(Concluding post of the beginners' guide to running a marathon.)
Whatever the outcome of your marathon, it would be best to take a whole week off running. After such an extraordinary effort, not only do you deserve a break, but you actually need it. The alternative would be to go back to training at once, and risk getting yourself injuried. So, lie low for that crucial week of recovery, bask in the glory of the great feat you have just accomplished, or mentally pick up the pieces if it didn't go quite as well as expected (in the latter case, don't take it very badly - there will be other occasions to make up for it). Your fitness won't deteriorate from a one-week break. On the contrary, it will improve.
Your return to the world of running would then take place eight days after the marathon, typically on a Monday. It should be an 'easing' back into training, similar to returning from a forced break such as a common cold.
The post-marathon programme would then depend on your next target or targets. You could settle into a yearly routine of running your local marathon, and then forgetting about it for a while and concentrating on shorter road running events in your area. This is very useful, as it allows you to 'recharge' your batteries while doing various interesting events, and after a few months starting to prepare all over again for the next marathon with renewed motivation.
The alternative would be to sort of 'shop' around. See if there are any marathons in different places in which you would like to participate. Maybe because you like the location, or due to the circumstances of the event. It's up to you to set your own goals. You simply aim to run as large a number of marathons as you can. This could be achieved by running your local marathon once a year: say, aim for ten marathons over a running career, or maybe more...
If you wish to run marathons in different places, you may choose to join the restricted number of afacionados who are aiming to run a marathon in each of the world's seven continents, including Antarctica. You could otherwise go for the most popular mass participation marathons, like London, New York, Boston and Berlin, but keep in mind that in this type of event it's sometimes already a challenge simply to be allowed to participate, apart from the fact that they're so crowded. I prefer smaller marathons where I can run at exactly my preferred pace without having to weave in and out of huge masses of slow runners for a good part of the event.
If you're adventurous you might try an 'exotic' marathon - the midnight sun marathon in Norway, the Great Wall of China marathon, the Hawaii marathon, the previously mentioned Antarctic marathon, a wine marathon in France, a nude marathon in San Francisco... Who knows, maybe in a hundred years' time there will be the first extraterrestrial marathon, on the moon!
Wherever you choose to run your next marathon, if you're normal, and not a natural phenomenon or an elite athlete, you should allow for a maximum of two marathons within a period of 12 months. More than that would probably be too much.
And whether you run your local area marathon once a year, in various places around the world, or in some future century a marathon on each planet of the solar system, always aim to stay injury-free, and most of all to enjoy your running!
END OF SERIES
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