Is a race fight or flight?

Depends, if you're being chased down in the closing stages it is flight. If you're chasing someone down it is more fight.

Fight. IMO flight is running from, but a race is fundamentally an activity of running toward - it's constructive in that you achieve a set goal, not reductive in that your goal is measured by how effectively you can remove yourself from a given situation. It's motivated by reward and gain of the positive rather than relief and mere removal of the negative.

All depends what your racing tactic is.

Either way you're only faking and acting the part.

If you come from a poor country where your survival might depend on winning, then it's not so fake.

Fright

It's all fight.... unless a pack of wild dogs is released after the gun fires. Hmmm, replace rabbits with packs of wild dogs. Could improve television ratings and some new records to boot.....;)

What about the fun part of racing. It's not all angst and aggression for me. If I'm running well there is a certain enjoyment I get from dishing out the punishment to others who dare to take me on.

You have a loser mentality wiggo.

Fight if it's slappers only, but definitely run if someone else has the golden gun. Always entertaining.

Bad Wigins wrote:

Before an important race adrenaline puts you in a fight-or-flight state. But when the gun goes off it should resolve to one or the other.

It's not an either or thing, it's both. It puts you in a state to fight or flight as the case may be. It doesn't resolve into one or the other, you're ready for both.

fun to run wrote:

What about the fun part of racing. It's not all angst and aggression for me. If I'm running well there is a certain enjoyment I get from dishing out the punishment to others who dare to take me on.

You have a loser mentality wiggo.

You have a hobby jogger mentality. This thread is not about how you destroyed a fat old lady by 3 minutes in a 5k, it's about serious competition.

No Way wrote:

It doesn't resolve into one or the other

This might be true. When a race starts I often find myself at 200m thinking, ok, the race has started, now what? And that indecision can be costly. I think it's a major reason few people attack sit-and-kickers Ngugi style, they remain in a kind of limbo until the bell lap.

Ngugi had the advantage of being in far better shape than everyone else in Seoul, and no Aouita. It is not so easy to attack when the opponents are worthy. And even against easy opponents he was probably running scared after grabbing the lead.

Louis Zamperini, the former high school mile WR holder, was flogged by his brother when he ran too slow

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Zamperini

Bad Wigins wrote:

No Way wrote:

It doesn't resolve into one or the other

This might be true. When a race starts I often find myself at 200m thinking, ok, the race has started, now what? And that indecision can be costly. I think it's a major reason few people attack sit-and-kickers Ngugi style, they remain in a kind of limbo until the bell lap.

Ngugi had the advantage of being in far better shape than everyone else in Seoul, and no Aouita. It is not so easy to attack when the opponents are worthy. And even against easy opponents he was probably running scared after grabbing the lead.

Louis Zamperini, the former high school mile WR holder, was flogged by his brother when he ran too slow

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Zamperini

No, it is true. It's science, not a guessing game.

Bad Wigins wrote:

Before an important race adrenaline puts you in a fight-or-flight state. But when the gun goes off it should resolve to one or the other.

On one hand you're trying to defeat your opponents, which is fight. But at the same time you're trying to run away from them, which is flight.

It's obviously - fight. You're attacking the race distance, which counts as attacking the other runners in the race.

Running away from the other runners is not flight, it's beating them. Respectfully of course.

If it was just about attacking the race distance then you'd perform as well in a solo time trial.

I agree that taking the lead is an attack, but once you're there, the aggression tends to fade, which is why it's hard to hold the lead. I think a lot of breakaways ultimately use fear to succeed.

If you think of the finish line as a deer and all of the runners are a pack of wolves, then it is fight. But then again you aren't working together to get to the finish line/deer usually, because you're not only trying to catch the deer, but also be sure you catch it before anyone else does. There are two goals in a race. I think they both "fight." Because you are not trying to escape the other wolves, but just make sure they don't kill your prized deer.

Bad Wigins wrote:

If it was just about attacking the race distance then you'd perform as well in a solo time trial.

I agree that taking the lead is an attack, but once you're there, the aggression tends to fade, which is why it's hard to hold the lead. I think a lot of breakaways ultimately use fear to succeed.

The fact that other runners are in the race is part of the attack. You are an aggressor when when you show up at a race.

And sure, there might fear in the confrontation but you are in a battle of sort when you actively enter the race! You are not required to be in that race.

You are fighting. That's was your intention.