Beginners and Beyond

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Do you fear the pain of race day? (Read 88 times)

outoftheblue


    Experience has taught me that the last few miles of any race in which I'm really giving it my all, is going to hurt something fierce.   I'm mentally trying to prepare myself for a goal race this weekend, but to my dismay, I keep thinking about the pain.  I'm questioning my own sanity for putting myself in these situations, as well as hoping I can keep it together out there on race day.

     

    Who else fears the "pain cave" of race day and how do you deal with it?   I'm curious as to your thinking pre-race, as well as during the race when your body is screaming at you to please, please, PLEASE stop.

    Life is good.

    B-Plus


      I can usually hear Vin Diesel telling me that he lives his life a 1/4 mile at a time:

       

      http://youtu.be/9P2b_ygxIRY

      happylily


        Good question, ootb.

         

        I think I fear failure more than I fear pain. And failure happens when you give up because you think you can't handle the pain anymore. If my body screams STOP, my mind has been trained to overcome it, but ONLY if my goal pace is reasonable. My opinion is that if you have estimated your abilities and your goal right, your training has prepared you to handle the pain, so you have nothing to fear. But if you haven't estimated your goal right, if you've overestimated it, then you're in for some real pain and I'm not sure if anything can be done. Some races I can honestly say I have felt no pain, like during my PR marathon. I felt discomfort, yes. But I did not meet the pain cave. Other races, I have felt pain because I went in the race trying to chew more than I could bite (or is it trying to bite more than I could chew? ).

         

        You have trained strongly, you have nothing to fear. You are totally prepared for this. 

        PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013

                Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013

        18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010

          No. The course of the race I'm doing tomorrow is so beautiful, it kept my mind off any discomfort last year.

          LRB


            No, race distress is not something I give much thought  to or focus on.  For me, race day morning and the days leading up to it is all about business.  I thus focus more on my goals and/or the steps it took to get to there.

             

            Pain (or discomfort) is a byproduct of running fast, and only last for a short time.  It is also directly related to distance, so the longer the race the less it hurts.

             

            Therefore if fear was a factor, you would fear the mile or 5k more than a 10k or half marathon.  But fear is a bad word to use because the pain really only begins towards the latter point of the race and does not last long (relatively speaking), you are thus simply holding on once it starts.

             

            This topic is highly individualized but if I feared anything regarding a race it would be failure to perform well or to attain my goal, but I am a goal driven person so there is that.

             

            My advice to you would be to focus on your training and your belief in yourself and ability to persevere through race distress.

             

            To use an analogy; I have a fear of flying, but when I am going on vacation I do not focus on the flight I focus on the destination.  Sure, I think about the flight, but thinking about something and focusing on it are two completely different things.

             

            Focus on your race, training, belief in yourself, or goals. Not the pain.

            MothAudio


              I don't fear pain. I fear my response when the little voices whisper in my ear.

               Youth Has No Age. ~ Picasso / 1st road race: Charleston Distance Run 15 Miler - 1974 / profile

               

                Instead, try to visualize how you will feel when you see the finish line clock displaying your goal time.

                Dave


                delicate flower

                  Good question.  I wouldn't say I fear the pain, but I go in knowing it's going to suck.  That requires getting into the right frame of mind and focusing before the race.  I can't just walk up to a starting line and race.  I need to psych myself up.

                  <3

                  Slymoon Runs


                  race obsessed

                    Not at all,  pain doesn't cross my mind until it does.

                     

                    Performance anxiety sometimes does, but not pain.

                    onemile


                      Good question.  I wouldn't say I fear the pain, but I go in knowing it's going to suck.  That requires getting into the right frame of mind and focusing before the race.  I can't just walk up to a starting line and race.  I need to psych myself up.

                       

                      This. I haven't felt this way as much for marathons -- in terms of dreading the suck -- but definitely for shorter races. And I do think the mental prep / focus is important.

                      StepbyStep-SH


                        I've reached the point where I've pushed through that pain so many times, I feel fairly confident in my ability to overcome it. In a race. I still fear the pain of training runs to a certain extent, because I don't always have the drive to push myself through them at the intensity I should. I guess it's not the pain I fear in those cases as much as it is my weakness in fighting it when there isn't a race time on the line.

                        20,000 miles behind me, the world still to see.

                        wcrunner2


                        Are we there, yet?

                          A couple good quotes from some obscure runners:

                           

                          "Standing at the starting line, we are all cowards."

                          --Alberto Salazar

                           

                          "You have to forget your last marathon before you can try another. Your mind can't know what's coming."

                          --Frank Shorter

                           2024 Races:

                                03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles

                                05/11 - D3 50K
                                05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour

                                06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.

                           

                           

                               

                          happylily


                            A couple good quotes from some obscure runners:

                             

                            "Standing at the starting line, we are all cowards."

                            --Alberto Salazar

                             

                            "You have to forget your last marathon before you can try another. Your mind can't know what's coming."

                            --Frank Shorter

                             

                            The second quote is very much what happens after giving birth. Women in general forget what the delivery was really like. If they didn't, all families would only have one child.

                             

                            Something else I know: if you've given birth in the past, pain from a race isn't really a big thing.

                            PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013

                                    Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013

                            18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010

                              I used to live in the pain cave when I played sports competitively. Now that I've started running, though, I've found that I prefer a more laid back approach. I'm not necessarily afraid of the pain cave, I've just had my fill for now. Maybe once I've been running for a bit longer I'll get the itch to be the best again, but for now my main race day goal is to have fun.

                               

                              If I ever do feel mentally or physically taxed during a race, then I just do a mental loop of "I can do anything for X number of miles (or X number of minutes)."

                              5k - 25:15 (11/18/12)

                              10k - 1:01:51 (2/14/15)

                              10mi - 1:33:18 (3/2/14)

                              HM - 2:06:12 (3/24/13)

                               

                              Upcoming Races:

                              Benched until further notice. :/

                               

                              Everything you need is already inside. [[Bill Bowerman]]

                              scottydawg


                              Barking Mad To Run

                                No, I don't have that problem anymore since my racing days are long over.  Races these days are just 'fun' events for me.

                                 

                                When I did actually race - way back when - I don't think I worried about it too much even then.  I can't really say it was fear; more like a "nervous anticipation" that I could hold on long enough to do as well as I wanted to.  As some of the others here said, I would use the 'visualizing" technique to help me get through.   And I always tried to have 'amnesia' about every race before I started any particular race I was doing on THAT race day, because bringing into mind things that happened on prior race days - especially those times you didn't do so well and/or were really hurting - can really throw you off.

                                "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Theodore Roosevelt

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