Conquer Your Pre-Race Jitters

10 steps to staying calm

Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 12:00 am
Image by Stacey Cramp
























Racing makes us stronger both physiologically and psychologically.


Since the advent of carbohydrate loading in the 1960s, runners have sought better racing through diet.

But our stomachs are finicky. New diets can lead to new and unfortunate gastrointestinal reactions--especially when our stomachs are already upset from race nervousness. Changes in diet need to be tested long before race week.

Also, watch the carboloading within 24 hours of race time. You don't want to carbo-unload during the event. Same goes for eating en route. As masters champion and former 2:13 marathoner David Olds has noted, "It's not a meal, it's a race."

Panic-stricken runners sometimes change their routine in advance of races. They skip work. Dodge ordinary chores. Sleep more. Avoid stairs. Do extra stretching.

But operating outside our normal routine only increases our anxiety.

Instead, stay in your comfort zone. Go to work or school. Wash the car. Take out the garbage.

As uber-coach Jack Daniels says, "Most great performances come when you're not trying to do it. When you try to do something special, it usually backfires."

You're jogging the first mile of your race warm-up, and suddenly you spot a dead ringer for Haile Gebrselassie doing a mini-interval session for his warm-up. On the spot, you decide to copy what he's doing.

Stop! Race day is no time to experiment. Stick with the warmup you use before interval sessions. Your body has adapted to that rhythm.

And let's face it, you're going to feel like a schmuck when Haile pulls on his sweats--and you realize he was doing a training session before watching you race.

I know, I know. It's so tempting to go out hard the first 400 meters of a race. But nothing can be more destructive to your performance than an overexuberant start.

The laws of physiology do not change from workouts to races. You wouldn't sprint the first lap of a mile repeat. You don't run 5K race pace for the first mile of a 10-mile run. And you don't go deeply into oxygen debt before less than 5 percent of the race is completed.

Steady wins the race. It's a cliche, but it's also the truth.

Finally, don't overthink things. Runners can become so blinded by pace calculations, weather reports, course concerns, shoe decisions, Gu purchases, technical details (like the correct body lean for downhills), and competitors that they fail to see that a race is not unique among runs. It's not magic. It's not a mystery to be solved.


It's counterproductive to plan ahead for every conceivable aspect of a race. There are simply too many variables.

The best plan for avoiding race jitters is to accept that our 100 percent effort will be good enough. Some runners can't. Successful runners do.


Pete Magill holds three American age-group records and is the oldest American to break 15:00 for 5K, which he did at age 47. He runs and coaches in South Pasadena, Calif.

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