Does anyone else experience Post-Marathon Depression?

I just ran my second last marathon last month. The marathon capped the distance challenge (7th and final race).

I was ready for the season to be over. Now, I'm in somewhat the same situation you are in. However, I'm tired of racing right now. I'm enjoying just running.

I have no interest in shorter distance races (5K - 1/2 Marathons), and I doubt I will be able to get into another marathon until next fall.

I call marathon running "a peculiar obsession."

Congratulations on acheiving your goal.

Do you have a bike you can ride? You may not be able to run and walking may be painful, but riding a bike after a Marathon can be a wonderfully liberating and pain free experience.

The same thing has happened to me. I've run three marathons: immediately after the first one I said "I'm never doing that again," and for the second one (which was 10 months later) I ran a mediocre time and felt fine the next day. For the third one, a year ago in the spring, I PR'd by 7 minutes, I felt like I was really close to as fast as I could possibly go with my current fitness, and it hurt like hell. I did some fun races that summer, and towards the end of the summer I tried to do a fast half marathon but my head just wasn't in it; I started jogging halfway through and eventually finished 9 minutes slower than my PR. It took about 10 months before I actually wanted to start training for a competitive race again. But now I'm back into it -- my original goal was to train for a 10k (I've never actually done one), but I started running other distances for fitness' sake, and now I want to do more, so maybe I'll do some longer stuff also.

I wonder if there is something 'chemical' going on after a huge effort like the marathon. I felt the same way for a few weeks after my first marathon (where I ran really well). Perhaps it is such a huge undertaking that it can really wreak havock on us internally. If it's any consolation, it seems to get better...

MarathonMind wrote:

You met your goal. Congrats! However, not to get too analytical but there must be other issues.

Exactly. You met your goal, so stop whining. Let me tell you something- it sucks a lot worse when you run like shit after devoting 100+ miles per week to the effort. Suck it up, enjoy your time off (drink some beer), and start training again in a couple of weeks.

FletchEFletch wrote:

Exactly. You met your goal, so stop whining. Let me tell you something- it sucks a lot worse when you run like shit after devoting 100+ miles per week to the effort. Suck it up, enjoy your time off (drink some beer), and start training again in a couple of weeks.

OK, you got me. Whining over, beer opened.

This too shall pass. I've had the same post-marathon depression. I also have pre-marathon depression, thinking about what I'm about to do to myself. You'll get through it. Hang in.

Bad Batz Maru wrote:

FletchEFletch wrote:

Exactly. You met your goal, so stop whining. Let me tell you something- it sucks a lot worse when you run like shit after devoting 100+ miles per week to the effort. Suck it up, enjoy your time off (drink some beer), and start training again in a couple of weeks.

OK, you got me. Whining over, beer opened.

Nice, that's the spirit. Didn't mean for my post to sound harsh. Congrats on hitting your time!

Its a natural side effect of all the training and effort that went into that good time of your. Celebrate your achievement and move on. Pick yourself up and get back on the roads-its part of the pain of running. When in pain use mind imagery to remember that race and it will spur you on to even better times in the future. Where would you be without running 100 miles plus per week? Bored and unfit man! Just do it! ok

Two things I suggest to get you motivated next time:

1) Focus on what kind of training you can do so you won't be sore. Sounds to me like you need to hit up an exercise bike and strengthen those quads so they can take the pounding.

2) Drink after the race. If you're gonna feel horrible the day after it might as well be from a hangover.