Race mentalities - response to Sambo

Sambo, it's really cool to hear how geared up you are for this year of running. I thought I'd dip into my penseive and see what I could find about race mentality.

Ever since I started running pretty well in high school, I've prided myself on being absurdly consistent. Part of that was our mileage. Low mileage distance programs generally = never feeling flat or bad on race day. That's not helpful though. Let me take you on an exciting little journey through my best races in college. On a side note, Edwar Ramirez just got Manny to pop up and end the inning. Tight.

Open NE's - Hot as balls out, ran the JV race coming off a calf injury. A fair amount our top-7 had rough days but Nick came up to me after the varsity race and said something along the lines of "Don't worry about what happened to me and the varsity guys. Run your race." Striding out before that race I was so fucking pumped. I'm pretty sure I was growling at the people around me. I didn't run Keene State the week before, so I was chomping at the bit to get after it. I took Nick's advice and thought about nothing but how good I felt and how bad I wanted to start crushing people. Billy, Alander and I hammered the whole way until we broke apart a little before 4 miles. Time was slow as hell for a short course, but I was really happy with how aggressively I ran every second for all 28 minutes and change.

ECAC's - Williams. Luckily the only time I ever felt like I had to race against teammates. This would decide who the 6 and 7 guys would be for Conn. My back was up against the wall. I either had to throw down the 8k of my life or go home and call it a season instead of spiking up at regionals and eventually nationals. When I started falling apart a little around mile 3.5, I kept saying to myself "no regrets" which was something Rod and I had talked about after NESCACs. Leading up to and including the hill the last time, I kept saying "no regrets, no regrets" just like in fucking finding nemo. (Know how I know I'm gay?) I guess it worked, I ran my second fastest 8k of the year on a pretty fucking hard course. I really was running for my life, or so it felt.

Husky - Robinson Cano just came up big with a 2 run double. This was probably my best track race ever above 800 meters. Warming up with Lena, Hutch, Tony, and Brunnquell was cool. It felt like we were more of a team out on a mission to run fast than it usually felt in cross. I guess it was because not everyone was running 3k. This was another case of being really pumped to run after a while without a race. Anyway, the strat was to get out hard the first 150 meters and hang on for as long as possible to whoever was near the front. I got out in the lead of the stagger and once we got to the end of the second turn, it was absolutely awesome. We broke from the stagger, I was striding right next to the leader (who was a nasty runner from the school just north of my hometown once upon a time), and just about the whole Tufts team was up on the rail at that split second. Wham. My first college race on the oval, I'm knocking elbows with would-be D-I Jesse Kearns and my whole team's yelling for me instead of running ahead of or behind me. Ended up PRing by 9 seconds over 3000.

Stonehill - first real race back from epic injury indoors. Toed the line in the 1500 with no fucking clue what kind of shape I was in. We went through 1000 at probably 68-70 second pace the whole way. With 500 I was like "wait, I've been here before. I feel amazing. Let's change gears and try to win." Went by a few people from the bell to 200 to go until I was in a healthy second and instincts totally took over. At that very moment when we went into the turn, I suddenly had no doubts whatsoever that I would win, and I had total faith in my ability to go back on the offensive once we hit the straight. Did it, came up on the leaders shoulder at the end of the turn and just felt like I was running him into the ground. Crossed the line almost on a lean in first and felt like I had just won Olympic Gold (by the way, I'm pretty much ready to go with my filthy-good picks for the Olympics pool. anyone else?). Closed in 62.

Fourth of July 5k Freedom Run - Unfortunately none of you were there for that. I have no doubt that I went into this race more excited, more confident, and more mentally geared up than I have ever been before. Warming up, everything was perfect. Breathing was slow, legs were strong, stride was enormous. Basically everything I did felt nothing short of dominant. My body had never felt that good. Ever. That's what a well-structured down week will do, Jerzy. Standing on the starting line with random people from my town, I seriously felt like a God. The race was over 400 meters in. No one was touching me. Ran 15:49 on what was probably a big negative split and won by a minute and a half.

I guess the majority of my best races come in one of 2 situations. Intense, unyielding confidence, or absolutely scared-shitless desperation. No matter what, I've always raced well if I'm just out there having fun and doing what I love. I suppose the only situation we have under control though is the confidence aspect. If you can keep your mind off of what you have to do over the next 5 miles and just focus on your body, your preparation and your execution, great things will happen. Always have faith in your training. Never doubt your preparation on Saturday morning. And as Ethan has said, "Just fuckin' have fun. That's why we do this, right?"