Six Characteristics of a Champion Runner

Six Characteristics of a Champion Runner-

1) Confidence - a realistic faith in one's abilities that resists irrational doubts and fears.
- If you lack confidence, you'll be susceptible to underestimating your abilities.
- If you have too much confidence, you'll have an inflated sense of your abilities.

2) Optimism - a general expectation that things will go your way.
A tendency to expect success regardless of your abilities or external circumstances.

3) Focus - the ability to concentrate your attention on the sensory input and information that matters and to ignore everything else.

4) Resilience - having the ability to cope with adversity.
Every runner encounters setbacks. Champion runners are able to minimize the effects of setbacks by not dwelling on them and by having ready practical strategies for dealing with them as they arise.

5) Motivation - the direction and intensity of one's effort.
The desire to run…and the desire to run well.
- Focus on the motivation of team camaraderie. Racing and giving your best effort to represent excellence for the team and school.

6) Discipline - the ability to stick to a plan regardless of internal and external challenges.
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The most important psychological fact of racing = racing isn’t especially fun. Racing is hard.

How tough can it be to give your best effort in a Cross Country race?

…from Matt Fitzgerald in The Cutting-Edge Runner:
‘Most races inflict heavy doses of physical pain and emotional suffering. It's a unique kind of misery, sort of like a very slow drowning or a very rapid starvation. The muscles plead for oxygen and glucose. At the same time, they feel as if they are being eaten by acid. It seems your blood is slowly being replaced with tap water. The kicker is that this form of torture is utterly voluntary, hence ridiculous, and so the whole thing is essentially a mind game. You can stop (or slow down) at any time, but of course, the shame of stopping or slowing down is even worse than the agony of continuing.’

The Ultimate Adversity of Running = To Endure Pain and Suffering

How much pain are you willing to endure for a few minutes to achieve the result you desire?

Believing you can accomplish something makes it possible.