It’s easy to talk about withdrawal when you’re active. You realize that it is like being on a train knowing that you will end up arriving at the last station and, at that moment, you have to get off.
For circumstances of different types, (I would not know if it was better or worse), I arrived wanting to get off at the last station.
The main change is mental. When you compete, everything revolves around a calendar of training, races and other commitments and without these goals, you have to start creating others and build your life outside the competition.
Fortunately I had many fields and concerns to explore and feelings to live and both personally and professionally, I felt busy from the first moment and very comfortable with my new life, doing different things.
The feeling of “no commitment”, being the absolute owner of your time is relaxing, rewarding, but also less intense and it is important to consider new challenges.
Leaving the competition allows you to see things with a greater perspective and value them differently. You reach the end of your career being a much better driver than you were when you started and this is the best reward. I must also recognize that it is no less true, that on more than one occasion, the idea of ”I wish I could begin to run with what I know now” comes to mind. It is the experience that results from learning over time.
And is that: “The years teach what the days ignore”