Run the Race You Have. Nothing More, Nothing Less.
My wife left a sticky note on my running gear the night before the half which I found at 4:30 the next morning when I went down to get ready. It said, “Run the race you have. Nothing more. Nothing less.” I put it on my rearview mirror as I drove downtown before the sunrise and looked at it one last time as I got out of the car to go meet my team. It was such a great outlook to take into a day of unknowns. A day I had been preparing for since July. I was nervous and excited and a little bit worried about that nagging knee injury I previously mentioned in passing that had prevented me from running for the last two weeks. I didn’t know what to expect and those were just the words to put it all in perspective. I’ve done the work, I am ready, I will have the race I have and make the most of it.
That’s exactly what happened as I completed my first half marathon. Predictably, it didn’t go according to plan. The first 10 miles were amazing. I was running well ahead of my expected pace and having the time of my life. I looked back at my splits later that afternoon and was so excited to see that some of my fastest miles were during the hilliest part – the part I thought would be my nemesis. I showed those hills! In hindsight, I have come to realize that running those hills so fast was the very thing that made the wheels come off around mile 11. I didn’t know it at the time, but not following my pacing plan and going too fast when it felt good was exactly what made me miss my stretch goal as I had to stop to nurse a cramp and walk it off for a bit. In the end, I refused to limp across my first finish line. I dug deep, pushed hard, and finished strong. I finished happy.
This week, as I have given my body time to rest and recover - I’ve been thinking about some of the words of wisdom imparted on me by my wife, my coaches, and the larger running community. These are a few key racing philosophies, if you will, that I believe are also pretty solid general life and work guideposts:
Remember your training
This one is about not getting caught up in the bigness of it all. A reminder to not get overwhelmed by something you’ve never done before or something you know will be difficult. You have put in hours of hard work to prepare you for this moment – trust your training, trust the plan, trust yourself.
Don’t go out too fast
This one is drilled into you from the very beginning, and yet…everything feels great, you are excited, people on the sidelines are yelling for you to go. It is, in many cases, a recipe for disaster. You forget your training and your plan and think, it’s fine. I’ve got this. All those coaches and experts underestimated me. Let me remind you how this turned out for me at mile 11. You set yourself up to run out of steam. Your cracks begin to show. Follow the plan, trust the experts.
Run the mile you’re in
This one encourages you to not think about the miles behind you that may or may not have gone well and definitely don’t stress about what’s left to finish. What you can control is the exact moment you are in. Focus on doing that mile well. Again, and again, and again until you’ve done the damn thing.
Run the race you’ve got
The one from my sticky note. This one is where you learn to accept that there are a lot of factors, many of them outside of your control, that will impact your outcome. Most of the time, it isn’t going to go as you’ve mapped it out in your head or on your spreadsheets. All you can do is embrace the reality of the moment you are in, the cards you’ve been dealt, and play the best hand possible.
I have grown so much over the past 4 months as a runner and a person. I have re-learned the importance of teammates and allowing people to support you in various ways. Maybe more than anything else I have had some important lessons on trust: trusting others, trusting the process, trusting the plan, and trusting myself. This has extended beyond my miles on the pavement to my experiences with my coaches, my family, and my co-workers. Things are dicey out there right now for a lot of folks – let people support you and even when it feels like we can’t trust a lot of things, find the things you can and lean in.