To successfully finish a marathon, athletes have to deal with a variety of stressful situations and demands during a race. These stressors can have different detrimental effects on athletes` pace, performance, or well-being. In order to support athletes to effectively cope with stressors during a marathon, the present chapter gives an overview of the development and effects of stress on endurance athletes, based on the transactional model of stress and coping (Lazarus and Folkman 1984) and the cognitive-motivational-relational theory (Lazarus 1991). Furthermore, several internal and external stressors that can occur during a marathon are presented, as well as their potential effects on the athlete. In addition, several coping strategies from sport psychology literature are introduced and discussed in terms of their effectiveness in specific subgroups. Finally, a stepwise approach is presented to allow athletes to prepare themselves for, and to actively deal with, the potentially stressful situations and demands during a marathon.
© Copyright 2016 Marathon running: Physiology, psychology, nutrition and training aspects. Published by Springer. All rights reserved.