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After winning the inaugural world marathon championship in 1983, Grete Waitz said she felt “as hollow and empty as the tunnel” she walked through to exit the stadium. Joan Benoit wrote in her memoir that she felt empty after big races; sometimes, she said, she couldn’t shake her foul mood for weeks.
This post-race malaise may be one of the few things most of us have in common with all-time greats. It doesn’t hit everyone and doesn’t happen after every race, but this fall—the season of long-anticipated, long-delayed major marathons—it may strike more runners than usual. Marathoning, often a profound experience, will be especially so this year. And the aftermath may be more difficult.
The good news, if post-marathon blues hit you: you’re not going crazy, you’re not alone, and you don’t need to hide it.
In fact, it’s constructive to acknowledge what you…
