Blue Monday?

So it's been a week and a day since the exhilaration of crossing the line and finishing the big race. All the focus of the last 4 months effort completed, last week was one of people asking about how it went, living off the good feeling derived from achieving a huge goal and realising we smashed the time we were aiming for initially. Now the excitements died down, people having asked everything they wanted to know about the big day, how does it feel for a first time marathon finisher? For those who've been inspired and have expressed an interest in taking part next year, this is the time that you aren't really prepared for. Your life’s been put on hold and training has taken over everything in your life. Readjusting to a 'normal' existence can seem daunting as doing the race itself.

Both Els and I have struggled a bit over the past week during this phase. It's quite normal to feel a bit flat and wonder "well, what next? I sensed this might be the case and tried to put in place a few measures to prevent feeling too much of the post marathon blues. In the last week I had a couple of concerts to go to, the first of the year - fortuitous timing in part I guess. And have spent the last week looking ahead to holidays, days out and seeing friends that have been somewhat neglected whilst pounding the streets and gym. I also had a cold to overcome (no doubt not helped by the downpour during the race) and we're still finalising all of the fundraising which has been a constant since the beginning of the year. Physically I've been taking a well earned rest all week. Runners World (the bible for people training for half and full marathons) advise this and though it only took me a day to recover from any aches and pains, it was definitely appreciated not to have to don the running gear! Going for our first post marathon run was nice though this Saturday. 8 miles felt like a much easier distance to cover!

I wouldn't change anything about what I've done in the following week but anyone who plans to throw themselves into such a venture I'd advise trying to spend some of the time in the taper weeks getting some good non-marathon things set up to look forward to in the week immediately afterwards. In the longer term some may quit their running having achieved their goal, but if you've been bitten by the bug I'd say try and get another competitive race booked as soon as possible. We've both got one each in May - a half marathon and a 10 K respectively. I know we're both pleased to have this focus to keep the momentum from all the good work of training and a lot of previous Marathon runners I've spoken to advise trying to keep the fitness up having regretted losing it afterwards. I'll pipe down about the Marathon now (you need to talk about something else to stop you and your friends going insane) but over the next few weeks I'll post up the schedule as some of you have been asking about and a few tips to those prospective runners about getting started for competitive runs whether 5ks, weekly runs in the park or anything more substantial.