How do you move on from a bad marathon?

Depends how bad.

My wife's friend blew up before the half. 8:00 pace turned in to 10:00 by half. 14:00 at 30k. 18 minute at 35k. 19 minute after 40k. I wouldn't think she'd be fully recovered for at least 6 months.

How bad are we talking about here?

I wouldn't think she'd be fully recovered for at least 6 months.

Actually I find that I recover physically much faster from a bad marathon because I didn't run as fast.

Personally I find that the thing to do is find a shorter, flat race like a 10k and then show up and kick some ass.Then you won't feel like you suck at life like I did after running Boston on Monday. Take a few weeks without a long run until it's time to start training for your fall marathon.

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." - Lao Tzu

Canada Girl wrote:

I wouldn't think she'd be fully recovered for at least 6 months.

Actually I find that I recover physically much faster from a bad marathon because I didn't run as fast.

Personally I find that the thing to do is find a shorter, flat race like a 10k and then show up and kick some ass.Then you won't feel like you suck at life like I did after running Boston on Monday. Take a few weeks without a long run until it's time to start training for your fall marathon.

This is pretty good advice

I wanted to BQ in my Oct 2015 race. The temp that day in Long Beach was a record for that day started at 72 degrees got up to the low 100s. I don't know if i would've met my goal if it wasn't so hot, but I took a week off then just did some local 5ks to get me through the holidays. Running that winter was tough as it got cold/ dark etc, but once March came around I was in base training mode followed by marathon training again and ended up getting the BQ the same race one year later. One thing I think in a weird way is when I didn't meet my goal, at least I had some clear goals to work towards still. Once you meet your goal, it can almost be like, now what do I do.

One other thing I notice from marathon to marathon, there is so much to pay attention to, whatever went wrong, try to incorporate or do better for instance: stretch, stength train, up your mileage, taper, carb load a few days out stay hydrated, stay consistent, stay healthy and injury free, There's so much that goes into it. I never thought I would warm up before a marathon but sure enough my 4th one I did and it worked. Lot's of thing have to go right and a lot of it you can control, but sometimes you can't control it. I guess the key would be don't rush it- be patient the next one will be here soon enough.

Delete your (Strava) account.

I hate the distance especially as everyone is obsessed by it.

Further is not better get back to improving your times over shorter distances

Who Dat? wrote:

Canada Girl wrote:

Actually I find that I recover physically much faster from a bad marathon because I didn't run as fast.

Personally I find that the thing to do is find a shorter, flat race like a 10k and then show up and kick some ass.Then you won't feel like you suck at life like I did after running Boston on Monday. Take a few weeks without a long run until it's time to start training for your fall marathon.

This is pretty good advice

Except for the assumption, expectation of having to do a fall marathon. Train for fall 5k/10k season. Forget marathons for a while. Ditch the long run for a month or more.

I deal with these things in the same manner - I get kinda drunk and sleep with a woman I've never met before. This ends up in one of two ways - deep regret, where my poor race performance pales in comparison, or I hit the jackpot and my "success" far outweighs my shitty race performance.

Regardless of which way it goes, there is something about waking up in a strange woman's bed which makes everything else in your life fade into background noise. In that sense, it provides a certain clarity that is hard to explain.

Side note - I can't say enough good things about making sure you know where the bathroom is before you go to sleep. Opening some strange roommates door looking for a toilet, especially when you are already in full regret, is just a really shitty side note to an already bad day.

Go run another marathon. I bonked hard at Boston once, ran 3:5x, came back a month later at Cleveland and had my first sub3. Man did that feel good. Refuse to accept the bad result and go get a good one.

Outside Runner can answer this.

(someone please link his wonderful post-NYC Marathon thread)