Running Psychology

A ‘carousel of emotions’ is how one runner described her mental state to me, in the taper period of her marathon. Ahead of a race, a runner’s brain is often flooded with negative thoughts therefore making them very nervous. As a coach it is my job to try and help my runners deal with these emotions and thoughts.

Here is my take on a great analogy that I learned about having read a book called ‘The Brave Athlete’ by Simon Marshall and Lesley Patterson.

The Chess Analogy

Let’s relate this to the Barcelona Marathon 2025, which is 11 days away from the time of me writing this blog. 

Chess Board

The chess board is pretty much the facts. The facts are that the course is 42.2K, there is no changing that. The facts are that there will be a lot of runners which will cause congestion especially at the early corners. The details of the course are as they are, amongst other things you have a favourable downhill from 19 - 24K, and you have a slight uphill between 38.5 - 41K. The chess board also relates to you and who you are as you approach the race itself. You are a debut marathoner, your Half Marathon PB is 2 hours, you weigh 75kg,  you don’t like the sun, and gels don’t agree with you. Again these are facts. Admittedly some of these things can change over time, but those are your facts going into the race. You can’t change any of them, this is the chess board that you have to play with.

Chess pieces

The thoughts and feelings that you have about you, are however your chess pieces. Each chess piece is a different thought or emotion, some pleasant, some positive, but in the case of most runners, many are annoyingly negative. ‘I don’t think I can hold 6:00pk’ is a chess piece because it is a thought. Your training programme and what you have achieved in training is your chess board and will determine what pace you can run. When the chessboard is full of chess pieces, all fighting for your attention, it can be overwhelming. The chess pieces that take control are often our evaluation of our abilities, but evaluation is not reality. An overcrowding of negative thoughts can make us anxious, affect our sleep and our relaxation, affect our immune system, and ultimately affect our performance come race day.

How do we therefore deal with all these chess pieces?

The good news is that there is someone in charge of all this, you, the chess player!

Chess player

Let me quote Lesley and Simon for this;

‘The thoughts and feelings you experience are not actually you at all because you are a chess player, not a chess piece. You experience your thoughts but you are not actually them. You are the carrying container of the experience, you are not the experience itself’

As the chess player, you look over the chess board and the chess pieces. You are in control of which chess pieces you play and which you ignore or cast aside. If those negative chess pieces keep reappearing then perhaps it’s good to talk to your coach about each one. Strategies and contingency plans can then be put in place. This might lower the prevalence of this chess piece reappearing. Let’s play the positive chess pieces. Maybe some of the following resonate with you;

The excitement of completing your 1st/10th marathon

Seeing your training partners before, during, and after the race

Thinking back to that last epic long run you did into the wind as you ran up the coast

Remember all those amazing intervals classes you conquered in training

Do you recall how much you enjoyed the Barcelona Half Marathon?

Please remember that the chess player is in control of the chess pieces.

Have a great race wherever it may be.