Race day

I don't even know how many times I have raced in my life. I've been running since the seventh grade, and I still don't know how to handle race day.

In my experience, the more I think about the race, the worse I do. I tend to over-think the whole situation, instead of just letting my body do what it is capable of, my head sabotages the whole race. So my current strategy is to think about the race as little as possible until I get to the line. I know the splits I need to hit, but other than that I try to stay as detached as I can from the race. There's a lot of strange stuff raging around in my brain before a race, I think of things that make me frustrated. I try to bring a lot of anger into a race. I run better when I'm mad.

My good friend Shamus and I have talked a lot about this, and we both came to the conclusion that it's best to run with a chip on your shoulder. No matter who you are, no matter how fast you are, there's someone out there who thinks they can beat you, that you aren't good enough, that you shouldn't be there.

No matter how remote the chances of winning are, you gotta step on that line with every intention of winning.

Run like you've got something to prove.