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Can you run too much? Science weighs in on the mental toll of marathon overload

Is there a downside to marathon mania? How much running hurts your head?

By Steph Green Oct 20, 2025 3:55 PM

man running marathon — Runffwpu / Pexels

Of course, running a marathon is something to be proud of, and it’s something that many people only do once in their lifetime. If you’ve finished a marathon, hopefully you’re familiar with that sense of accomplishment that comes with it. Many train for months to tick that marathon off the list.

Even with the surge of feel-good endorphins and the ‘runner’s high’, is there such a thing as too much running? Is there a mental toll of marathon overload for those who run multiple marathons? Recently, researchers explored the mental strain of excessive running with interesting results.

The study

In a study published in Acta Psychologica, researchers set out to investigate the psychological impact of running extensive distances multiple times, especially in relation to anxiety and depression. 576 multi-marathoners from different countries had individually run 146 marathons each, which is a surprisingly high number to consider. The average age of the multi-marathoners was 54 and just over half were men.

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The runners completed a survey designed to measure depression and anxiety and the researchers compared the results with those of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing of over 8,500 people in Ireland.

The results

The results revealed the following:

Repeat marathoners had higher levels of depression and anxiety compared to the average population, though the majority were still below the thresholds used to diagnose mental health conditions.
8% of the multi-marathoners were in the category of ‘severe depression and high anxiety’.
Men tended to have lower anxiety levels than women. Women had higher depression scores than men.

Concluding thoughts

The multi-marathoners didn’t consistently show lower anxiety or depression, and only a smaller subgroup had clinically significant signs of mental health issues. Even so, this study did show that multi-marathoners generally had slightly higher levels of anxiety and depression compared to the general population, while still remaining below clinical thresholds.

Pushing yourself too far could have the opposite effect than you intended when it comes to your mental health. Though, 146 is a whopping number of marathons to complete, and most people probably won’t be running this many. More research is needed to come to clearer conclusions about the mental toll of running such a high number of marathons.

Steph Green (Steph Zee) is a singer-songwriter and professional writer with over 12 years of experience in healthcare and… Read Full Bio

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