Reasons to Race

I absolutely love to race! It was my desire to get back into the world of competitive sport that took me from group exercise classes at the YMCA to joining a running group.  I know many people who can stick to an exercise routine and be perfectly motivated and happy without having a race or competition in mind.  I am not one of those people.  In order to get excited about working out on a regular basis, I NEED a race to train for.  My workouts are much more consistent, structured, and of higher quality when I am training for a race.  I admire anyone who can workout consistently without the need to compete, and would encourage those individuals to keep doing what they are doing if it works for them and they are making progress towards their personal goals.  If you do not have any races in mind, and you suspect that having a race to train for could be good for you, ask yourself these questions:

Do I feel a sense of purpose about my workouts?

Do my workouts have any kind of structure (including scheduled rest days/ periods) to them?

Am I aware of the progress (or lack thereof) I have made since I started working out? 

If you answered ‘No’ to any or all of these questions, signing up for a race might be a good decision for you. 

While I realize that not everyone has the competitive nature I do (which compels me to highly desire a personal best time and/ or a trophy at every race I enter), I imagine anyone who signs up for a race has the intention of (at the least) putting their best foot forward on race day.  I doubt there are many people who register for a race with the goal of finishing last.  Even if your goal is purely just to finish, and it honestly does not matter to you what your finishing place or time is, you probably still don’t want to be the one all the race volunteers are waiting for to finish so they can go home after a long morning of serving and encouraging athletes.  Having a race to train for, a day marked on your calendar that signifies THIS IS THE DAY I AM WORKING TOWARDS helps give a sense of purpose to your workouts.  If you feel your workouts have purpose, it will be mentally easier to get motivated to start and complete them, and you may be more willing to physically push yourself harder during the workout. 

After registering for a race, most athletes want a plan of action for how they can get to the point of performing to the best of their ability on race day.  Books, online resources, coaches, and experienced training buddies are all great resources for finding and devising a training plan that works for you.  A proper training plan will incorporate rest days and rest periods in order to allow your muscles to develop and to help prevent injury.  Without a training plan, it can be easy for a motivated athlete to over train; or for an unmotivated athlete to not put in the work they need to reach their full potential.

“Race once and you will be hooked!”  I was told this before I registered for my first triathlon, and then experienced the truth that statement held firsthand a couple months later.  Every triathlete I have met claims it took only one triathlon for them to want to do another, and another, and another.  Most runners I know are in constant pursuit of a personal best time.  After one race, there is something inside a competitive runner that makes them want to run that race again, but faster.  They register for another race, train hard, run the race (faster this time), and want to do it all over again, and again, and again.  It’s a cycle that can be both healthy and unhealthy.  A cycle that can serve to motivate, and at times can devastate a determined athlete.  For the purposes of this particular post, we’ll focus on the healthy and motivating aspects of this ‘Constant Improvement Cycle.’  Racing allows one to gauge their progress in a fair and structured way.  There is no guarantee that you will reach the finish line of a race at your highest potential because there are many factors that contribute to how a race will turn out, but in general, if you have followed your training plan, you will have a fair gauge of your level of fitness.  Warning: the desire to improve is addicting, but of all the things I can think of that a human can be addicted to, self improvement of any form is by far the healthiest.  Achieving your goal on race day gives an athlete an amazing sense of accomplishment and pride.  The environment and atmosphere a race provides is the perfect setting for celebrating the achievement of a hard earned goal with training buddies and like-minded individuals.  Sure, it feels great to run a personal best time during a training run, but nothing compares to the feeling and excitement at the finish line party of a race. 

Inevitably, each and every race teaches you something.  Racing has taught me what I can and cannot eat the night before a race.  Racing has taught me that I can do anything I put my mind to (in athletics, and life in general).  Racing has taught me that, no matter how well I prepare, some things in life are out of my control.  Racing has taught me that I am not an endurance athlete; I am a sprinter.  Racing has taught me: there will always be someone better than me, and someone not as good as me- in every aspect of life.  Racing has taught me to be humble, yet proud.  Racing has taught me that physical performance is 90% mental, and so much more.  I did not learn any of these things about life or about myself during training sessions. I am continuously amazed at how every race enlightens me in a new and different way. 

Finally, racing provides life long memories.  There are definitely some training runs and bike rides which will remain engraved in my memory for years to come, but my brain holds many more memories from races.  When you think that training sessions typically outnumber races at least 30:1, that says a lot for the kind of memories acquired from races.  There are too many memories to list as this post comes to a conclusion, but I will leave you with one of my favorite race memories to date:

            This memory is from my first half marathon (Asheville Citizen Times Half Marathon, 2008). 

 A couple running buddies, one spouse of a running buddy, and myself had an amazing fall weekend in Asheville, North Carolina.  Everything about the weekend (the pre race pasta dinner, post race tour of the Biltmore Estate, brunch at a delicious and funky Asheville-esque cafe) was perfect, minus the 12.1 miles of uphill during the Half Marathon.  Mile one of the race was a tease: it was 100% downhill.  The remaining 12.1 miles of the race were pure torture for an un-gifted uphill runner such as myself.  In hindsight, I should not have chosen such a hilly race for my half marathoning debut, but I had…  The internal (and sometimes external) dialogue in my head was very negative and profane throughout the race.  Before the race, I had said that I was ‘too proud’ to ever walk during a race.  I had done a (relatively flat) 13.1 mile training run weeks before without walking at all and finished it feeling great, so I truly believed I would not have a problem running 13.1 miles non-stop on race day.  After a seemingly endless supply of hills were thrown at me, around every single turn, however, I was forced to tuck my pride and walk up most of the hills the second half of the race.  Not only was my internal dialogue filled with negativity and questions as to why I ever decided to take up running in the first place, my ears were constantly picking up on other runners negative comments about the never ending hills.  Even if I had possessed the positive self-talk skills then that I do now, I don’t know that even the best self-talk I could come up with could have drowned out all the negative comments from my fellow Asheville Half Marathoners.  After rounding a corner, as I ascended up yet another hill, I heard a tiny voice coming from a small group of spectators along the course.  A little boy (probably no more than 3 years of age) turned to his mom and said “They are all winners, mommy!” as I ran past.  The comment made me laugh because, growing up, the phrase “You are all winners” seemed to be the go-to phrase from adults when the team I was on did NOT win a particular game or competition.  “You’re all winners” had always been synonymous with “You tried hard, but there is only one real winner, and we feel sorry for you so we’ll just call you all ‘Winners’.”  At that moment in time though, as I trudged up that hill, and for the remainder of the race (and to this day, actually), I completely agreed with the wise words that little boy said.  We WERE all winners.  Everyone who crossed that finish line was a winner in my honest opinion.  We accomplished something most humans wouldn’t dare try, or couldn’t physically or mentally ever fathom completing.  I crossed the finish line a winner (even if only by my own newly revamped standards and those of a 3 year old boy).  I will always cherish the memories gained from my first half marathon weekend, and I continue to hold the belief  a tiny spectator helped me realize during that race- that anyone who sets out to accomplish a goal, and achieves it is a winner.       

I race to keep me honest in my training, to learn new things about myself and about life, to gauge my progress, and to gain memories I will cherish forever.