The Post-Game Show

The Problem
Finishing an Ironman can be one of the most amazing experiences of your life.  It can also set you up for one of the most dispiriting episodes of your life.  The phenomenon of post-Ironman depression is real although it strikes people in different ways, and its causes are many and varied.  Some of it is no doubt simply chemical.  You spend the better part of a year working out not once a day (which would represent a considerable buzz for most people) but often twice a day.  Sometimes you are working out for hours (and hours, and hours) on end.  You are saturated in a heady mix of endorphins pretty much all the time.  Then suddenly you are cut-off as abruptly as Lindsay Lohan sent to rehab.  But it is more than a chemical-dependency problem.  Especially when you get to the latter stages of an Ironman you spend a lot of time dreaming of/fantasizing about the time when the race is over and you will get your life back.