21. How Spotting a Low Early Can Save Your Ultra
We’ve all been there. Miles into a race, everything feels harder than it should, energy tanks, and it feels like your race is over. But that moment isn’t the end. It’s a low, and it’s completely normal. The difference between finishing and dropping isn’t avoiding lows. It’s spotting them early and responding.
In this episode, I break down what a low is, why it happens, and how runners often mistake it for the end of the race. I’ll also guide you through the signs to watch for so you can recognize a low before it takes control.
Spotting a low is one of the most important skills an ultrarunner can develop. Once you see the low, you can act fast, recover, and keep moving forward. Tune in to discover how you can race with confidence, finish proud, and leave regret behind.
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What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
Why most runners mistake a low for the end of the race.
The key signs - physical, emotional, and mental - that indicate you’re in a low.
Why hitting a low isn’t a sign of failure.
Practical steps to recover quickly from a low mid-race.
How preparation and awareness during training make spotting a low in a race easier.
Listen to the Full Episode:
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Full Episode Transcript:
You were having a good race. Everything was clicking. And now, you're not going to make it to the finish line. Your race is falling apart. You're trying hard, but your body won't cooperate. With so many miles left to go and all your energy gone, there's no way. Or maybe there is.
Welcome to Unstoppable Ultra Runner, the podcast for ultra runners who refuse to let anything hold them back. I’m your host, Susan Donnelly, veteran of over 150 100-mile races, and a coach who helps runners like you break through mental roadblocks, push past doubt, and run with confidence. Let’s go.
Hi and welcome to episode 21. Today we're talking about a skill that can save your race: spotting a low. This is one of those essential race skills that separates runners who finish from runners who drop. If you have a pattern of hitting a point in a race where it's just not your day, where your race falls apart, you drop and then regret it, that cycle can end here. Once you understand this skill, it can completely transform your results.
So, what do I mean by a low? A low is a stretch in a race where your energy just tanks. Everything feels harder than it should. Things you were doing just a few minutes ago like cranking up a tough hill now feel impossible. All you want to do is walk, sit, or even better, stop. Other runners pass you like you're standing still. In marathons, they call it bonking.
And it's easy to miss what's really happening because you think, it's just the race quote, "getting real." Maybe you tell yourself, this is where you have to dig deep, summon grit, grind it out. But at the same time, you're also telling yourself that you can't. It's easy to start blaming yourself. You messed up your training. You didn't do enough, or you didn't do it right. But none of that is what's really going on.
Here's the mistake you're making in that moment. It's not having a low. That's normal. It's interpreting a low as proof that the race is over.
We automatically leap to worst-case scenario, thinking, this is it, the wheels are coming off, my race is falling apart. And then, we act on that thought. We imagine the next 20 or 30 miles getting progressively worse and worse, every step slower and harder to take. We picture ourselves fighting pathetically just to make cutoffs, and that outcome feels so real that quitting seems like the only option that leaves you with any pride. So, we quit.
And then the next day, sometimes even minutes later, we realize we weren't actually done. We could have kept going. One client told me, "I knew I'd made a mistake two hours later when I was showered and sitting comfortably in a restaurant enjoying a burger and a beer and my legs felt fine." That is a terrible feeling.
The truth is, lows aren't a problem in themselves. You can have a low in the middle of a race that turns out to be one of your best. And you can have more than one low in a fantastic race. They're to be expected. When you're out there as many hours as we are, sometimes days, and you're juggling dozens of variables like pacing, nutrition, hydration, temperature, effort, and more, it's virtually impossible to keep all of that so perfectly balanced together all the time that you can avoid any lows.
Think about it. In a 5k, you're just not out there long enough to hit a low. But in a 100-miler, when you're out there for hours, hitting one or more lows shouldn't be a big surprise. It's not a failure. It's just part of the race. The problem isn't hitting a low. The problem is deciding a low means your race is ending.
What will save your race is to see it for what it is. It's just a low. And lows are temporary. That's the key. They don't have to last forever. But, and here's the part I don't want you to miss, you have to make them temporary by doing something about it. And the sooner you do, the less damage that low will cause.
The skill is spotting a low early. Because the sooner you realize you're in a low, the sooner you can respond. And the sooner you respond, the shallower, shorter, and less intense that low will be. It's like stepping into a dip in the trail versus falling into a ravine. You can step out of a dip in seconds. A ravine, though, will take hours to claw your way out of, if you make it out at all. You want lows to be a dip, not a ravine. That's why you have to be able to spot a low.
If you catch the signs early - low energy, dark mood, that familiar everything feels harder than it should thinking - you can act right away. You can fuel up, hydrate, ease off the pace, give yourself a few minutes to pull out of it, and the low passes. You climb out, and suddenly, you're back to steady, sustainable running. Everything seems brighter. More possible. That's the real solution. Not avoiding lows entirely, but spotting them and dealing with them before they drain your energy or end your race.
But here's the tricky part. Spotting a low isn't obvious. There's no dashboard light or warning alarm. Your watch doesn't tell you, "Hey, you're in a low." You just sort of slide into it gradually, until suddenly, you're deep in it. That's why you need your own personal field guide to lows.
Start paying attention on your long runs and races. What happens when you're in a low? For example, maybe like the example in the beginning of this episode, everything is just hard. You have zero energy all of a sudden.
What are your physical symptoms? They're probably unique to you. For me, my arms feel weak in this weird, specific way, kind of like they're hollow and tingly at the same time. I've noticed it enough over the years that the instant I feel it, it actually tells me, ah, you're probably in a low.
What are your mood symptoms? Maybe your mood gets dark, truly negative, and you dwell on your race being over. You spiral into despair. You feel frustrated that your race is turning out this way and just angry at it all. Like, "I thought I trained right. Clearly, I didn't. How could I have gotten it so wrong? Why can't I do this?"
Together, those three things, what happens when you're in a low, your physical symptoms, and your mood symptoms, those things put together are your personal field guide to lows. This is what you can use to verify that you're in a low, and it's not proof that your race is over. And the more practice you get at noticing your patterns, the faster you'll recognize them in the middle of a race.
And here's why this matters. When you can spot a low, you can solve it. But you can't solve it until you spot it. Most lows respond to the basics. Throw some calories at it, give it some water, slow down for a bit, let your body reset, and when you do, you can pull out of it. And you can even have a high after a low. But the key is spotting it, knowing you're there.
I've seen runners go from mental defeat, totally ready to quit, to running their strongest, happiest miles of a race an hour later. And I've done it myself. This skill saves races. Not because you never hit a low, but because you don't mistake it for the end. Because you know there's another explanation for what you're feeling and you're willing to believe it's just a temporary low and you can pull out of it.
That's the difference between walking away with regret or crossing the finish line with pride. Lows don't have to be the end of your race. They're just one chapter. And if you know how to spot them, you can write the better ending you want.
All right, you all. That's this week's episode. Thank you for listening, and if you know somebody who always seems to crash in their races or drop and regret it, share this episode with them. It might be exactly what they need to hear.
See you all next week. Bye.
Thanks for listening to Unstoppable Ultra Runner. If you want more ultra talk, mindset tools, and strategies for running with confidence, visit www.susanidonnelly.com. This podcast receives production support from the team at Digital Freedom Productions. That’s it for today’s episode. See you next week.
Welcome to Unstoppable Ultra Runner, the podcast for ultra runners who refuse to let anything hold them back. I’m your host, Susan Donnelly, veteran of over 150 100-mile races, and a coach who helps runners like you break through mental roadblocks, push past doubt, and run with confidence. Let’s go.
Hi and welcome to episode 21. Today we're talking about a skill that can save your race: spotting a low. This is one of those essential race skills that separates runners who finish from runners who drop. If you have a pattern of hitting a point in a race where it's just not your day, where your race falls apart, you drop and then regret it, that cycle can end here. Once you understand this skill, it can completely transform your results.
So, what do I mean by a low? A low is a stretch in a race where your energy just tanks. Everything feels harder than it should. Things you were doing just a few minutes ago like cranking up a tough hill now feel impossible. All you want to do is walk, sit, or even better, stop. Other runners pass you like you're standing still. In marathons, they call it bonking.
And it's easy to miss what's really happening because you think, it's just the race quote, "getting real." Maybe you tell yourself, this is where you have to dig deep, summon grit, grind it out. But at the same time, you're also telling yourself that you can't. It's easy to start blaming yourself. You messed up your training. You didn't do enough, or you didn't do it right. But none of that is what's really going on.
Here's the mistake you're making in that moment. It's not having a low. That's normal. It's interpreting a low as proof that the race is over.
We automatically leap to worst-case scenario, thinking, this is it, the wheels are coming off, my race is falling apart. And then, we act on that thought. We imagine the next 20 or 30 miles getting progressively worse and worse, every step slower and harder to take. We picture ourselves fighting pathetically just to make cutoffs, and that outcome feels so real that quitting seems like the only option that leaves you with any pride. So, we quit.
And then the next day, sometimes even minutes later, we realize we weren't actually done. We could have kept going. One client told me, "I knew I'd made a mistake two hours later when I was showered and sitting comfortably in a restaurant enjoying a burger and a beer and my legs felt fine." That is a terrible feeling.
The truth is, lows aren't a problem in themselves. You can have a low in the middle of a race that turns out to be one of your best. And you can have more than one low in a fantastic race. They're to be expected. When you're out there as many hours as we are, sometimes days, and you're juggling dozens of variables like pacing, nutrition, hydration, temperature, effort, and more, it's virtually impossible to keep all of that so perfectly balanced together all the time that you can avoid any lows.
Think about it. In a 5k, you're just not out there long enough to hit a low. But in a 100-miler, when you're out there for hours, hitting one or more lows shouldn't be a big surprise. It's not a failure. It's just part of the race. The problem isn't hitting a low. The problem is deciding a low means your race is ending.
What will save your race is to see it for what it is. It's just a low. And lows are temporary. That's the key. They don't have to last forever. But, and here's the part I don't want you to miss, you have to make them temporary by doing something about it. And the sooner you do, the less damage that low will cause.
The skill is spotting a low early. Because the sooner you realize you're in a low, the sooner you can respond. And the sooner you respond, the shallower, shorter, and less intense that low will be. It's like stepping into a dip in the trail versus falling into a ravine. You can step out of a dip in seconds. A ravine, though, will take hours to claw your way out of, if you make it out at all. You want lows to be a dip, not a ravine. That's why you have to be able to spot a low.
If you catch the signs early - low energy, dark mood, that familiar everything feels harder than it should thinking - you can act right away. You can fuel up, hydrate, ease off the pace, give yourself a few minutes to pull out of it, and the low passes. You climb out, and suddenly, you're back to steady, sustainable running. Everything seems brighter. More possible. That's the real solution. Not avoiding lows entirely, but spotting them and dealing with them before they drain your energy or end your race.
But here's the tricky part. Spotting a low isn't obvious. There's no dashboard light or warning alarm. Your watch doesn't tell you, "Hey, you're in a low." You just sort of slide into it gradually, until suddenly, you're deep in it. That's why you need your own personal field guide to lows.
Start paying attention on your long runs and races. What happens when you're in a low? For example, maybe like the example in the beginning of this episode, everything is just hard. You have zero energy all of a sudden.
What are your physical symptoms? They're probably unique to you. For me, my arms feel weak in this weird, specific way, kind of like they're hollow and tingly at the same time. I've noticed it enough over the years that the instant I feel it, it actually tells me, ah, you're probably in a low.
What are your mood symptoms? Maybe your mood gets dark, truly negative, and you dwell on your race being over. You spiral into despair. You feel frustrated that your race is turning out this way and just angry at it all. Like, "I thought I trained right. Clearly, I didn't. How could I have gotten it so wrong? Why can't I do this?"
Together, those three things, what happens when you're in a low, your physical symptoms, and your mood symptoms, those things put together are your personal field guide to lows. This is what you can use to verify that you're in a low, and it's not proof that your race is over. And the more practice you get at noticing your patterns, the faster you'll recognize them in the middle of a race.
And here's why this matters. When you can spot a low, you can solve it. But you can't solve it until you spot it. Most lows respond to the basics. Throw some calories at it, give it some water, slow down for a bit, let your body reset, and when you do, you can pull out of it. And you can even have a high after a low. But the key is spotting it, knowing you're there.
I've seen runners go from mental defeat, totally ready to quit, to running their strongest, happiest miles of a race an hour later. And I've done it myself. This skill saves races. Not because you never hit a low, but because you don't mistake it for the end. Because you know there's another explanation for what you're feeling and you're willing to believe it's just a temporary low and you can pull out of it.
That's the difference between walking away with regret or crossing the finish line with pride. Lows don't have to be the end of your race. They're just one chapter. And if you know how to spot them, you can write the better ending you want.
All right, you all. That's this week's episode. Thank you for listening, and if you know somebody who always seems to crash in their races or drop and regret it, share this episode with them. It might be exactly what they need to hear.
See you all next week. Bye.
Thanks for listening to Unstoppable Ultra Runner. If you want more ultra talk, mindset tools, and strategies for running with confidence, visit www.susanidonnelly.com. This podcast receives production support from the team at Digital Freedom Productions. That’s it for today’s episode. See you next week.
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