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Friday Five 2.0 – Getting Over a Bad Race


It’s Friday so I’m linking up with Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness for the Friday Five 2.0 linkup! Join in! Don’t forget to link back to your hostesses and visit some other bloggers.

My topic for today is:  Tips for Getting Over a Bad Race

I just returned from Florida where I ran a half marathon (and no, it wasn’t really a “bad” race.)

We have all had races that didn’t go as planned, what should we do?

  1. Analyze what happened BEFORE the race.

Was it your training?  Were you injured or sick?  Did you walk too much the day before the race?  Was it what you ate?

If you can figure what went wrong before, you can avoid some of these mistakes during the next race. (Though I think I have repeated my mistakes LOL)

13 miles walked the day before = not a good idea

    2. Analyze what went on DURING the race.

Was it your shoes or your outfit (over or under dressed)? Was it the weather? Was it the course? Did you go out too fast?  Did you not hydrate or eat enough?

Some of things cannot be fixed.  But if you can’t control these variables, such as the weather or the course, you should feel better about your race results.

unexplained foot pain and blisters… the whole race

  3. Focus on what was GOOD about the race.

Did you meet some new runners?  Did you race with friends? Was the medal awesome?  Was there amazing post race refreshments?  Was the course scenic?

great medals, fun course, friends…

 4.  Sign up for Another Race.

The quickest way to forget about a bad race is to train for another.

my PR came 2 weeks after one of my worst races.

5. Vent to your Running Friends.

Face to face and virtually.  They can relate.  Your spouse or non-running friends will not understand your disappointment.  But your running friends have all been there and will say the “right” thing.

Happy Running! Any other tips for recovering (mentally) from a bad race? Please Share.

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34 thoughts on “Friday Five 2.0 – Getting Over a Bad Race”

  3. Bad is a relative term these days! I ran my personal worst half at Mercedes in February but the weekend was so much fun that it balanced it all out. Or maybe as I’ve gotten older, it doesn’t bother me as much.

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    • I know. I feel the same way. My recent time was slow and normally I would have been disappointed but I found a different kind of joy in the experience.

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  6. I think talking to running friends really is one of the best ways to get over a bad race. They really do understand and can commiserate (or tell you to just move on 🙂 ). Because of my exercise induced asthma I have had many bad races over the years. You just never know what’s going to happen.

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  10. Definitely agree with all of your tips! My really bad race was the Chicago Marathon. While I still don’t know really what went wrong that day, I allowed myself a week to be angry about it and then I moved on. I didn’t want to dwell too much on it because I knew it would just be wasted energy.

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  11. I think what a lot of people don’t always think about is the law of averages. The more races you run, the more variables factor in…especially age and wear & tear from previous years of running. I have learned that bad races happen (often times for no particular reason) and it’s best to just move on, even if you can’t find an answer. There’s usually a great run just around the corner 😉

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  17. I love this post! These are all great ways to get over a bad race and I think a lot of the tips can be applied outside of running too!!

    Liked by 1 person

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