CHAPTER 8

On Racing Well

SOME RUNNERS ARE GREAT RACERS. They perform consistently, delivering solid results even when the stakes are high and the pressure is on. Other runners—equally talented ones—never seem to perform up to their potential. All the promise of their workouts fades in disappointment when, time and again, they fail to run up to expectation during a race.

The difference between these two scenarios is sometimes the result of fairly obvious factors. Training too hard, though it’s likely to result in some impressive workouts, can leave you depleted when race day dawns. A lack of tapering can likewise leave you with inadequate reserves.

But the difference between a great race and a sub-par performance can also be the result of less tangible factors. The best training in the world will not produce results if you’re not mentally ready for a race.

To truly succeed at racing, you’ll require a formula of equal parts cockiness and calm. You must master the seemingly antithetical arts of concentration and relaxation. You’ll learn to both pace and push. You’ll also need prerace planning, physical preparation, a positive attitude, self-control, wise choices, and, yes, a bit of dumb luck.

While some great racers certainly seem to have been born with an uncanny confidence in the art, most runners can improve in all the required elements—except for luck. “Racing is a learned skill,” says Lorraine Moller, a four-time Olympic marathoner and winner of the bronze medal in the 1992 Olympic Games. “It’s like anything else in running: You can practice it.”

MENTAL READINESS

The only thing you can control in a race is your performance. It sounds obvious, but plenty of women toss that concept out the car window when they pull into the race parking lot.

“Some women will look around at the competition and actually decide before the race begins where they will fall within the race,” says Ann Boyd, an elite runner and coach in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “They’ll say, ‘So-and-so’s here and she can beat me, and so can she, but I can beat her and her. Looks like I’ll finish … third in my age group.’ And they do themselves a huge disservice by doing this.”

Instead of tallying up your limitations before the starting gun, adjust your mindset. Put yourself in the right frame of mind before your next race:

Worry only about yourself. Since you can’t control who shows up or who will race well, stop wasting energy worrying about how other people will perform. A woman I know named Sarah recalls a race she entered with hopes of winning. During her warmup, she saw a tall, lean woman preparing for the race. The woman was dressed in the latest flashy running apparel. She looked fit. She looked fast. “I was even intimidated because of her tan, figuring that she’d been working out a lot!” Sarah jokes. As it turned out, the “threat” finished well back in the pack. But Sarah did finish second—to another woman wearing a plain old T-shirt.

The more relaxed and confident you are, the more likely you’ll be to perform up to your potential, to learn from your mistakes, and to have a more positive racing experience in general. Even if you’re the type of person who comes down with insomnia, dry mouth, gastrointestinal distress, and just plain jitters during everything from job interviews to speeches, you can still learn to race well. Just as your training determines your level of physical preparedness heading into a race, it also molds your emotional state and your mental capabilities. During training, practice mental concentration. It will help you in a race.

Face your fears in practice. Moller looks for mental stumbling blocks in her runners and then specifically tailors workouts that play to those weaknesses. “An athlete should practice the situations of which she might be fearful,” she says. “For example, some runners go to pieces when somebody passes them. That’s something you can easily stage in a workout situation with your running partners.” Other stumbling blocks might be fear of leading, or of not running in front of the pack, or of having a long distance to make up on a competitor. All of these situations can be re-created in workouts. One runner can start in front and then be passed, for example. Or runners can trade sharing the lead and following. Or they can stagger their starts to practice catching up with a runner who has a hefty lead.

Listen to your body objectively. The best racers learn to view “negative” sensations—heavy breathing, a slight burn in the legs—as information from their bodies and brains rather than as signs of impending doom. Fatigue, for example, is a given in racing. Of course you’re going to feel tired. But quite often, if you can hang on through a rough segment of a run or race, you’ll eventually feel fresher—in fact, chances are that you’ll go through several such ups and downs in the course of a race.

If you’re busy destroying your momentum with negative thinking (That’s it; I blew it. My race is over. Here they come, passing me … ) you’ll never feel that second wind. By becoming used to the sensation of fatigue and responding with assurance (Okay, I knew this feeling would hit; just hang in there and it will pass. It’s not so bad …”) you can train yourself to run through it.

To do this, choose some track sessions or tempo runs and execute them mindfully, with the specific goal of developing a confident outlook. Aim to complete the workout with self-assurance and self-control. Focus at the start as if it were a race. If nervousness or doubt about the upcoming effort creeps into your mind, replace such thoughts by reminding yourself that running your best is all you can do. Tell yourself that you’re calm and confident. Remember that nerves are often a function of worrying about external factors over which you have no control.

Visualize yourself relaxed. Visualization is a powerful tool that can help change your behavior. As you test yourself during hard workouts, picture yourself on the starting line with a positive attitude, knowing that you belong there with your worthy competitors. As the workout progresses and you grow tired, concentrate on gently pushing despite your fatigue. Become accustomed to the feeling of weary legs. Toward the end of a workout, visualize yourself coming on strong and successful, as if the workout were the finishing stretch of a race.

Pay attention to the emotional and physical responses that arise as you run the workout. Work with your training partners, trading off during hard efforts to practice running in the lead or from behind the pack. Practice responding calmly and positively in your training situation, and you’ll be prepared to do the same in your race.

CHOOSING YOUR RACE

If you’re running in hopes of achieving a personal record (PR), choose a race that will optimize your chances. Flat courses are generally faster than hilly ones. Running at low altitude is always faster than a race at high altitude. Other factors can come into play too. Find out about the average temperature and humidity level on race day, and choose a race that plays to your strengths in those areas. Some runners perform well in heat, for example, while others wilt. If you live at high altitude, you might do better running in the mountains than in the humidity customarily found at sea level.

Consider the size of the field as well. Most runners find it easier to run a fast time in a race of at least several hundred people, where they know they’ll have cheering crowds and company and competition, than in a smaller race, where they might find themselves alone out on the course. On the other hand, there’s a point of diminishing returns, when a race’s size makes the course too crowded for unimpeded racing.

Race Travel

Racing away from home is fun and exciting. It’s a great way to see new places, challenge yourself against different competitors, and discover new courses. But when your race is out of town, a whole host of complications can crop up to threaten your performance. While attempting to concentrate on your running, you are in new and unfamiliar territory that can present distractions ranging from the merely tempting to the thoroughly aggravating. The key is to keep your routine as similar as possible to the one you follow at home. Here are some specific tips to keep you on track.

image  Save the sightseeing and socializing for after the race. More than one Sunday race has been ruined by a Saturday of exploring a new city on foot. Beware of large prerace expos for the same reason. It’s fine to look around for an hour or so, but spending the day walking around on cement floors can sap the energy from your legs.

image  Review the race course before the event. By familiarizing yourself with the course, you can prepare for hills, get a rough idea of mile marks, and make a mental note of markers near the finish so you can decide ahead of time where to make your final push. The best review is done by foot; running allows you to notice the subtlest changes in terrain. If you arrive too late for this, however, or if it’s too long a race to jog, at least drive the course in a car.

image  Drink, drink, drink. Air travel can be dehydrating, and any type of travel can throw you off your normal, healthy patterns, including that of drinking enough. Carry a water bottle, preferably filled with a diluted sports drink, and drink regularly while you travel and in the days prior to the race.

image  Don’t be tempted by exotic restaurants until after the race. Search out a prerace meal like the ones you’re used to eating at home—the simpler the better, to avoid any possibility of stomach upset. Play it safe with menu choices: Pasta is a good, conservative bet in most any place.

image  Bring a selection of familiar prerace foods for the day before and the morning of the race. Otherwise, you’ll be sorry if bagels, bananas, and energy bars are in short supply at the neighborhood convenience store.

image  Inquire ahead of time about things you’ll need on the day of the race so you won’t have to scramble that morning. Ask the hotel’s front desk clerk where you can get a cup of coffee at 5:00 a.m. Find the shuttle-bus stop for transportation the start of the race. Know where to go to pick up your race number.

image  Get plenty of rest in the days before the race. Try to go to bed at the usual time. If you’re in a different time zone and have trouble falling asleep early enough the night before the race, don’t despair. Being well-rested in general is more important than the last night’s sleep just before the race.

image  Don’t just ask for a wake-up call; set a backup alarm as well. You’ll sleep better trusting that you’ll be up in time for the race.

THE TAPER

A week or two before your race, start cutting back on your training. A 1-week taper is sufficient for shorter, less crucial races. For longer or more significant events, you might want to gradually back off hard training for up to 2 weeks. Some runners don’t taper at all for small local races that they run as workouts rather than as serious races. That’s fine—just remember to adjust your expectations for the race accordingly.

Some runners have a tough time tapering. When they cut back on their training, they can’t help but think that their fitness is slowly slipping away. It’s not. In fact, during this rest, the body is getting stronger. It’s repairing muscle damage, topping off the fuel stored on a cellular level, and restocking energy. Tapering actually helps maximize fitness for race day.

This means, however, that cramming last-minute workouts into the week before the race won’t help. Missing previous workouts due to injury or illness leaves runners especially susceptible to this temptation. Remember that there are no shortcuts to fitness, and you can’t make up for lost time. Training hard too close to the race can only hurt by tiring the body without adequate recovery time.

If you’re in doubt about your time frame, you may find yourself wondering, “Can I squeeze in one more hard workout?” Bear in mind that most runners are best served by erring on the side of recovery before their race efforts. The running world is full of anecdotal accounts of runners crushed with disappointment having caught a bad cold a few weeks before their race, then running PR’s and realizing that the enforced rest was probably the best thing that could have happened to them.

Although there are general rules for tapering training, every runner responds differently. You will have to experiment over the course of several races to find the formula that works best for you. Generally speaking, however, you’ll want to follow this advice:

Cut back on your mileage. During the week leading up to a 5-K or 10-K race, you should cut your mileage in half. For a half-marathon, start halving your mileage about 10 days out. A marathon taper should last about 3 weeks, each week cutting the mileage by about one-quarter. For example, if you were averaging 40 miles a week, 3 weeks before the race you would run 30 miles, 2 weeks before you would run 20 miles, and the week before you would run 10 miles.

But keep running. Several studies have shown that a complete lack of physical activity in the days preceding a race leaves runners not energized but sluggish on race day. Assuming that the race is on a weekend, do a short, modified fartlek or track session on Tuesday to keep your speed and sense of pacing honed. A set of four 400-meter repeats at race pace or up to ten 200-meter repeats will do. Trade your Thursday tempo run for an easier run with several pickup strides thrown in. On Friday and Saturday, 20 to 30 minutes of easy running should suffice, with plenty of stretching and a few strides tossed in to keep you sharp. If you want to take a day off, research shows that 2 days before your race is actually a better time for it than the day before.

Resist temptation. Some runners feel edgy from the excess energy that comes with cutting back their routines, while others feel sluggish from the change in pattern. Avoid the temptation to modify your taper based on these feelings. Your body is storing energy for the race, and it’s expected that you will feel different. A hard run might make you feel better temporarily, but you’ll be burning off the very energy you’re trying to store.

Women in particular also report feeling “fat” during their tapers, and many panic that they’ll gain weight before the race. Such feelings are typically more psychological than physical. (A minor weight gain can result from a return to proper hydration, which typically comes with a decrease in exercise.) Since your calorie expenditure has dropped, it’s not a bad idea to cut back slightly on your food intake. But don’t fast or skip meals or take any other drastic measures. It’s crucial to eat enough to maintain your energy and health. You’ll hurt your performance far more by sabotaging your energy than by gaining a pound or two before the race.

COUNTDOWN TO THE START

A good warmup will prepare your body for an optimal performance. By the conclusion of the warmup, your mind and muscles should feel loose and relaxed. You should not feel overly tired. Over time, you’ll probably develop a personal warmup strategy that will bring out your best.

Your warmup will depend on the length of the race, the weather, and your own personal preferences. You can, however, use the following countdown as a general guide.

45 minutes to race time: Jog easily for 2 miles or about 15 minutes.

30 minutes to race time: Stretch all your muscle groups. See if any areas feel particularly tight, and do some self-massage if necessary. Find toilet facilities now if you need them; don’t wait until the last minute, when lines can be very long.

15 minutes to race time: Change into your racing shoes.

10 minutes to race time: Jog a bit more, and do some strides of 100 meters or so at race pace or slightly faster. Stretch any areas that still feel tight.

5 minutes to race time: Head to the starting line and listen to any last-minute race instructions. Continue to move and stay loose, jogging very slowly or stretching lightly until the starter tells you to line up for the start.

For longer races—a half-marathon or more—the emphasis should be on conserving energy. These distances require less of a warmup, since the pace will be slower at the start. You probably don’t need to do any fast strides, since you won’t be running that rapidly during the race. For the marathon, you can jog lightly and stretch for a few minutes before the race, and then essentially warm up during your first mile by easing into the pace. Not only will you have saved precious energy, but this abbreviated warmup can also work in your favor by discouraging you from going out too fast.

Your First Race

Your first race can be intimidating—all those fast runners, all those women with more experience. But don’t be scared away: Today’s events are designed to welcome runners of all abilities. You’ll find plenty of participants just like you, new to the sport or new to an organized event. Think positively and plan on having fun, and your race will be a good one. Here’s a 5-step plan to the perfect race:

image The night before: Prepare everything you’ll need for the next day, including your running outfit, bad-weather gear, shoes, race number, sunglasses, and water bottle. Now is not the time to test new attire. To ensure that they won’t chafe or cause blisters, be sure to wear shoes, shorts, and a bra that you’ve already run in a few times. Stuff some toilet paper into a pocket of your warmup clothing. Some women also like to pin a tampon inside their shorts for longer races, just in case.

image Race morning: Wake up at least 2 hours before the race; that will give your body plenty of time to shake off any sleepiness. Eat a simple, light meal right away; that will allow enough time for the food to settle. Stick to foods you know your stomach is comfortable with: a banana and half a bagel are a favorite for many runners. Drink plenty of water or diluted sports drink now. If you wait until just before the race, you might need a bathroom at the last minute.

image Travel to the race: Plan to arrive at the race 45 minutes to an hour before the start. That way you’ll still have plenty of time to warm up if there are traffic delays or if you need to park far away from the start.

image Warmup: Tailor your warmup to the race and your own particular comfort level.

image The start: Line up at the start of the race in a position appropriate for your pace. Generally, the fastest runners will start in the first few rows, with the rows behind them getting successively slower. Joggers and walkers should line up at the back of the pack. Resist the temptation to line up too close to the front. Although you may lose a few seconds or minutes waiting for the pack ahead of you to cross the starting line, you will ensure that you’ll start out at a conservative pace—and that you won’t get trampled by faster runners behind you.

Shorter races, such as the 5-K, require a much more concentrated burst of energy. For these races, you must be primed and ready to go at the sound of the gun. Allow 30 to 50 minutes to warm up for this type of race. Be sure to stretch thoroughly, and do several strides at race pace or slightly faster. Leave enough time after these pickups so you’re not winded from the start.

If the weather is exceptionally hot, consider cutting back on your warmup. This will help you conserve energy and avoid premature dehydration. In very hot, humid weather, you’re far more likely to feel sluggish, so your primary concern should be staying cool until the race begins. In cold weather, on the other hand, be sure to allow for a full warmup, beginning with very easy jogging to ease your muscles into their working mode. Leave plenty of time to stretch, and to avoid tightening up again, keep moving until the race starts. Keep warm clothing layers on until the last possible minute.

Use your warmup to the best mental as well as physical advantage. Does the sight of other competitors before the race make you edgy? Then do your jogging and stretching on a lonely road away from the race site. Do you need to psych yourself up beforehand? Use the time to quietly compose yourself and review your race strategy. Does focusing on the event make you more nervous? Some runners actually do better by socializing and joking around with friends until the gun goes off, saving their mental energy for the race itself. There is no right or wrong; different styles work for different runners.

Although it’s good to have a set warmup routine, try not to reach the point of superstition or phobia. Many runners have set patterns that they follow before a race for good luck. They might have raced well one day after warming up in a certain pair of shoes or after eating a particular brand of bagel, so now they feel that they must always prepare the same way. But what happens if your shoes get lost on the way to the race or if you don’t arrive in time for your regular warmup? What if the store is out of cinnamon-raisin? Does that mean your race is ruined? Beware of any rigidity in thinking. It can set you up for failure.

Chris McNamara, who won the USA Women’s 10-Mile Championship in 1997 in horrendously humid conditions, cautions that runners should “always be prepared to be surprised.” “It’s good to have a routine, but don’t be too rigorous,” she says. “You must be flexible within that routine. If you really must have something, like a particular drink, then bring it with you. Don’t leave it to chance.”

And don’t obsess if something doesn’t go as planned before the race. Great races have been run by competitors who have had all kinds of crazy mishaps and distractions beforehand or even during the race. Perhaps the most important element of your warmup is a continual reminder to yourself that nothing will get in the way of your having a good race: not heat, not wind, not bad convenience-store coffee, not even lost racing shoes. It’s far better to believe that you’re the kind of woman who runs well no matter what the circumstances than to believe that you run well only under certain conditions.

Smart Tips

Women’s races have become increasingly popular over the last decade, as more women have discovered the joy of running. These female-friendly events make a point of welcoming runners of all abilities, and they often feature some special touches for their participants. The St. Luke’s Women’s Fitness Celebration, in Boise, Idaho, grew by the thousands each year as it became known for its healthy postrace feast—granola, yogurt, and fruit—and for honoring all of its older runners with roses on the award stage. Nike’s marathon for women features chocolate along the course and pedicures at the finish.

Some of the premier women’s events in the country include:

image  St. Luke’s Women’s Fitness Celebration: The 5-K Run, Walk, and Stroll draws some 12,000 women in September. www.celebrateall.org

image  Avon Running–Global Women’s Circuit features 10-K runs and 5-K walks in 10 cities in the U.S. and 15 other countries worldwide. www.avonrunning.com

image  Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure is a series of more than 100 races globally with more than a million participants each year. While not a female-only event, women are front and center and make up the majority of the participants. www.nationalraceforthecure.org

image  Nike Women’s Marathon, a fall marathon and half-marathon in downtown San Francisco features Tiffany necklaces for finishers. www.nike.com/nikemarathon/

BE A TORTOISE

Hands down, the most common way for a runner to ruin a race is to start off too fast. When the gun goes off and other runners shoot out quickly, it takes great confidence to maintain your race plan and your pace. You need to exercise ferocious self-control, or you run the risk of derailing the rest of your race because of a rash decision made in the first few minutes of excitement.

Keep in mind that because you feel fresh and eager, your pace will feel deceptively slow. You may feel so good that you’re sure you can go faster. Use caution: Chances are that you’re running faster than your body clock is telling you.

Remind yourself to run your own race. Some competitors get carried away by staying with (or passing!) faster runners because it suddenly seems like the “right” pace to run. Most of these rabbits end up paying the price and slowing after a mile or two, when they find out that they’ve run beyond their ability. There’s no way you can win by following somebody else’s race strategy. It’s far better to lose 10 to 15 seconds at the start of the race than it is to lose a minute or two—or five—at the end when you find yourself in severe oxygen debt.

The habit of starting out too fast can be hard to break. Here are a few tips to help you overcome the urge to run too fast at the start of your next race:

image Put on mental blinders. Focus only on yourself, and don’t be distracted by what other runners are doing. Tell yourself that the only mistake you can make is going out too fast, and then force yourself to hold back, especially for the first 400 meters. After that, the initial adrenaline rush will be out of your system, and you can more accurately gauge how fast you’re running and whether you should pick up the pace.

image Line up with a similar runner. Look for a friend or training partner who runs at your pace but knows how to pace herself. If she’s a seasoned racer, that’s even better.

image Have a plan and check your times. First of all, know what pace is reasonable for you to start at. Measure the first quarter- or half-mile marks on the course by bicycle or by car before the race. Calculate what time you should hit these marks based on your optimal race pace. Then check your times against this plan during the race. (Of course, if you have a GPS or a running chip that connects to your iPod, you can check your pace easily with these.) It’s worth it to make the effort to check in on your pace this early. Most races will have the first mile marked, but at that point it’s probably too late if you’ve gone out too fast.

MAINTAIN A STEADY PACE

Over the years, a number of studies have shown that the fastest races are generally those run at an even pace. This means that you stand the greatest chance of running your best race when you can complete the second half of the race at the same (or faster) pace that you ran the first half. Runners who start off fast in the hopes of “putting time in the bank” typically slow down, losing more time than they gained in the first place.

The goal, then, is to shoot for the pace that will allow you to run evenly throughout the race. Tempo runs and track workouts can help you predict this pace. But times—seemingly so objective—can be misleading guidelines, since hills, weather, and running surfaces will all affect the speed of a particular race course. Ultimately, it can be more useful to rely on the way your body feels.

Your workouts are the best gauge for giving you a sense of pacing and an understanding of the effort that you can maintain over a given distance. Although you can certainly look at your watch for guidance during the race, always pay attention to your body signals first and foremost. If the ideal pace that you predicted feels far too hard early on, back off. If you’re halfway through the race and you feel like it’s your day for a breakthrough, don’t let the time on your watch scare you into slowing down.

Although your pace should remain consistent over the course of a race, your effort will not. The same pace will feel like a walk in the park at the start of a race compared with how it will feel at the end. Remember this as the miles tick by. “As you grow more tired, the same pace will feel harder and harder,” says Olympic miler Willie Rios, who specializes in coaching women distance runners. “That means that if you feel too comfortable toward the end of a race, chances are that you’ve lost concentration and slowed down.” One way to ensure that you stay at your target pace is to choose regular intervals at which to check in with your body. Crank up your effort a notch if you’ve lost concentration and let your pace slip.

Smart Tips

Professional runners need to be experts at racing well. Their careers depend on their abilities to deliver consistent results. Here the elites share their secrets.

image “Prioritize your races and focus on a select few. Mentally and physically, you can’t treat them all with the same intensity. My coach and I will sit down and decide what the most important thing is in the coming year: nationals or a major race. There will be other races in the interim, but I won’t emphasize them as much.”

—SHELLY STEELY four-time World Championship cross-country team member

image “Sometimes I’ll go back and reread my training logbook before a race. This can help when you start to question your readiness. You realize that you trained, you did the work, and you’re fit. You end up saying, ‘Oh, all right, I’m ready to race.’”

—JANE WELZEL five-time Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier

image “I tell myself that I can’t compare myself with others. The competition does help me to go beyond my own limits, but I remind myself that I am competing ultimately to go beyond my own self, not others. In racing, it’s important to respect others and not to underestimate the competition—but you should respect yourself the same way!”

—NADIA PRASAD 1995 French national 10,000-meter champion

image “It helps to break the race into segments, like each mile or every few kilometers in a 10-K. The first section you can think of as a warmup. In the middle section, you should be prepared to feel up and down, good and bad, just like in an interval workout, where one might be yucky but the next you feel better. Then—the last 1000 meters or mile—you are close to the end, so it shouldn’t be too hard mentally, but physically you must keep it going. The key is knowing that you’ll feel better and worse at different points. By anticipating that, you can keep running strong.”

—CHRIS MCNAMARA 1997 USA Women’s 10-Mile Championship winner

image “Nearing the end of a race, I internalize as much as possible and eliminate distractions. That means, instead of saying, ‘Oh, God, somebody’s closing in on me,’ I focus my mind inward, using it to relax my shoulders, my ankle flex, all the parts of my body. That way, when I’m starting to strain, it pulls me back inward, and I can put all my energy into making myself go as fast as I can. It’s one thing to say, ‘Go hard at the finish,’ but this gives you a way to lose all the distractions and pull it all together to make it happen.”

—LIBBIE HICKMAN 1997 USA Track and Field National champion in the women’s 5000-meter

HOW TO HANG TOUGH

Coaches and spectators often admonish runners to hang tough in a race. Easy for them to say. But just how do you do that? What goes on in the mind during a race is a highly individual thing. Every runner tends to develop her own secrets of success when the race grows difficult. Here are a few examples of how to practice race toughness.

Concentrate on what’s in front of you. When you feel yourself struggling, it can be devastating to try to envision yourself maintaining your pace for several more miles. Instead, concentrate on maintaining your pace just for the next mile. Toward the end of the race, you may need to think even shorter-term: Make your goal to hold your pace to the next block, or even to the next telephone pole. When you reach your target, pick another one, and repeat the process as needed.

This strategy works because, though you might not believe that you can hold on for the rest of the race, you do know that you can hold on for one more block. String those blocks together, and you’ll have finished the race.

Count to 10. This is similar to breaking the course into short segments, as it helps you maintain your pace for a less intimidating chunk of time. Count your footsteps up to 10 over and over again in order to concentrate on the task at hand. Your goal should go no further than getting you to the next count of 10; by narrowing the task at hand it feels more manageable.

Check in with your body. Conduct an inventory of your body, monitoring how you feel from head to toe. Consciously relax your eyes, jaws, neck, shoulders, arms, and feet. Correct your posture. Check your footfall. Instead of focusing on fatigue, make sure you’re running as efficiently as possible. If you need to, when you reach your toes, start over and check yourself again.

Talk to yourself. If you always seem to manage to convince yourself that you won’t be able to hold on, here’s a radical idea: Try to convince yourself that you will. Remind yourself of the hard training you’ve done. Tell yourself you love (fill in the blank): heat, hills, wind, whatever it is that’s plaguing you. You can even tell yourself that you love the feeling of being tired because you thrive on a challenge and know you can rise above it. Do whatever it takes, even if it seems silly. Some runners tell themselves that they are warriors who feel no pain; others pretend that they are soaring birds. Some just tell themselves that they’re the best damn runner out on the course that day.

For longer races, consider planning out this self-talk in stages. You might conduct an inner dialogue for the first part of the race that focuses on calm, conservation, and staying cool. Then toward the end of the race, this self-talk might switch to a more aggressive stance, encouraging toughness, urgency, giving your all.

Become the meaning of tough. The bottom line is that to race well, you must be “capable of enduring strain, hardship, or severe labor.” That, by the way, is a dictionary definition of the word tough. There is no fancy way around it. Some runners do best to dispense with the mental gymnastics and attack the beast head-on. When you’re running at the limits of your potential, it will hurt. When you feel that discomfort, it’s a reminder of the task that you have set for yourself. Don’t give in, and you will reap the rewards of knowing that you’ve done your best.

WHY YOU CAN’T LOSE

What if, despite your best efforts, you didn’t reach your goal? Maybe you didn’t hit the PR you felt certain you’d reach, or perhaps you started off too fast and died, or maybe you didn’t finish in the top three as you’d hoped. Not meeting a goal can be disappointing. Depending on the amount of training you’ve done, it can even feel devastating. But it’s not a failure.

Races are simply a measurement of where you stand on a given day. They are best treated as information. Granted, you might like the information better when you run well, but you learn more when your run doesn’t go exactly as planned. Did you fade on the hills? You might need to work on strength. Did you get so nervous beforehand that your legs felt like gelatin? Some mental training is in order. Did you misgauge your speed? Track sessions can help develop your sense of pace.

Avoid the misguided temptation to blindly increase your training in response to a poor race. “It’s very typical for people to set standards too high, then to get disappointed after they race,” says longtime competitor Shelly Steely. “They might not have rested enough, or their goal was unrealistic. So then they try to do more in training, when in reality what they need is to do even less, or to approach their training differently.” Steely knows what she’s talking about. After competing at a world-class level in the early 1990s and finishing seventh in the 1992 Olympic 3000-meter, she found herself floundering and racing far below her potential. After pinpointing the problem—a hormone imbalance—she spent years patiently adjusting her training to find a formula that worked for her. By 1997, despite a busy schedule that allowed her to train far less than most of her competitors, her results once again ranked her among the top road racers in the United States. In 1998, she won the USA Track and Field Grand Prix road running circuit.

Every race can teach you something if you’re willing to pay attention. This attitude not only makes the last race feel a little better, but it also makes the next one a little less frightening. By keeping a positive outlook, you can walk away from every race having won something.

TRAINING LOG

The races I’m most proud of are not necessarily my fastest or the ones I won. Triumph in racing can take many forms, as can disappointment. Indeed, it is a seventh-place finish in a small, local event that stands out as one of my favorite races. It was the first running of the Pearl Street Mile in my adopted hometown of Boulder, Colorado—and therein lies the catch. Since many world- and national-class athletes live here in order to train under optimal conditions, the elite field was stacked with hotshots, as well as plenty of once-weres and wannabes.

My coach had encouraged me to enter the elite field instead of the all-comers’ category. I had come off a yearlong break and had been training hard for all of 2 months in my new town with my new coach. Although I was excited to test myself, I expected the usual nervousness to afflict me at the start. Much to my surprise, it didn’t.

While warming up, I saw all manner of tough competition, including a whole team of Japanese runners. When I started to feel intimidated, I shifted my focus to one of excitement: It was energizing to be a part of such a field. I thought back on the workouts I had done over the past 8 weeks in preparation for the event. I felt confident. Most important, when I stepped on the starting line, I felt that I belonged among these athletes.

When the race started, I stuck to my plan. I felt in my bones that I had perfectly targeted my pace, drilled into my very fiber from track workouts. For the entire race, I truly believed that I could win, no matter the caliber of the women I was running against. Noting the competition in this manner was different from anything else I had felt in a race before: It was less a matter of worrying about them than of feeling absolutely confident and certain that I was running my best race.

I didn’t win, but I never gave up. After the turnaround at the halfway point came the tough part, as the course became slightly uphill. I ticked off the blocks on the home stretch, making every step count as I never had before. Because I had followed my own game plan at the start, I was able to give everything I had and maintain my pace. Passing several runners in the last half mile, I finished in 5:17, good for seventh place and a personal best at altitude.

Now, that time won’t go down in the annals of running history, but for me it felt glorious. The feeling of accomplishment I had after that race resonated far more than other efforts, even victorious ones. I felt as if I finally knew what it meant to execute every step of a race properly, to have truly done my best, not to wonder, What if … ? or to think, I could have … or I should have….

I haven’t been able to replicate that feeling in every race since then, and I eventually realized that it was foolish to believe that I could. Instead, I think of that race as my benchmark, my touchstone of what I am capable of. Why did it all come together then? It comes down to that ineffable mystery dance of mind and body. My brief training log entry from the day before that race does, however, present a strong clue: “Feeling confident heading into race.”