From Marathon Blues to Marathon Fever

Picture of Google, Hangar One, and NASA Ames from the San Francisco Bay Creek Trail.
Picture from my first post-marathon recovery run. Google, Hangar One, and NASA Ames from the San Francisco Bay Trail.

After my first marathon (Cascade Express Marathon) on September 11, 2022, I had a case of the marathon blues. For those of you who may have never heard that term, it’s exactly like it sounds. It’s a sadness some runners feel after a marathon or any other race. Some runners get it when they accomplish their goal, which sounds counterintuitive; since you’d think they would be happy. Others get it when they don’t achieve their goal. I fell in the latter group. The only goal I completed was finishing the race. However, I wasn’t happy with the results. I was extremely sore. I injured myself when I should have been recovering. I couldn’t run. It was a pretty terrible experience.

Following that experience, I vowed to do iliotibial band syndrome exercises, which I did for about a month. I also promised to do bodyweight core exercises, which I did do. I pledged to foam roll, which remains an open item on my to-do list. I swore I would stretch, which I only started in earnest six weeks ago.  Once I could run again, I recovered from the blues.

Fast forwarding to last week, I just completed the Mountains 2 Beach Marathon. I did not achieve my “a” or “b” goal, but I was happy with my “c” goal. I was a little sore, but I was not injured. I had marathon fever this time, and I was figuring out how many more I could run this year.

While I want to run a marathon in August and another in December, I have learned that I need to put the brakes on my enthusiasm for the marathon. This is similar to wanting to run all my runs in heart rate zones 3 and 4. Both ideas sound like a lot of fun, but I need to think more rationally when I find myself in this situation. Recently, I was listening to Jason Fitzgerald either on his Strength Running podcast or from when he was a guest on the For the Long Run podcast, and his advice was to focus on other distances rather than returning to a marathon. I am taking his advice and working on my 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) race time. 

Accomplishing a sub-4 hour marathon is a future goal, one that will take a couple of races to achieve. Running with Jane suggests a 50:55 10k (8:13/mile; 5:06/km) will predict a sub-4 marathon. My current time-trial 10k (6.2-mile) PR (personal record) is 53:48 (8:40/mile; 5:23/km). I would love to have a sub-50 minute 10k (8:03/mile; 5:00/km). I like to see how much time I can knock off in the next eight weeks. I am using Hal Higdon’s Advanced 10k running plan. The planned speedwork includes 400-meter intervals (0.25 mile) at mile (1.6 km) pace. I did not know my current mile pace and ran a mile time trial on Sunday. I ran my fastest mile ever at 7:13 (4:29/km). I remember running 8:30 (5:16/km) in high school. When I ran my last 5k (3.1-mile) time trial, I ran an 8:01 mile (4:58/km). It will be interesting to see what happens in eight weeks.

Have you ever had the blues after a significant accomplishment? What did you do to shake off the blues? Please share in the comments below.

Location: Crittenden Crossing Stevens Creek Trail, Stevens Creek Trail, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA

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