Running Mind Games and Giveaway!

Running is a mind game for me and I don't always win. I guess you can call me weak in the mind. I have an incredible endurance base built up and I would consider myself fast. If you look at the numbers, I should be able to kill the marathon on Sunday. This simple fact is allowing me to approach the weekend in a fairly relaxed frame of mind. I know I can run faster than my goal, but I am not going to push myself for what I think I am capable of. I have plenty of races on the schedule this year that I can reach for my potential. 

 My goal for the Disney Marathon is to PR, qualify for Boston 2013, and to be smiling at the finish line. If all three of these goals are not met, I will be sad, but as long as I am smiling, I will be satisfied. I have run one too many races where I finished crying. I don't want to hate marathoning after Sunday, I want to be excited to run another.

I hit 2 of 3 goals in the Baystate 1/2 Marathon this year. I PR'd but didn't hit my goal time. This was when I finally realized what pushing through mental barriers felt like.  I started off WAY too fast for my ability (this was not my race plan), but it felt good.  I need to remember this on Sunday when I am tempted to go faster than planned.  The last 4 miles of this race were torture, but I pushed through the pain and still PR'd, just not as well as I had hoped for.  

Sunday, I am not planning on starting off too fast.  Ideally, I would like to pick up the pace at the end because I am feeling great.  At Baystate, I reminded myself of my new friends that were watching me race that day.  I had met them at the relay I had ran a few weeks before.  I didn't want to look like I gave up in front of them so I held on even though I hurt.  

Similarly, I am posting my splits to Twitter on Sunday.  If I decide to slow down, I know the 425+ people who follow me on Twitter are going to know.  I won't be able to avoid posting my time because you all are going to know my official time before I do.  I think this accountability is going to help me mentally push myself.

Other ways I plan to keep my head in the race are the following:

• I have various mantras that I have picked up over the years from people that I will repeat to myself when the legs are getting tired. 
• I have my music that I will zone out to when my mind isn't listening.  
• Finally, I have the crowd and Disney characters to push me along.  Crazy to some people, I am sure, but those characters are fun to me.  The characters remind me of my kids and every time I see them I think of my girls and how proud they were of me last year when I told them about the Boston Marathon.

I will not let my mind win this race. No matter what happens on Sunday, I am going to let my hard work shine. I will cross that finish line a marathoner for the 16th time.

In celebration of my marathon, I am hosting a giveaway on my blog. I love race expos and usually spend multiple days there. While at the expo this year, I am going to pick up something special for one of my blog readers. I have no idea what I will buy but it will obviously have do with running or Disney. I will also throw in some of the items that I pick up for free at the expo. A very unspecific prize, but that makes it just a little bit more fun, right?

To enter please do the following:

• Leave a comment on this post. 
• For an extra entry, tweet about my contest. "I want to win a gift from the Disney Marathon from @robinbn at http://westfordmommy.blogspot.com !" (bonus entry, leave a comment for this telling me you tweeted) 

This sweepstakes is open for US Residents Only and you must be 18 to enter. The sweepstakes runs January 5, 2012 until Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 11:59pm EST. I will be using random.org to pick the winner and will announce the winner Tuesday, January 10, 2012. The prize will be provided by myself, Robin Nichols, and has no value until purchased. One winner will be selected. I will announce the winner in a blogpost on January 10th and the winner will have one week to contact me before a new winner will be chosen. I will ship the item to the winner as soon as it is possible. Incase of a technical glitch and entries are lost, all entrants must resubmit comments for entries. You may enter by leaving a comment on this post and receive one bonus entry by Tweeting about the contest.

Good Luck!!