The Night Before the Race ~ April 5, 2008

I've been thinking about mental training and the role that it plays in endurance sports. While I've been running marathons for 3 years, I don't think I've spent enough time on my mental training and I think that has definitely played a role in my performance. One of the tasks that I'm trying out is the idea of clearing my mind, so here goes...

Tomorrow morning, I'm running the St. Louis 1/2 Marathon. This race was supposed to be an A priority race and I was hoping to break the 2 hour mark, which would be a PR for me. However, while my 1/2 IM training has started out well, I haven't been able to spend as much energy and effort on speed training as I had hoped (mainly because I was sick for 10 weeks and on antibiotics for 6 weeks). So, my race tomorrow has a new goal. I am going to run negative splits, which means I will run the second 1/2 of the race faster than the first 1/2. I'm not running for time, but I am hoping to run strong and to finish feeling good.

Right now, I'm feeling sleepy and tired and my legs are achy. I'm not sure if it's from the run this morning or from my training this week or from sitting in the car. However, I know that if I sleep well tonight, I'll wake up with strong legs that are ready to run the hills around St. Louis.

Right now, I'm wondering whether or not I'm ready to run and if my training was done well enough. There is nothing I can do about that now, so I am going to let it go.

Right now, I'm feeling very grateful for the opportunity that I have to run. I'm grateful for the ability that I've been given to run. I'm grateful for the mental clarity and peace of mind that will come as I run tomorrow.

Right now, I'm going to climb into bed, listen to "Beautiful Day," visualize my race and fall asleep smiling because I get to do one of my very most favorite things tomorrow.