Week 15
Manchester Marathon is next Sunday and it’s starting to get real. Whilst it’s important to run the miles. I wanted to share some tips to get your mind right pre race.
First visualise the feeling of achieving the goal. However visualisation can’t make up for work you’ve not done, you can’t draw on a strength you’ve not earned in training.
Second visualise the challenges and make a plan for how you’d overcome them.
When I ran Boston 2018 there a couple of challenges I planned for, firstly the hypothermic weather, then secondly my knee which I injured weeks before and was likely to flair up in the race.
Whilst you can’t prepare for everything. I’ve found in writing down the challenges and having a plan to deal with them, helped me get through them in Boston when they happened on race day.
My knee injury flared up, the weather was terrible. Whilst it was raining externally, it wasn’t raining internally. And I earned a marathon PB.
There will be great moments, and some dark moments in the marathon, when motivation won’t cut it so make sure you have the answer to these questions during the marathon.
- What is driving you towards this goal?
- What tough times have you overcome in training or your life?
- When you want to stop, what is your fuel to get you moving?
- What negative talk are you carrying with you, that’s holding you back from performing at your best?
Marcus Runs 