Fake it until you MAKE it!!

My plan going into my first steeplechase was to feel smooth early and come home strong.  In the middle of the race, my mind consciously thought, ‘well, I found a rhythm, it slow, but it’s a rhythm.  I should be able to have a big kick in at least….’.

That was just before the announcer boomed the projected time over the loud speaker.  “….if she keeps this pace up, she should run around a 9:39, fast enough for the meet record and the fastest time by an American this year!” 

What?! I couldn’t believe it!!  It was feeling way too easy for that!

After my last two races, Coach and I were beginning to get a little frustrated but this was just what I needed to pull me out of my slump.  Before the race, I had told him that I felt like I was in the best shape of my life and I knew I was doing everything I needed to be doing to run fast times. But my races hadn’t been proving it.   Running is a mental sport and to do well, you have to be fit AND have your mind in the right place.  I had been putting together better workouts than ever in my life but had still been consistently last on my team.  If I couldn’t keep up with these girls in practice, how could I expect myself to be able to keep up with my competitors in races?  My head was filled with doubt and worry and I was focusing on the pain rather than the joy of the sport.  Coach noticed.  He said that I needed to believe what I told him about my fitness and start projecting it to the world.  Like so many other things in life, success requires confidence.  Sometimes if you want something bad enough and you’ve put in the work, you just have to take a risk and Believe.  You have to act like it happened before it actually does.  Live like your dreams came true before they actually do- ‘fake it until you make it’. 

So I went out there and I ran like no one was going to challenge me.  I ran like I had worked harder than anyone else on that starting line.  I ran like it was MY territory.  Of course it probably wasn’t completely the case according to everyone else, but it didn’t have to be. That day I just needed to convince myself. 

When I saw the newspapers and began getting congratulations back about the race, I was really upset at first.  Somehow, the rumor was circulating that I had run a world record.  It was a world leading time for this year (which means very little at this point because the fastest people haven’t run yet) but it was no where close the world record.  I appreciated all the support but it made me upset to think that people were so misled.  Then, I realized that I could use this as a positive thing- I no longer had to play this little game by myself.  Eventually, I would love to break the world record….I’m not there yet but sometimes you have to act like it happened before it actually does, you have to fake it until you make it!