Fighting the mental demons!

The subject of this blog post is about the mental demons that can eat away at you during a run, especially a marathon, and explore whether there are methods of combating them.

The reason for writing, is that unfortunately, for whatever reason (I don't know the in's and out's) one of Wesham's runners that was participating in today's Liverpool Rock and Roll Marathon found themselves pulling out at the 11 mile mark.

As disappointing as this must have been for them after all the weeks of hard training, they are not alone. There will have been many that didn't complete the course, as there were at London 7 weeks ago - I remember passing several athletes who had pulled up over the 26.2 mile course.

Now of course some of these will be due to physical over-exertion, dehydration or injury. But the chances are, I reckon at least some of them will be due to suffering mentally, as the distance takes you to some painful places psychologically, just as much as it does physically. Sometimes people just cannot be prepared for this side of the challenge as readily as the can the physical aspects.

In relative terms, if you are looking to just get around the 26.2 miles, regardless of time, it is relatively easy to prepare yourself physically. However, the marathon is not just a physical challenge. I would argue that as much as 30% of the task you face in running any marathon is mental, and that is something which can be somewhat harder to prepare for.

Unless you are an elite and targeting big times, then it is highly unlikely that you will actually complete the full distance of 26.2 miles in your training - most will probably get up to around 22-23 miles at most. So straight away, this can leave you asking yourself - can I complete the full distance?

Once you start to question yourself, the doubts can quite easily start to creep in.

I have never hidden the fact that I too found myself questioning my ability to complete London in my targeted time at stages of the race - especially between the 16-18 mile mark. The reason for this? Simple - I was tired, I was eating into my energy stores, and during this period of the race you can find yourself in a bit of a 'no-man's land', where the adrenaline of the first few miles has worn off, and you are too far away from the finish to feel like you are on the 'home run' just yet.

It is an immense mental task to stay focussed and doubt-free for such a length of time - most runners will take 4 hours plus to complete the course don't forget, so how hard must it be to completely concentrate for such a long length of time?

Elite professional athletes are in a privileged position where they can prepare for such events with access to sports psychologists, who can help to train the mind. Unfortunately, unless you have lots of money and time, it can be difficult for us amateurs to experience this benefit!

So what can we do to combat the mental demons and dark forces of self-doubt, that almost all runners will experience during a marathon? Perhaps we should all start talking about it more! We all share our experiences of physical pain and exertion in the aftermath of a marathon, and warn people what to expect, but rarely (if ever) have I seen or experienced people talk about the mental challenge they faced and experienced in their journey.

Furthermore, the amount it can help when running as part of a group can be amazing too. So get people in and around you, and talk to each other, let each other know when you are finding it tough and encourage each other.

Between you and me, I reckon if I hadn't landed lucky and got running in such a fabulous group, in the scenario I found myself in at London, I genuinely felt like the wheels were about to come off at that stage prior to those fantastic last 6.2 miles.

Anybody who saw my marathon coverage on the TV though, will also have seen some (yes, funny)questionable face-pulling, grimacing and pain-ridden expressions. What you can read more into this though is the tiredness I was experiencing mentally as I tried to shut out everything going on around me and focus on that finish line and keeping my legs moving. Watching it back, and the amount of comments that I had about the amount of times I was seen checking my watch, should also tell you about how my mind was beginning to play tricks on me over time and distance to go etc.

So if you find yourself struggling mentally when running, remember you are not alone, and that it affects us all - and if you don't manage to finish it, scratch it off as a lesson learned and experience gained. After all, none of us manage to learn to ride a bike, without falling off a few times first!