the marathon was a “one-off” for you, discover a new hobby – not everyone wants to run all the time. We’re often short of time when marathon training and neglect other areas of our life. Instead of running, discover a new challenge e.g. swimming, doing crafts, learning a new skill e.g. playing the guitar.
4.) Plan a race-cation - Look at races overseas and plan your next holiday to coincide with a race. I really want to do the 6 world major marathons. Having run London, Berlin and New York, I now need to convince my family we need holidays in Tokyo, Chicago and Boston.
5.) Keep in touch with new friends – while you haven’t got the marathon to talk about, you can still keep in touch with your new online running friends. Maybe plan a meet up in a couple of months time – e.g. at a local park run or book a race that’s geographically easy for you all to get to and plan to have a coffee or a picnic after the race.
6.) Keep Running – just because you’ve completed the marathon doesn’t mean you need to stop running. Make sure you take enough time to recover, but your mind and body has got into a really good routine and it’s good for your physical and mental health to keep going if you enjoy it.
Marathon Not Go To Plan?
I hope you had a fabulous marathon experience, but if you didn't, please try to not to feel disheartened. Things don't always go to plan, and sometimes the plan you've followed just isn't the right one for you because there isn't a 'one size fits all'.
If you are a female runner, my new book 'The Female Runners Advantage: A Busy Woman's Guide to Marathon Training by Harnessing the Power of Your Hormones' due to be published in July may be just what you need.
Lots of the information you find online is based on research conducted on healthy young men. This doesn't necessarily work for female runners due to differences in our cardiovascular system, musculoskeletal system, our metabolism, and most importantly, our female sex hormones!
My new book explores these differences and explains why we need to train differently as females to reach our full potential and avoid burnout or injuries. This book will help you train SMARTER, not harder, to achieve more than you believe is possible.
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Nicky what a great piece of writing, you are totally 100% spot on 🥰🥰 Mandy Cook