Finishing a marathon is meant to be a euphoric expertise—the results of months (typically years) of relentless coaching, sacrifice, and self-discipline. But for a lot of runners, reaching the long-awaited end line can convey up damaging and sudden emotions like hollowness, vacancy, and even disappointment.
Many runners name this emotional comedown the “post-race blues.” “There’s a lot build-up and a lot pleasure, after which swiftly, it’s simply over,” Rachel Gersten, a licensed psychological well being counselor and cofounder of Viva Psychological Well being + Wellness, tells SELF. “It’s not prefer it slowly tapers off. It’s simply executed.”
These bittersweet feelings can happen no matter how your race went. Positive, it is sensible to really feel bummed in case you needed to drop out or fell in need of your time purpose, however even finishing your dream race can convey a way of pre-grieving: “You additionally acknowledge that this may increasingly by no means occur once more,” Gersten says. “Or it is likely to be years till [you] really feel this good at a race.”
So whether or not you’ve simply wrapped an enormous fall race, or have one arising in your schedule, right here’s what you possibly can anticipate afterward—and a few methods to manage, from therapists who’re additionally endurance runners themselves.
Put together for the rise and the autumn.
When you anticipate to be driving excessive after incomes your medal however end up struggling as a substitute, you would possibly really feel responsible or surprise if there’s one thing incorrect with you, says Gersten, who’s run the New York Metropolis Marathon. This may ship you right into a spiral of damaging ideas, which is why it’s necessary to anticipate these lows as a typical a part of the method.
To permit your self slightly emotional wiggle room, contemplate taking off the subsequent day (or take off yet one more day after you get residence, in case you’ve traveled). Which means no work and no different huge obligations, if attainable—and completely no figuring out. “Give your self that interval to really feel the way you’re gonna really feel—to both be excited and to have a extremely enjoyable day, or to simply sit on the sofa and really feel your emotions,” Gersten says.
Handle your physique.
Any huge effort—particularly a race so long as a marathon—requires vital restoration. The fundamentals embody practices like hydrating, foam rolling, and being attentive to any lingering ache that might sign an harm.
It’s additionally necessary to refuel. Based on Stephanie Roth-Goldberg, LCSW-R, CEDS-S, licensed consuming dysfunction specialist and founding father of Intuitive Psychotherapy in New York, many individuals don’t eat sufficient within the days after a race, both as a result of they’re too fatigued or as a result of they suppose that since they’re working much less, they should reduce.