At some point, the majority of runners will cross a finish line of a race feeling defeated, whether that’s after trudging through a 5K in the thick humidity of a heat wave, pushing through the pain of sore calves, or falling into a downward spiral of negative self-talk. Bad races are just bound to happen.
Take Emma Bates at the 2023 Chicago Marathon, for example, who posted a 17-part race recap on Instagram detailing her fueling mishaps, mental challenges, and a torn plantar fascia injury.
A bad race can look like anything, says Josh Wessler, ACSM-certified personal trainer and RRCA-certified run coach. It ultimately comes down to how you feel when you walk away from the course.
“Take a step back, talk it through, and understand why you’re deeming it a ‘bad race,’” says Wessler. He explains that it’s important to reflect on what you did achieve before immediately focusing on what you didn’t. For example, wins include crossing the finish line, running near your PR, or just feeling great through every mile.
But no matter what happened out there, every bad race leads to a new learning experience. To help you deal with the aftermath, we spoke with experts to unpack the most important takeaways from a bad race, and the five steps to take after you cross the finish line.
What to Do After a Race Goes Wrong So You Don’t Sabotage Your Next One
1. Kickstart Recovery
While it’s important to feel your feelings, you also need to take care of yourself physically, especially after a race. Your emotions are going to be very high after a race because you're tired and your brain is low on glucose, explains Laura Norris, owner and coach at Laura Norris Running in Boulder, Colorado. You just exerted yourself and experienced your race going sideways, so the last thing you want to do is sit around in sweaty clothes without any food or fluids, she explains.
The best thing you can do immediately after crossing the finish line is jumping into your recovery routine. If you’re prepared to cry after your race, at least cry with a glass of chocolate milk in your hand, change into a clean pair of sweats, and find a quiet place to cool down and stretch.
In fact, it’s even more important to focus on recovery after a bad race if you dealt with dehydration, excess heat, or you ran underfueled, Norris notes.
2. Unpack Your Thoughts and Emotions
Wessler explains that talking to someone after a race to reflect on the experience can help you express and unpack difficult emotions. “If there’s someone you can call that’s always great, but make sure that person is able to just listen at first,” says Wessler.
If you don’t feel comfortable with another person or there’s no one nearby, write down your thoughts or record a video or voice memo. It can be easy for runners to think we’re always going to feel that way forever, Wessler explains, but the sooner you write your thoughts out, the sooner you can begin the process of moving on. This also gives you something to look back on in the days and weeks after your race to use as a learning opportunity, explains Wessler.
He recommends waiting a week after your race to revisit that conversation, video, or journal entry, especially if it has a negative undertone.
3. Pause Race Sign-Ups
After a race goes wrong, many runners think they need to redeem themselves right away at another event. But don’t be so eager to immediately sign up for the next half or full marathon before you get a chance to decompress.
Give yourself at least 48 hours to let your emotions settle, Norris says. She adds that you want to feel confident and think rationally when deciding on your next race so you don’t jeopardize your experience. “Forty-eight hours is a safe zone where you can really sit and feel your emotions. That’s when it’s good to start talking it through, and being more analytical of what went wrong and what went right,” she explains.
4. Identify the Good and Not-So-Good
Once you’ve taken the time to decompress from the race, try to determine the main factor(s) that derailed your race, and think of a way to prepare better next time. For example, if you ran into unexpected hills that slowed you down, your focus for next time is working more leg-strength exercises and hill workouts into your training cycle. (Also make sure you look up the course map ahead of time so you know what you’re running!)
Try making a list of what went well, what didn’t go well, and what you’ll do next time, Wessler explains. He recommends asking yourself a few simple questions:
- What were your goals? For example, was it to start out strong, enjoy the crowds, score a PR, or cross the finish line?
- Where did you succeed? What contributed to those successes?
- What were the misses? What were some of the factors that contributed to falling short?
You might find that you need to do a better job of practicing your fueling plan during training runs, or setting broader goals, like having both an “A goal” and a “B goal.”
During your next training cycle, you could revisit a workout that you particularly struggled with during your last training block and improve on your weaknesses, Wessler suggests. For example, if you didn’t finish a long interval workout last time, focus on completing one rep at a time, not overdoing the pace, and making sure you recover between intervals.
Wessler also recommends practicing visualization and positive self-talk to push through to the end of tough workouts. “It’s an opportunity not to beat up on yourself, but to think, ‘this is my chance to practice the race,’” he says.
5. Don’t Let a Bruised Ego Get the Best of You
“One bad race is not a predictor of future bad races,” says Norris. Many runners will fixate on the experience, assuming their next race will go poorly too, creating a vicious cycle or psyching themselves out, she explains.
If you’re stuck in this cycle and fearing your next race already, first identify parts of your running journey that have gone smoothly, like workouts in training that made you feel strong and fast or look back on past PRs, Norris suggests. This can help give you perspective when you’re feeling stuck.
Second, try running a tune-up race in your next training cycle. Norris explains that running a shorter race distance, like a 5K before a half or full marathon, is a low-stakes way to rebuild confidence that a race can go well. You know that you can cover the race distance because you’re already training for something longer, and if you find a local race, you don’t have to worry as much about travel.
It’s also smart to run your practice race without a watch to take the focus off of pace and onto how it feels, which can boost your confidence and help you run with more mental ease, says Norris.
Just remember you will inevitably have a race that doesn’t go as planned once in a while, and many times, uncontrollable factors will not be on your side, like the weather or you’re simply not feeling great. In this case, Wessler explains, you have to separate the runner from the race itself. “Just because you had a bad race, doesn’t mean you’re a bad runner,” he says. “It was just an experience, and it’s either a lesson that we can move forward from or it was just a poor roll of the dice.”
Kristine Kearns, a writer and avid runner, joined Runner’s World and Bicycling in July 2024. She previously coached high school girls cross country and currently competes in seasonal races, with more than six years of distance training and an affinity for weightlifting. You can find her wearing purple, baking cupcakes, and visiting her local farmers market.
