How To Recover From A Marathon...

or anything else that feels like one.

Oct 22, 2024

Getting to the other side of this line means you may be done running. But it also means you (should) start recovering.

You’re done! You did it! Now keep moving. I know… you just ran a Marathon. You can tell me all about it after you get back to the hotel room and get out of these sweaty running clothes. Besides, if you sit down… or lie down here at the finish line… you’re really finished. You need to keep moving and keeping moving slowly after you stop running for as long you just did. Your body wants you to stop… completely. Your body wants you to believe that lying down up against that folding table covered in bagels is the smart move. Your body is a liar.

You see that guy sleeping by the enormous stack of bananas? He’s been there since 1988. He PB’d too. 3:26:54. Nylon shorts. Tie dye singlet. Headband. Rocking those Nike Air Pegasus ‘87’s. Still has his headphones on. His body told him to lie down… for a minute… just a minute. That was 36 years ago. Dude thought the same thing you’re thinking now. Just… let… me… lie… down.

He basically told me the same things you are telling me now. Granted, his comments are littered with now dated pop culture references. But the spirit is the same as you can read for yourself

I’ll only close my eyes for a minute. By the time T’Pau stops singing Heart and Soul on my super badass yellow Sony Walkmen with lock clasps and an auto cassette flip feature I’ll be up and moving. I promise.

Now I love Heart and Soul by T’Pau as much as the next guy. In fact, I love Heart and Soul by T’Pau way more than they next guy. But I’m not going to make that mistake again. Not with you. So keep moving. Let’s get you closer to a change of clothes and some food and a shower. Nobody needs to spend a few decades snoozing on the other side of the finish line listening to the same mixtape. More starting lines await!

So, let’s start recovering now that we are done running! I already gave you my first tip: keep moving… slowly. Now, let’s keep moving and knock out a few more things so you can stop moving for a little while. What’s next?

📣 Take a shower! You’re gross. But that’s beside the point. That shower after the marathon will not only refresh you mindfully and emotionally as the water hits you and the sweat and grime from 42.2K of racing washes down the drain but it can also aid in your recovery physically. A nice hot shower sounds just about perfect… but I’d recommend alternating between a warm shower and a cool one. You just took on an epic effort and your body has the cellular damage to prove it. A cooler shower (and an ice bath too) will help with some of the inevitable inflammation you will most definitely experience.

📣 Get all warm and cozy. It’s not going to take long for your body to realize it is no longer running a marathon. And that body heat you’ve been enveloped in will quickly dissipate. You’re going to get cold. It takes a decent amount of energy to warm yourself back up and you don’t have much energy right now. Instead of wasting energy on shivering let’s focus what little energy you do have left on recovering. So, get warm clothes on and settle in for a celebratory feast.

📣 Eat and drink and be merry. You may not want to eat immediately after the marathon so try to stock up on foods that are easy to eat. You want to know what the sign of an easy food is? If you can get it down with a straw! Smoothies with carbs and proteins are a good choice for right after a marathon. Later, that appetite of yours will find you. Eat up. Drink up. Merry up. Just try to remember that how you recover in the immediate hours and days after the marathon will dictate to a large degree how well you recover over the next weeks. Enjoy your post Marathon meals but drink alcohol in moderation or not at all. Party when you are at full strength and right after a marathon… you’re not at full strength.

📣 Sleep like a champion. Great running is dependent on great recovery and great recovery is markedly dependent on great sleep. Never is this truer than after a very hard effort. I’d say that a Marathon qualifies. You may have some difficulty with getting a sound sleep after a Marathon. That’s okay. At least set yourself up for the greatest chance at a successful sleep by getting into bed at a reasonable time. We heal best when we sleep. Remember that. Because after a Marathon your primary goal should be to celebrate what you just accomplished and heal from it.

📣 Train for the next week like you’re about to get hurt and sick. Yes, you should train the week following the Marathon. Relax I didn’t say train hard or train a lot. In fact, you should move like you are about to get hurt or sick. That means, at most, very light and short and easy running. It may mean no running at all. The pool, the bike, the elliptical and the walking lane are your new homes. Your body (and your immune system) just took a big hit from that marathon. You are no doubt incredibly fit from all that training you just did. You are also very close to getting hurt or sick because of all that racing you just did. You’re incredibly strong… and really fragile. Treat yourself with kid gloves for the next week to two weeks at a minimum.

📣 Write about what you accomplished and what you’re feeling. What you just did is extraordinary. What you experienced out there on the roads was life changing. The memory is fresh. It won’t always be. So, write. Write it all down. Believe me, someday you will need to remind yourself that you can do hard things. The marathon qualifies as a hard thing. The training to get to the marathon was even harder. So, write about all the hard things you just got through. It’s a badass story and it’s yours. You deserve to remember it.

📣 Have a good cry if you want to. It’s a lot. What you did to get to the starting line and what you did to get to the finish line. It’s okay to cry about it when it’s over. Just like it was okay to be nervous about it before it started. It all just means you care and that’s always a good thing,

There. That ought to get you started on the road to recovery. Yeah, recovery is a road. Recovery is a journey. And it takes as long as it takes. You can try to rush it. You can try to cut corners. But true recovery will only end up further and further away. Remember, you can can’t rush fitness. And you can’t rush healing. You can’t rush recovery either. But you can rush getting hurt, sick or burnt out. So, enjoy the recovery you need. More starting lines await you after all. You just need make sure you get yourself away from this finish line first.

Besides, you’ve got that song from T’Pau to listen to right now. I know you’re interested to find out what all the fuss is about. Just know that as good as it sounds on your phone or computer… it will never sound better than it did to an 11 year old kid listening through some cheap headphones attached to a Sony Walkman borrowed from a friend sharing a three seater on the bus ride home from school.

Cheers,

Coach Bennett

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