The half marathon distance has to be my favorite race, I love that the distance is long enough to be challenging, yet short enough to run at a strong pace. I think that it is becoming one of the more popular distances to run, just due to that its still long enough to have bragging rights over your friends and family.
The distance tests your physical and mental strength, and each time there seems to be a new challenge. I have ran several half marathons, and I find a new physical or mental challenge that I have to overcome. There are many that say that the full marathon distance has more challenges as far the physical and mental, which I don't disagree with at all, but 13.1 miles is no walk in the park. I think it has its own set of obstacles to overcome.
From running several 13.1 miles races, here are some tips that I have learned to help come out on top mentally and have a successful race. These are not all the tips, I'm sure that I will have more later on.
There are different mental battles.
-Pre-race
All the training that you have done in the weeks and months prior, has come down to this: race day. Its normal to be nervous, especially if it is your first half marathon. Even for seasoned runners, it can be nerve racking. This usually comes from the pressure that runners put on themselves to perform their best. The thought of spending as much time as runners do to train for this race, and then have a terrible run, is just downright awful. I know...I was there. Things like this can tear down confidence for continued training and future races.
So here are a few tips that will help you best mentally prepare for a half marathon.
-Know that unexpected things happen.
Preparing to know that unexpected things that can happen before or even during a race can bring down your anxiety to a manageable level. Unexpected things that can happen: can't find the gear that you want to run in. Can't find your car keys. Not enough time for breakfast. Need to put gas in your car. Traffic and road closures. And then of course, the weather. This can be the biggest part of a race the is unexpected, mostly because runners envision warm weather, blue skies and slight breeze. But Mother Nature is no respecter or persons, and there could be cold temperatures, pouring rain, gusty winds and in some cases; snow.
A great way to prepare for weather, is to run in all kinds of weather as much as you can. If you see that it is raining outside, crazy winds and even colder weather, go for a run. This helps so that you would know how to mentally respond to weather like this. And this will help if you would have to run a race in these conditions.
-Be prepared
Aside from the training that runners do to prepare for a race, there are other things that they can do to be more prepared to lower race anxiety.
*For starters, runners would often study the course map, this map is usually provided by most races. This helps so that runners would know where they are going and also know the elevation changes. Races may also provide a parking map, this is great to study, because it does not help if runners get lost trying to park to board buses.
*Have a gear checklist. This is great to have to make sure that have you have your favorite running attire and shoes, music player and headphones, GPS watch, race bib, sunglasses and everything else you want to have. I have seen runners place everything they need on a chair right before they go to bed. So when they wake up, they grab their stuff and take off.
*Fuel up car the night before. As I mentioned above, making sure there is gas in the car the night before will help a lot. There is already enough on your mind the morning of race day, and fueling up your car should not be one of them. Seems kinda silly and obvious, but it is often overlooked.
*EAT BREAKFAST - This is very important. Especially since right before the race, your nerves are causing you not to have an appetite. Even though you don't feel like eating, I strongly suggest not to skip breakfast. It does not have to be a big breakfast, just make sure that you have food in your system, you'll burn a lot of calories during the race.
*Make a pre-race ritual. Many runners use pre-race rituals to help manage their anxiety. This can be from listening to music or a particular song, doing a specific warm up, meditate or pray. There are many others that runners will do. Think of something, be creative and keep it simple, because you would do it before you run, even at the start line.
*Visualize your race. This is a technique that is used by many top runners. A few weeks before the race, especially the day before, visualize the race, pre-race, and post race. See in your minds eye the starting line, running in the race, the people that your running with, the sounds of thousands of feet hitting the pavement, and the cheers of the crowd. Imagine what you'll be wearing, the people that will be waiting at the finish line, and the feeling that you're going to have when coming across the finish line. Many wonder shy this helps with race anxiety. It helps because it helps runners prepare for the unknown, such as, visualizing your race in a downpour, runners will get themselves familiar with the situation and rehearse how they will react to it.
*Manage expectations. It is always great and recommended that runners have goals, but some make them so high, that it causes anxiety if they are not met. Such as, if a runner has a goal to be at the shuttle pickup by 5:00AM, and gets there by 5:05AM, this may cause anxiety if this goal is not met. Instead, have the goal; be at the shuttle pick up, before they leave.
So there you have some tips for mentally preparing for a half marathon, and these can really be used for any distance. And there are more tips that are out there, these are the ones that I feel are the most important. If you have other tips and suggestions that you do, put them in the the comments below. And I'll have Part 2 for mental preparation, which is tips and advice for during the race.
See also: Mental tips for running a half marathon: Part 2
See also: Mental tips for running a half marathon: Part 3
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