JAM: My first marathon did not go well, and I thought I’d never try again because I was scared of failing again.

CC: What happens on one race day doesn’t mean it’s going to happen on the next race day. If you feel like it didn’t go well or didn’t go the way you expected, our brains want to generalize that as the entire experience. So think about what are some of the things you did well and what are some of the things you can do differently. Recognize all aspects of it.

It’s not like being a soccer player or basketball player or baseball player, where you have a lot of immediate feedback that you can implement right away. You can’t just go the next week and run another marathon — or most people won’t.

Also remember it’s not just that day. It’s every decision you made going into it: every time you ran when you didn’t want to run, every time you took a day off when your body needed it. It sucks when you do all the training and spend all that money and the race doesn’t go the way you want, but just because it happened doesn’t mean that’s going to happen again.

JAM: Right — I know a lot of people were disappointed in their Boston Marathon times because they struggled in the heat.

CC: Sometimes we have a secret goal. You may say that because the weather’s not that great, you’ve adjusted your goal, so you’ll be happy if you run it in X. But really you’re holding on to your secret goal and tell yourself “I’m going to be mad if I don’t hit the goal I know I’m capable of on a fantastic day.” We’re gauging our feelings of success based on that goal, even if it’s not realistic.

JAM: Is it common to be scared to start running again after an injury? I’ve been shocked at how fearful I’ve been about coming back from a stress fracture.