A huge piece of competing in any type of event is the mental component. It’s one thing to embrace a physical challenge: we set goals, train, we eat right, and come race day, we are hopefully at our peak performance.
But how do we prepare mentally for what may await us on race morning? (more…)
This morning, 5 days after last Sunday’s marathon, I ran an easy 3 miles along the River. I still have a few aches and pains, but for the most part I feel great. No watch, no headphones, just me, the path, and nature.
I had plenty of time to reflect on things as I ran pretty slowly, and I scanned the years of training and races and people all along my “running path.” I spent a little more time thinking about my most recent endeavor and the past 6 months.
There was a time in my running (not so long ago) when I believed that in order to legitimize myself as a “real runner” that I HAD to qualify for Boston. Over the past 6 months, my perspective has changed. I think my earlier belief was really based on what other people thought which I assimilated into my own belief system.
However, more so than any single race, I think my training in the last 6 months and my accumulated running experiences, in my own view, have “legitimized” me. I ran a sub 4 hour marathon in the 2005 Lakeshore Marathon in Chicago (which was inaccurately measured to be a mile too long and thus didn’t count). It didn’t count officially, and I guess I let that “not count” for me. But, really, I was letting it “not count” according to other people, too.
I have said for years, “I am independent of the opinion of others,” and in most things I think I am. But in this particular case, I think maybe I wasn’t as “independent” as I thought I was.
I have passed that threshold now. What matters is not what others consider “legitimate.” What matters is what I think. And, here I am, finally, allowing myself to acknowledge that I have run my sub 4 hour race, and I now what stands out in my mind is what a great “time” I had running that race and every race. Somehow, the clock “time” just doesn’t seem that important anymore.
