What Goes Through Your Mind?

Before I get in to what one thinks about the night before a 40-mile race, I just want to remind everyone that we are still short of our goal in regard to raising money for the Disabled American Veterans. Click here to donate, anything will help our heroes who have sacrificed so much for all of us. Thank you for your generosity in advance! Peace Joe the Runner

It is approximately 7pm the night before race day, and I will try and answer, the best that I can, what is going through my mind. I kept myself busy today, preparing my drop bags, reviewing the course map, and driving out to the starting line and finally packet pick up. And now, I am alone with my thoughts. What I am feeling is a sense of confidence with humility. I’ll even call it a state of mind. So, what does it mean?

I am confident. I am confident because I trust the process and I stuck to it. I’ve run 1560 miles, climbed 95300 feet, and spent countless hours on the trails. I woke up early to run, I went out and ran in the dark, I ran when I was home, and I ran when I travelled. My diet has been very clean, no alcohol, not a lot of refined sugars, lots of vegetables and lean meat/fish. My taper has been excellent and I have been getting quality sleep. I have done my part and executed what I could control. All of this gives me confidence.

I am humble. You absolutely MUST respect the distance. What I love about this sport, is that the challenge is between you and the course and you and yourself. 40 miles on technical trails with temps climbing to 76 degrees will challenge the best of us, especially as we push to move as fast as we can without blowing up. A distance like this, you can twist an ankle, take a hard fall, bonk and vomit, dehydrate, or simply just fall apart. It has no compassion, it is what it is. It’s a canvas for us to try and paint our best picture on and it doesn’t care how beautiful or how ugly that picture is. And as the artist, while you may have a clear idea of what you are trying to paint, you will need to be flexible and adjust, because some days the course simply won’t give you what you expect. The picture you paint may ultimately look very different from the one that was in your head.

Tomorrow there will be sweat, blood, pain, tears, and vomit. But there will also be triumph, comradery, love, joy, and accomplishment. So, I’ll leave you with this. You all know I love me some Rocky, so I’ll let his timeless words take us out. “Cause I was thinkin’, it really don’t matter if I lose this fight. ‘Cause all I wanna do is go the distance. And if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I’m still standin’, I’m gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren’t just another bum from the neighborhood.”

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