As frequently happens when traveling internationally, there were a few speed bumps on my way here, but I finally landed 10 hours before the starting gun of the Sydney marathon.
Typically, during the week before a marathon, you ensure you’re getting solid sleep for at least 4 nights before race day. You eat super healthy food, rest your body, and try to reduce stress. This puts your body in ideal form to complete 26.2 miles.
This did not happen for me as I was sling-shotting across time zones, “sleeping” on planes sitting up, eating the airplane and airport food, running between gates, and stressing because of missed connections. To say my body was battered and bruised when I arrived would be an understatement.
When it was time to get out of bed on race morning, the voice of doubt kicked in.
“You’re going to be exhausted.”
“You’re not going to be able to do this. You’ll never make it 26 miles.”
“You should have trained better.”
“You’re not as young as you used to be and your body can’t ‘just do it’ anymore.”
“This is going to be a disaster.”
I seriously considered not showing up to the starting line because I was confident the wheels would fall off pretty early in the race, and it was going to be a failure, so I might as well just stay in bed.
Have you ever been there? Conditions are less than ideal, and your confidence goes down the tubes? How often do we talk ourselves out of doing things because the lead up wasn’t as we expected? How many opportunities do we miss because we lack confidence in our abilities and we throw the baby out with the bathwater! BAG THE WHOLE THING! We don’t want to fail!
So, I’m laying there in bed, considering feigning an ankle injury from my dash through the Dallas Fort Worth airport, when I say to myself, “Just get out there and try! You can always quit if things go off the rails, but you never know. You might actually be able to pull this off. Control what you can control, and see what happens.”
Here’s what I could control.
– Simplify: I had 7 hours to get to the finish line. A 6:59 finish would be a win for me, so under the circumstances, why make it any harder than it needed to be by trying to go fast. I took it easy to give the old body the best chance of holding up for 26.2 miles.
– Optimize the input: I knew if I ran out of gas, my body would break down, so I drank a ton of water (I’m pretty sure I broke a world record for the most mid-race porto-potty visits) and ate carb gels and gummies at more frequent intervals than usual.
– Mindset: I reality-set my expectations to take the pressure off because boy oh boy, I can think myself into a high-expectation stress frenzy, and it’s super counter-productive! I said, “If this goes sideways, and I have to pull out, I can always come back and try again another time. This isn’t that serious.” (And it gives me an excuse to come back to Australia…Yes please!)
Here’s how the day went.
Start line: I don’t know how this is going to turn out, but here goes.
Mile 10: I’m feeling pretty strong at this slower pace. Maybe I can actually do this!
Mile 15: Holy crap…I can walk the rest of the way and still make it to the finish line in time! Legs, don’t fail me now!
Mile 20: I’m so glad I have this fellow marathoner to talk to and distract myself because my body is pretty uncomfortable, but it ain’t done yet.
Mile 26.2: I DID IT!!!
If we never show up, we never know what we can do. Rarely are conditions ideal, and we are WAY stronger than we will ever know, so trust yourself, control what you can, show up at the starting line and see what happens. You might surprise yourself!
Go get ‘em Tiger!
What’s on the Dancefloor?
This week I interview Jasmine Brett Stringer and she shares how to seize your life! It’s inspiring, it’s fun, and you just might end up as the next Sydney Marathon finisher after listening, so jump in!!
What I’m excited about: Koalas and Wombats and Wallabys, OH MY! I think Australia has THE CUTEST animals on the planet!!
