The race is completed, the medal is yours, the euphoria of the finish line takes over, excitement, hugs, kisses and however painful your feet are you are elated that after all the months of hard training it’s over, the moment is yours.
Then a couple of days after crossing the finish line, everyone has said their congratulations, marvelled at your determination and achievement but life returns to normal. You are left feeling lost, empty even slightly depressed. Welcome to post-race-blues.
Feeling like this after a race is quite normal, especially after your first race whether it’s a half marathon, marathon or an ultra the feeling is the same.
You have spent months training for the race, putting in hours and hours of long runs, speed work, tempo runs and hill repeats. Bought new kit, tested out your nutrition, chosen the charity you want to support, told all your friends and asked them to spread the word. Through Facebook and Twitter the word spreads, even more pressure, but it keeps you going and motivated, your life has revolved around this one event for so long then bang its finished.
I was totally surprised when the post-race-blues hit me for the first time. I felt grumpy, silly things irritated me, I wanted to cry, it felt as though I had mild depression. I couldn’t explain it, all I wanted to do was talk about my adventure, share my memories but couldn’t, no one would understand.
Although I still have Post-race-blues after my big events I now know how to deal with them and have learned that it’s a great opportunity to enjoy other aspects of my life that perhaps I haven’t had time to do or enjoy while training. I can spend more time with my family and friends, go for walks with my husband and dogs, write my race report, look at the race photographs and even have a lie-in!
The most important thing is to savour your accomplishment and feel proud of yourself.
After my body has recovered I have a new goal to look forward to, more planning, training and if all goes well another medal to add to my collection.
Happy Training
