Do you have a running mantra? (Read 734 times)

Mikeymike's "runners run" mantra from the Today's Fix thread reminded me of my own little mantra, "hills are my friends." Do you have a running mantra or short phrase that you repeat to yourself from time to time to help you get out the door, down the street, up that hill, whatever?

"Yes, I can fargin' see you. Thanks for the highbeams in my face." Usually followed up with nonverbal communicaton involving hand gestures. "What was I thinking?" I signed up for a marathon in New England being held at the end of February. "I am a machine." When my form is fine, the endorphins are flowing , & I remember why I started running in the first place.

Relentless forward motion!

No worries, Claire. Glad it worked for you. "Runners run" is not my own original work. Not totally, anyway. Originally I think I ripped it off from the movie, Running Brave, with Robbie Benson as Billy Mills, a Native American who escaped poverty on the reservation to eventually win the Olympic 10,000 at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. It's a true story and a great running move--I named it as my favorite in the "what's your favorite running movie" thread. I saw this movie when I was very young. I think I was still in high school. There is a scene in the movie where Mills has stopped training and seems to have given up on running and his coach asks him why. Mills' answer is something like, "I just don't feel like I can run right now." His coach, Bill Easton, who is played in the movie by Pat Hingle, booms at him, "A runner doesn't decide when he CAN and CAN'T run!! A runner RUNS!" I haven't seen the movie in many, many years and I may not have it exactly right, but that's how I remember it. I saw this movie at a very impressionable age, but this scene made an impression. It actually caused me to think about the concept of being a runner. For the first time in my life, I actually thought of being a runner as a choice to be made. Something that I had control over. Did I want to be a runner, or not? I decided at that point that at some level I was a runner. It was part of who I was and I wanted to keep it that way. At some point in the last 20 years or so I changed "A runner runs" to "runners run." I just like the sound of it better. The point of "runners run" is that whether or not to get up out of bed and get out the door for a run is a conscious decision. The decision is not whether to run today--the decision is whether to be a runner. If you are a runner, then there is no decision on whethr to run. Runners run.

If I have my ipod on, I have no Mantra, the music takes over. If I am not listening to music I usually have a line from thelast song I heard running through my head over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over ....

I tend to do math, or sing. "The Engineer's Hymn" is usually one of my more common songs, although I also have a tendency to song military cadences at times, too (go figure).

Oh ya....and over and over...seriously. I also have another nagging issue. I could fix this, if I would remember to write a note on my hand, but it goes like this. I read somewhere, that in races, you should try to run along the "Tangent" that being the shortest line around the track. (sorta like the most legal way to cut corners) BUT, I can never remember the word 'Tangent' - and it drives me nuts. Every time I come to a turn I try my hardest to remember that stinking word, but it eludes me.... and there were many turns lately as we ran a 3 trail races over the past month. That said, I guess I need to develop a controlled mantra. Happy Pre Winter Running all. Dave

I don't have a mantra per se. But sometimes, when I feel I'm in that zone when everything is going well, my stride is smooth and light, or at least I perceive it as such, I sometimes get the refrain of "Fly like an eagle" from Steve Miller in my head. I wish it happened more often