It doesn't "feel" like I have a race tomorrow

This has been one of the strangest weeks I've had with regards to preparing for a race. For some reason I haven't prepared as I usually would. It could be a "hangover" from the Seaton race. I keep forgetting that the distance tomorrow (50K) is not something to take lightly.

The worst mistake I ever made was not taking a race seriously and that is something I swore I'd never do again. It was a 10K Thanksgiving run in Guelph, in 2005. By this time I had been running quite a bit and 10K didn't seem like anything to get too worried about. I think I signed up the day before and the kids and I all went together. Marcus did a 500M run while Malik did a 1K run. I was so thrilled to see them run that I kept forgetting I had a race too.

When the gun sounded and I started to run, I quickly found out that a 10K run can be very challenging and this route certainly was. I went out way too fast and it caught up to me very quickly. I knew that I had not prepared mentally for the race. As demanding as running is on my body, there is an even greater challenge in the mind. When I tell people that I ran for close to 11 hours two weeks ago they are amazed that I was able to keep myself mentally focused for such a long time. The long training runs I did in the winter certainly helped prepare my body but it did even more to prepare my mind.

I use mental imagery so much that by the time the race finally gets here I feel like I've run it already. The race tomorrow won't be very challenging with regards to the terrain as it's a 5K out and back loop on a bike path. What it will do, though, is challenge me mentally as I'll have to do 10 total loops to complete the 50K. Today will be an important day for me to focus myself mentally because I don't want to experience what I experienced during that 10K race.