Conquer Your Pre-Race Jitters

10 steps to staying calm

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

We all get nervous before a race. During my 35 years of competing and coaching, I've seen race start lines that could double as medical triages. I've witnessed athletes vomit, cry, fake injuries, warm up so long they miss the start, urinate, and even arrive on crutches.

"Any runner who denies having fears, nerves, or some other kind of disposition," said 1950s British Olympian Gordon Pirie, "is a bad athlete, or a liar."


Race jitters--irrational panic in the buildup to a race--can undermine our running goals more completely than illness or injury. What makes jitters especially destructive is that we don't always recognize them, even when we're shaking in our shoes.

Here, then, are 10 signs of race jitters, along with practical advice for coping with them.

As race day approaches, we're suddenly overwhelmed with aches and pains. We ask ourselves, Can I really be this injured?

Yes. Yes, we can. But never fear. Because we're always that injured.

Anyone who trains hard will develop sore spots. Training breaks down muscle so that it can rebuild stronger. Normally, we shrug off the minor aches and pains that accompany this process--until race anxiety amplifies them, creating the illusion of major injury.

The night before the 2007 USATF National Club Cross Country Championships, I remember this one jerk who complained nonstop about lower back spasms and a tight hamstring. The next day, he won the masters overall title by 8 seconds. I was that jerk.

It's the week of our race, and the realization hits: Everything I've done to prepare for this race is wrong!

We're convinced we should have run more distance. Or more intervals. Or a long tempo run. Or hills. Or rested more. Or something. Anything!

Relax. Workouts overlap in their training effect. Mile repeats will tap the same muscles and energy systems as a tempo run. Hill repeats will buoy your "speed" every bit as well as a good set of quarters. And a long run with hills will work just about everything. So even if your training wasn't perfect, chances are good that you're fit to race.

Recently, a runner I coach phoned me three days before a half marathon. He was concerned that he'd run less volume and shorter tempos than some of his friends. I told him what I always tell my athletes: The training we scheduled was the training you needed. He calmed down. And then he set a PR by 11 minutes.


Stop. Do not pass go. Testing our race readiness will not improve our fitness, but it will deplete the resources we have available for the actual race.

This is the difference between a race and a workout: A race is a 100 percent effort, and a workout is not. As far as our bodies are concerned, a 100 percent effort during a time trial or workout is a race. It results in the same energy depletion, muscle inflammation, and psychological fatigue.

Trust the fitness you have. Don't waste it on a workout.

Anxious runners sometimes try to lessen their anxiety by treating a race like just another workout.

"Hey, I don't have to worry about my performance," the runner tells himself, "because I'm training through this race."

Don't do it. Our bodies need a modest taper prior to race day and then a short period of recovery afterward. This facilitates the muscle repair and glycogen replenishment required for a race effort.

Nervousness is no excuse for overloading our body with an effort it cannot handle.

Come on, admit it, some of us postpone racing until we can reach that promised land known as "peak condition." We refuse to compete at anything less than optimal fitness for fear of looking foolish.

Only one problem: Racing is an integral part of the journey toward "peak condition."

Racing makes us stronger both physiologically and psychologically.

Besides, "peak condition" describes a Utopian future that, for most of us, never arrives.

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."


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.

A race is simply a 100 percent effort. And a good race is one in which we find our correct effort level for that day and then maintain it from start to finish.

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.