“], “filter”: { “nextExceptions”: “img, blockquote, div”, “nextContainsExceptions”: “img, blockquote”} }”>
Scroll through social media in the few days after a major marathon and it looks like runners can go straight from #medalmonday to #tracktuesday with barely any time to recover. But if you’re still walking sideways down stairs, don’t feel like you have to jump back into running just because everyone else is.
You just ran a marathon.
It doesn’t matter how many marathons you’ve run, or how hard you ran this one, because running 26.2 is a BFD for your body. And after all the work you’ve done leading up to race day, your body (and brain) needs a break. Deciding to not take any time to chill after a big race can actually do more damage in the long run than if you were to lose any fitness over the course of a few weeks without running.
If you’re the kind of person who gets antsy just thinking about going a week (the horror!) without running, here’s what happens to your body over the course of a marathon, how long you need to recover from running 26.2 miles, and why it’s so important to give your body enough time to recover post-race.
