RunnerGirlBlog.com

Prerace Rituals

Racing rituals are a silly thing…one person once told me that superstition was a sign of weakeness, or maybe it was fear, in any case I prefer to call them “rituals.” I will say the fact that I still have a Roctane Gu taped to my bike that must remain there until I mount the bike on the road again is a bit silly. :) I totally love and respect the wise man who shared that and for a bit started to question my silliness. Only, I find comfort in my rituals. I am about to embark on a prerace ritualistic night. I will set out my racing gear, I will charge my Garmin over night, though, it is already charged. I will drink sports drink from a wine glass and I will read running magazines and running blogs to inspire me. I will pray that God blesses me with a good race and uses me as a witness. I will thank him for the gift he has given me and the joy it brings me. I will get nervous, I will go over my race plan, I will get excited, I will get crabby, I will get perky, I will talk to other runners, I will visual my success, I will picture the race clock under 43:41 and feel confident that I can PR, even this early in the season. I will be thankful and terrified and I will hear the words a friend shared with me to calm myself. At a race in Bay City this year a buddy of mine (the ever awesome Trevor Coleman) says, ya know professional football players, golfers, basketball players, if you saw them out before a game or match they wouldn’t look nervous or scared, they are confident because they are going to do what they do. You ARE a runner, you are going to go run. I am good runner, and I ran well that day. So I am about to sign off confident that as I gather my uniform and socks and shoes and then sit on my couch flipping through Running Times sipping on my Gatorade that I am ok to enjoy my process, because while superstition is one of the seven negative emotions, this prerace ritual, well it’s one of my favorite things.

Happy Running!!