QOTD: Do you have frequent mantras or motivational phrases that you say each race, training run, periodically? This may be a philosophical piece or just "go go go". I've heard of many that use this kind of thing to keep them going. Do you imagine a race, a condition or a person? What mental images, words or other habits motivate you?
ATTQOTD: For each race I take the approach of Pre with "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift". So each race may not be a PR, but I will give my best effort for that day. Then for training I like the "Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better be running!" If that fails, then there is
youtube. For races, I try to learn as much about the route as possible so there isn't any surprises. I then imagine myself taking on the challenges of the course and my plan for difficult parts of the course. For WDW marathon this January I somehow missed the overpass around mile 20 ish, by that point my whole plan had fallen apart, but that overpass took a lot out of me and I was not prepared for it. With upcoming races, I plan to be more prepared to avoid the "Oh $h!&" moment.
The long range forecast for my half next Saturday is looking ok, 50's and clear before clouding up and raining in the afternoon, but of course it's 9 days away, so it could change 9 times.
