Blog #3 – The Mind is a Powerful Tool

By Brenna Cohoon

“The mind is a powerful tool.”  

People say this phrase - or a variation of it - so often that it seems easy to just push to the side and completely disregard.  In such a mentally demanding sport, though, one can gain so much by taking this phrase to heart.

This past weekend, I competed in the First to the Finish Invitational at Detweiller Park.  Leading up to the race, I took a slightly different mental approach than the past couple of meets.  I figured that since it is the beginning of the season, it is the perfect time to practice varying strategies inside and outside of racing.  I learned from my first two races that I placed way too much unnecessary pressure on myself.  Instead of using my past experiences as motivators and confidence boosters, I told myself that I absolutely had to win those races.  Because I had done so the year before, I felt as if I had to follow up those performances and completely blow them out of the water.  In terms of my first race, my time improved considerably from the same meet the year before, so I was satisfied.  Fenton was a little disappointing, though, considering I ran a “safe” race instead of taking risks.  However, I was able to take pride in the performances of my teammates and know that I have their support no matter what my performance is.

Before First to the Finish, I chose to relax and not put so much pressure on myself.  In school on Friday, people wishing me good luck for the weekend didn’t make me anxious, but instead fueled my calm excitement.  I knew that I would have great competition in Peoria, and I wanted to improve upon my 11th place finish last year.  I was uncertain of what the conditions would be like after days of pretty steady rain, so I did not have a time goal in mind.  As we pulled up to the course, however, we noticed that the ground wasn’t nearly as muddy as we had expected.  While watching my teammates compete in the open race and finish in an amazing 2nd place, I soon realized that a fast time was definitely attainable.  How fast, I didn’t know.

After witnessing many of my teammates improve their personal records by 30 seconds, 1 minute, even 2 minutes, I was very eager to race and test things up myself.

Similar to last weekend, the start of the varsity race was delayed.  This time, it was a very brief and comical delay due to a drone floating a few hundred feet in front of the starting line.  We couldn’t start our race until it was moved off of the course, so we had an extra couple of minutes to do some more strides and stay loose.  Eventually, we lined up and the gun went off.  My teammates and I left box number 40, getting in our last few laughs and preparing for the 3-mile journey we were about to face.  

All 309 girls competing in the 3A varsity race rushed down Detweiller Park’s slight downhill toward the first flag.  I focused on having a quick yet controlled start, settling into about 7th place at the mile.  The race started to string out a bit at this point, but I was determined to stay up with the other girls.  Last year, I found myself running the majority of the race alone, which was so much harder on me mentally than it is to stay in a pack.  As we entered into the back triangle, I knew I had to make bold moves and be ready to respond to those making their own moves.  It is said that the back triangle is what decides any race at Detweiller.  I hadn’t moved up while back there, but I exited the triangle with a strong mindset and moved up to 6th place shortly after.

As I hit the second mile, I knew it was time to go.  I was ecstatic about where I was in the race so far but knew I could give a little more.  About halfway through the final loop, I made the move into 5th place.  Before I knew it, I was charging down the final straightaway and the clock was in view.  I noticed that the time was still in the 16’s and had a flashback to last year’s state meet where I ran my personal best.  I pushed all the way through, finishing with a time of 17:07, beating my previous personal record by 1 second.

I was so overwhelmed with happiness and excitement that I started crying tears of joy shortly after crossing the finish line.  I was thrilled to have run that time this early in the season.  I was proud of my 5th place finish among a field of runners whom I respect very deeply and feel honored to compete among.  Most importantly, I had an absolute blast while racing.  Positive thoughts were running through my mind while I was racing, and I smiled multiple times throughout the race simply because I am so passionate about this sport.

What was even more rewarding was hugging my teammates after they finished, walking back to the tent with them, and awaiting our team results.  Everyone was giddy chattering about their season and overall personal bests.  Our head coach, Coach Plunkett, came over to announce that we had finished in third place behind Naperville North and Yorkville.  We were pleased with the results and knew that third place was nothing to hang our heads about considering we had just competed against some of the best teams in not only the state, but the country.

As we went on our cool down, someone had mentioned that they heard rumors about us finishing in second place because some runners had not been accounted for, which would impact the team scores.  Before we could get too excited, we had to wait for our coaches to confirm what we had heard.  Sure enough, we ended up placing second behind Naperville North, claiming our spot by just one point.

This week gives us opportunities to ponder our accomplishments from FTTF.  As excited as we are about our performance this past weekend, we are focused on continuing to move forward.  We are not competing this weekend but will race next at the Naperville Invite on Friday, September 21.  It is yet another time to learn from experience and further craft our racing strategies.  

Photo – ©2018 Laura Duffy