Dnf? The tips you need to know on bouncing back from a bad race

This race didn’t go as planned. What next?

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Let it all out

You get to be mad, disappointed, frustrated after working for weeks to train for your race. mad, feel disappointed, get frustrated, and so much more. You have every right to after working diligently to train for your race.

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Write it down

All of it, even if you hate writing. The split that fell apart, the mile where you quit on yourself, the part you keep replaying. Get it out of your head and onto paper.

Then throw the paper away.

This isn’t journaling. Research from Ohio State found that physically discarding your written thoughts actually weakens their grip. But it only works if you really get rid of them — imagining it doesn’t cut it.

Don’t want to handwrite it? Type it out and drag it to the trash. Same thing

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Do a post-race review

Once the sting wears off, look back at it.

What did you do to prepare? Training, rest, fueling. What did that look like? What would you do differently? Maybe you went out too fast. Maybe your fueling plan fell apart. Maybe you just had a bad day and there’s nothing to fix.

Write it down while it’s fresh. The details fade fast, and somewhere in there is the thing that helps your next race go differently.

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