HYPERVENTILATING at the start of a race, UNEVEN footfalls during the start of the race

Excitement will help you perform better, but anxiety will slow you down. You need to tune your nervous energy down a bit. It sounds like you're too tense, which is compromising your form at the start of a race.

Experience can help. If you go too long without racing, the situation becomes unfamiliar and induces anxiety. Your next race won't be as bad as this one.

Make a plan. Come up with a realistic approach to the start, beginning, middle, and end. Not a fantasy, PR pace until you kick for glory, winning the admiration of all. But a real plan about pacing, and when you'll change pace based on the course, and how you might react to different tactical situations. Then when you get to the starting line, all you do is execute your plan. On second thought, make sure to include the warm-up in your plan, too.

I highly recommend Matt FItzgerald's How Bad Do You Want It? It's a book from 2015 about the mental aspects of endurance racing and it offers some very practical advice. I used to think that mental toughness was just a matter of better physical fitness, but the book convinced me otherwise. Check your library or ask your parents to order a copy. It's not expensive.

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30843789780&searchurl=an%3Dfitzgerald%26sortby%3D17%26tn%3Dhow%2Bbad%2Bdo%2Byou%2Bwant%2Bit&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1

It's possible you just normally run like that and you don't notice until just before a race where you're overanalyzing everything to make sure the race goes perfectly. For me, I deal with pre-race nerves by looking at a course map and visualizing what I'm going to do once the gun goes off. Other people have different ways of dealing with nerves, I'm sure you can search up dozens of old threads about it.

Dude, you need to calm down. Even your title is making me feel anxious vicariously through you. I mean to answer your question, no. I haven't. But OK, how can you calm yourself down before a race? Well, I'd say you don't want to calm yourself down completely. You don't want to be chillin' on the start line with a cocktail and a tiny umbrella. You want to be keyed up, surely? Yet focused. Like a laser.

So I'd say you should use visualisation. Make sure you have a good warm-up routine (no static stretches!) and keep it the same to similar each time. Allow enough time to get to the start. Walk the last portion of the race backwards (from finish line to away from it, not you walking backwards). Just get into a little familiar routine. Tell yourself: I can do this. I also would think: well, if it all goes to complete shiit it's not the end of the world (and then change this philosophy ON the start line and during the race).

I don't know about your weird form - I'd speak to someone else about that.

What the other posters said.

But why are you so anxious. It's because you aren't confident about your fitness level and you know you shouldn't really be racing until you are.

what it is wrote:

What the other posters said.

But why are you so anxious. It's because you aren't confident about your fitness level and you know you shouldn't really be racing until you are.

This has a lot of truth.

I'll probably take a look at this book, thank you! I haven't run a race in almost 15 months so perhaps that is what you mean.

ElGuerroujFan wrote:

what it is wrote:

What the other posters said.

But why are you so anxious. It's because you aren't confident about your fitness level and you know you shouldn't really be racing until you are.

This has a lot of truth.

When you're super fit you'll be champing at the bit.

Your attitude will be " bring it on bring it on

BRING IIIIT ONNN!!"

That's how it feels, when you are in your best shape and you know it. It's a very nice feeling.

When you're not in great shape, the feeling is, " what the heck am I doing here? Why am I doing this?"

I know both conditions intimately.

It took me many thousands of miles and many tough workouts to get from A to B though. You might get there sooner.

This might help. Almost all the masters runners I know have a pre-race ritualized warm up.

I don't race 5Ks any more, but when I did, I would show up xx minutes before the start, pick up my bib, hit the porta potty, and do some easy jogging. For me, the jogging started 45 minutes before the race. After a mile or so, I'd go to the finish line and run the course backwards to pick out the point I would start my kick. I'd then jog back to the start, feeling fresh and powerful so I could recall that feeling when I reached that point in the race. About 20 minutes from the gun, I'd start my drills: lunges, leg swings, karaoke, fast knees, and a few strides building up to race pace. At ten minutes to gun, I'd switch to race flats and do a few strides until I got the lacing just right. I'd get to the start with a couple of minutes to spare. If possible I'd do a stride out right from the start for 30m or so. I also had a plan for the first 30 seconds or so of the race, but I won't go into that.

Having a pre-race ritual will reduce your anxiety, but if you get nervous, remember that nervousness means that your body has turned on the "on" switch to race, but since you're not racing yet, it has to manifest some other way. You perceive it as being anxious. You need to switch your mindset to realizing your body is saying, "I'M READY NOW!!!"

Better to be a little nervous than to not be nervous at all.

UPDATE

I have run my race. The time ended up being 19:50 ish (the time is usually off when they log it). I used the running the race through my head strategy and it worked. I had to remind myself to relax my shoulders, and after that it was smooth sailing.

Thank you all for your help!