This Saturday I could potentially win a cross country meet, help!

You should do LeBron James' "Silencer" because Usain Bolt and Caster Semenya did it when they won the Olympics.

factcheckdude wrote:

The man who thinks he'll win never does.

And the one who thinks he'll never win also never does. Weird, right?

I'm reading your original post trying to discern whether you are afraid of losing, afraid of winning, afraid of trying to win and failing, or afraid of not trying to win then living with regret.

I once read that Western runners tend to race with anxiety, while East African runners enjoy the thrill of the battle. This paraphrase was obviously highly generalized, and is hopefully changing (Jager and Centro sure weren't running with anxiety in Rio). If you're so worked up over the possibility of winning the race before getting to the meeting, I think you really really need to change your focus on the race.

Here's what I see - you have missed significant training and racing time, so it will likely take a handful of races until you regain the instincts of how to mentally prepare, pace yourself, and fully perform to your fitness level. The good news is that it sounds like you are rounding into shape.

I would bet that your coach has put you in this race in order to start with a LOW PRESSURE rust buster. If you crush it, you'll be back in the starting line up next week. If it's still a work in progress they'll bring you along slowly to make sure you are ready well in time for state. This sounds like tails you win, heads you win too. Don't even think or worry about who is in the race. Just run the best race that you can. There might be a 15:xx guy who shows up, in which case you aren't going to win anyway. Or the gun might go off, you find yourself near the leaders, so just pace yourself well and HAVE FUN!

Be in the present. During the race do not thing about winning or losing. Focus on running a pace you can handle, run as efficiently as possible, run the tangents. If the middle part of the race is a struggle latch onto a competitor and be pulled to that last 800 meters where you finish strong. Once you cross the finish line you can celebrate or cry about how well you ran, but *during the race* it detracts from your performance.

Just run your own race, man. This is cross country, not cycling. If you are mentally tough, go out at your own pace and don't kill yourself going out with the people that go out in 5:15 or 5:20. Trust your fitness and hope those guys come back to you. Push the last half mile as hard as you can.

Not rocket science.

If you win, afterwards act like you have been there before. No big displays. Your goal is to be on the State team not in the open race. Be professional, happy, and gracious. And cheer for your teammates as they come in.

factcheckdude wrote:

The man who thinks he'll win never does.

I thought I was not only going to win the London Olympics but also set the WR.

Just run faster than everyone else in the race. If you do that, the winning will take care of itself.

Steevo Smart wrote:

factcheckdude wrote:

The man who thinks he'll win never does.

And the one who thinks he'll never win also never does. Weird, right?

That's what she said.

Just go out and run hard.

You'll probably do something wrong.

Learn from it and corect it in the next race.

You're not going to learn from experiences and ten different strategies discussed here.

Have your own experiences. That's where you learn.

Make sure you dive across the finish.

That's how to ensure you beat 'em at the line.

Works every time!

Anyone who post on Letsrun that they may have a shot at winning an xc race is either trolling or very special. Let me tell you about the time I won an xc race... oh yeah it wasn't that special I was still slow. Tell us when you win a fast xc race.

OP will surely not disappoint

Is he talking about winning the meet, or the B-team race?

Results check in. How'd it go OP?

Bump. How did it go?

Yeah, most xc races in the US are over by now. We deserve an update.

how did it go??

Bump

I hope OP is on a 24 hour bender celebrating his win with the HS volleyball team