Finding Purpose After the Finish Line

After months of training and one powerful finish line moment, many athletes are surprised to find themselves feeling… empty. 
In this episode, we dive deep into the post-race blues, why they happen, how they affect us mentally and emotionally, and what we can do to rediscover purpose after the big day. If you’ve ever felt lost after achieving a goal, this conversation is for you.

--------------------------------------------------------------


Follow Celia at Love The Rain Triathlon Coaching

Website: https://ltrcoaching.co.uk/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lovetheraincoaching/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ltrcoaching

If you find value in what I share and want to support my work, your contributions mean the world. They help me continue creating helpful content, and inspiring others to chase their triathlon dreams.
Buy Me a Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/lovetheraincoaching

Transcript

Hi, I'm Celia Boothman, founder of LTR Coaching, and I'd like to welcome you to the Inspired Triathletes podcast, where I'll be bringing you stories from female triathletes and taking on topics that are important to women in the sport.

Hi, and welcome to today's episode. I'm on my own today and I'm talking about the post-race blues and finding your purpose after you've crossed that finishing line. So, it's something that we don't really talk about that often in the endurance world, the post-race blues, that feeling when you've crossed the finishing line, you've had that high, it's been all over social media, you've been posting about it, you really, you might be emotional and you might be thinking, "Yeah, this is it. I did it." But then what now? A few days later, you might suffer from what we call the post-race blues. The structure of your training can dis disappears. You're having a little bit of a rest, a well-needed rest. Your body's really tired and your mind feels restless. You're kind of going over the day and and going over what that high and that feeling of elation of crossing the finishing line and and all of that work that went into getting to that day as well. and you start asking yourself, "What do I do next? What is it that I want to do?" If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. And today, I want to unpack why that happens and what it really means and how you can find some purpose again after that big race is over. So, I had quite a bad case of the post-race blues after racing in Kona. I trained for roughly two years trying to get first year for qualifying for Kona and then the second year actually training for Kona and it didn't go quite as planned. So my race day wasn't exactly how I wanted it to be. So although I was high from finishing it, I also had a bit of a low that things hadn't quite turned out as I'd planned. And I'd made such an effort to get to where I was. I'd made sacrifices. I was always in bed early. I wasn't so sociable. Um, I turned down lots of things. We didn't go away that much during those couple of years. And the day itself was amazing, don't get me wrong, but when I finished, I didn't have that great feeling of of finishing the event. And then I had no goal. So, I had no workouts planned, no big goal ahead. We staying in Hawaii for another week. Um, which was lovely, but there was a little bit of a cloud over it because I'd been injured as well. So, there was a little bit of a low after that. Re replaying things in my mind. What could I have done differently? Why did this happen? What What could I have done differently leading up to the event to to make sure that I didn't have the experience that I had? And this is normal because you've spent months chasing this adrenaline, the endorphins, all of those hormones that are racing through your body. You've got that structure of your routine, your clear purpose that training gives you. And when the race ends, your body and brain are still catching up. That external goal of the race disappears overnight. But your body hasn't quite reset. it hasn't quite adjusted yet because it still thinks, you know, we need to be in this fight flight. We've got an event coming up. So, as athletes, we can sometimes tie a lot of our identity to progress to improvement and to something measurable. It was definitely the case with me. I wanted to qualify. I had a clear, tangible goal. And once I'd achieved it, what was next? When there's no race on the calendar, it can feel a little bit like, okay, that's that's it. What what was all that about? What's what happens next? The story just ends. You've crossed the finishing line and and the narrative ends. But the finish line is not the end of the story. It's just a transition point. And every race changes you. I've had so many different experiences in different races and I've learned so many things through those races. You learn new limits. You uncover new strengths. You discover what matters to you when things get hard and how you deal with those situations when things get hard. You discover resilience you thought you maybe never had. And your post-race period is your chance to process that. And it's the space where the transformation really sinks in. Only if you let it though. So what do you do with that space? How do you move through it instead of getting stuck there in this bit of a down blues place? And there's a few things that have helped me and they might help you too. So reflect before you rush. I see a lot of people rushing to fill that space um with something else, some new goal. And that's not necessarily a bad thing if you know you want to do something and you'd planned for it before, but sometimes you're in a little bit of an emotional space trying to fill a void with something that maybe your heart's not quite in it. So really think about whatever you want to do. What is it that I enjoy? And I talk about this a lot. Find your why. Really think about what you like about racing. What is it that attracts you and what which races are going to appeal to you? what you learned about yourself during that time and and how you can apply that moving forward. You could record a little voice memo right after your race, just, you know, talking about how you felt. That could just help you to recapture that emotion and and realize what it is that you liked and what you wanted what you want to repeat and what you don't want to repeat. Um, we can use that time to reconnect with people. So, as I said, my social life took a bit of a hit when I was training a lot. I didn't really go out at all. We didn't go away much for weekends away. Um, and so take that time to re to do those things. And also look at whether you want to implement that more into your training. If you can and you don't need to sacrifice as much, you might be able to be a bit more flexible with your training moving forward and actually enjoy spending a few weekends away and put training on the back burner for for a couple of days or or nights. So, say yes to things instead of saying no automatically. we very quickly get into the habit of of saying no to to social engagements if we're training hard and we know we want to get some sleep and we don't want to have late nights. So just refill that emotional tank and that connection with people. And then as I've said touched on a little bit, don't force yourself into the next big goal immediately. Let yourself reset. Make sure you sleep in and move for joy, not for metrics. So, a thing, you know, a lot of things that we do with my athletes that I coach is we look at what do you want to do during this time that's going to help you to keep your body strong and keep you in the game as it were, keep you ticking over, but something that you want to do. So, maybe something that you've put off. So, it could be a new class that you want to take or a different type of strength training or some club sessions that weren't really helpful for you in the peak of your training, but now might be really good to do to improve your technique. So, we're looking at moving for joy and just getting out there and enjoying things. Maybe I used to do some off-road cycling, mountain biking in the offse because I loved going out in the in that kind of conditions. And it also helps to improve your bike handling skills. We could look at having some swim coaching. All of those kind of things can can contribute to a really great time post race. And you can still be an athlete. It's not like you're not an athlete if you're not training for a specific goal. You can still have all of that stuff going on in your life. All of those activities which are supporting you to be more resilient and strong and resting is part of that as well. Resting and resetting is part of that. So once you do feel ready to move to another goal, find something that excites you. It might be something completely unrelated to triathlon. might move in a different direction and that's absolutely fine as well. It's I've started moving away from triathlon into different areas but I still keep up my training in swimming and running not so much biking nowadays. And it could be something like a long swim or an endurance uh ride if that's something that you want to work towards. Those things can help to keep our motivation or just sometimes if we don't want to compare ourselves to how we were last year, it's good to take things in a little bit of a different direction or choose a different race so you're not repeating the same thing. Especially if you're concerned about seeing progress and you think that you might not progress because of life circumstances or aging, etc. So purpose doesn't have to always be huge. It just has to move you forward in some way. It doesn't have to be the same as whatever you did last year. It can be completely different, but you're learning at the time. And remember, your worth isn't tied to your next race. You're not an athlete because you're training. You're an athlete because of the mindset that you carry every day. So, we continue using that kind of growth mindset that I talk about in our daily life as well as when we're racing and we're training. So, when you cross the finishing line, it just it can feel like that's it. That's that's the end of it. But in truth, it's just the beginning of something a bit deeper if you let that happen. The post-race blues are a sign that you really cared about something and you gave it your heart and your soul in a goal that mattered to you. And that's not emptiness. That's just your passion finding a new direction, looking for somewhere to direct yourself. So if you're sitting in that quiet space right now and you're feeling a little bit lost, just take a breath. You're exactly where you need to be. Purpose will come again. And next time you'll step to the start line with a little bit more gratitude and a bit more wisdom than you did last time. Thanks so much for tuning in to the inspired triathlete. If today's episode resonated with you at all, share it with someone. Please like and subscribe. It really helps me to get the podcast sh uh known by Apple Podcast and Spotify. So make sure you leave a review if you enjoyed or just share it with a friend. and enjoy your training. Remember, just reflect, give yourself some time, and then move forward when you're ready. Take care and bye for now. Thanks for listening today. Have a great day. Take care. Bye for now.