Following on from my Facebook post the other day due to people not feeling happy/feeling upset about their performance on the day, I also said that if you only completed your marathon at the weekend then 2 days post marathon is not the right time to evaluate your performance objectively.

You may still be emotionally drained and your ability to think straight will be compromised. It is also possible that you are still aching from your run. Those are all the negative elements however you maybe completely elated and over  the moon with what you’ve achieved but that elation  will also compromise your straight thinking.

marathon performance

4-7  days post marathon you are probably in the best state to objectively review how you did as it will still be reasonably fresh in your mind however you will be getting back to a sense of normality and the aches and pains will be receding.

So have a think about what you did and ask yourself some key questions?

  1. Did you achieve what you wanted to achieve?
  2. Review your preparation. Was it ideal? Is there anything that you would change or do differently?
  3. Review the day itself? How did you feel both physically and mentally before, during and after the marathon?
If you did achieve what you wanted to achieve that is brilliant but review everything as not everything will have been perfect however maybe this was a one off experience not to be repeated (in which case don’t worry!). If you didn’t, whatever you do, don’t beat yourself look specifically for the positives and there will be some. Write them down!
Look at your training, were you doing too much (running every day), were you doing too little? Were you doing enough strength and conditioning? Enough stretching – Had you got your diet right? Again write things down.
Look at the race day – what were your travel arrangements, hotel like? Did they help in getting you to the right place mentally? Did the conditions affect you? How about the crowds and encouragement? Again write things down.
Sometimes you will still not be able to review objectively. Don’t be shy in asking a friend, coach, therapist to help you evaluate as they will quite often be able to ask those questions and see the positives and/or the negatives which you maybe missing.
Once you’ve got that evaluation, look at it, list out the things you would do differently so the next time you start training for something you can take it into account.
Just remember negativity is destructive so be positive and constructively come up with some lessons learned and turn that into a plan for the next time. You will surprise yourself.