by Amanda Theobald
(Part 2 of 4)
Previously I may have understated my fear of racing this distance. When in fact, I have been pretty darn scared of this race. I have been working at the running store for six years telling people they will do great in their race and feeling surprised that I believe it more than they do. Now that I am the one racing, I find myself brushing off people’s assurance of my assumed success. I apologize.
Yet, the training continues. I ran sixteen miles last Sunday, and it actually didn’t seem as far or as hard as I thought. I didn’t chafe or blister and only had to stop to pee once. The only negative part of the run was that I constantly telling myself I could do it. Not in the running-up-the-steps-like-Rocky kind of motivation. More like, the “okay, two weeks ago you ran 15, its only a mile more today, so you’re going to be fine; yeah you run all the time, you can do this; don’t think about how far you have to go, you’ll get there.” Which is more like an annoying, insecure, little kid that you want to punch because they are freaking you out. So I’m going to have to work on strategizing that out of my head before race day.
More importantly, whilst on this run I decided not to be scared anymore. I realized I am not going to step up to the starting line scared. I don’t want to look shyly at the girl next to me and start thinking about the great race she might have. I’m a competitor; its about me and my race. I am going to step up to that starting line super pumped to run farther than I ever have. If this is how I’m going to feel race morning, then I can’t train scared.
Other things from the land of training:
One day, I almost crapped my pants in liberty park, but then found an unbelievably pristine port-o-potty. Win. Or not, because the blue juice (you know the blue juice right?) splashed onto my butt…onto my naked butt! I am not exaggerating when I say I thought I was going to die, maybe not instantly, but because of this incident. That stuff is sterile though, right? Oh my gosh, I’m reliving it in my mind!
Last week I had a terrible workout on the treadmill. During my intervals my heart rate was getting out of control and I couldn’t hold it together mentally, and I had to bail out of a few. I tried not to beat myself up but you know how I be. So I had the same workout this week, also on the treadmill, and…nailed it.
Which brings me to my weekly advice.
You can ruin your run today, if you worry about your run tomorrow. Even if yesterday was super hard, you’re gonna make sure you get through your run, so why stress. Don’t let over-thinking compromise any of your runs. That is one plus of the repetitive motion that is running, your legs will just do what they always do. It might hurt, but you won’t crumble and break into a million pieces.
Stay tuned next week for “How Can I Be This Hungry?”