Mental Bag of Tricks

Comrades Mental Strength
I’ve read from numerous sources that Comrades is 75-80% mental. I have to agree. Even though I have run the race before, I am still surprised by how hard it is each and every time. Despite an increase in my training and physical fitness with each passing year, Comrades does not feel any easier.  It doesn’t seem to matter if I train 600km’s or over 1000km’s, at about 70km’s in the race, I’m exhausted beyond imagine. At that point, it is not my physical ability getting me to the finish, it is purely my mental strength. I remember the 2014 down run, everything hurt. It was so painful to take one step and I felt like I was giving myself a mental pep talk each and every time I put my leg forward. I found focusing on the following kept me mentally strong so I was physically able to keep moving forward.

1. Sacrifices: I thought about all the sacrifices I had to make to be there and how I could not let them be in vain. I thought of all the missed time with my children, with my husband, the early mornings, all those times it felt like that last thing I could do was go out on a training run and yet I still managed to lace up my shoes. I remembered all the times I struggled on my long runs, how I had to run through the nausea, blisters, lost toenails and other pains. If I could run through all that I could run through this. After all, all that pain was to prepare me for this day, I couldn’t let it all be for nothing.
2. Training: Training for Comrades is more important to building your mental strength than your physical strength. Yes, you will get much stronger but your mental strength increases even more. Because you have to run almost every day it is almost automatic. You no longer think about wanting to run, you just lace up your shoes and do it. Running has actually become habit that does not require you to think about is you want to run or not. You just do it. And that’s what you have to do in Comrades. Don’t even think about stopping, just keep moving forward. Just do it.
3. Visualization: This is something that is helpful in attaining any goal you have in life. When the road is extra lonely and feeling extra-long, visualize the finish and how working through these tough km’s will be all worth it at the end. To experience that finish and to hold your medal will be worth the pain in the end. Visualize coming to ARD, your family and friends and all the congratulations and happy faces you will see there.
4. Support: We are so blessed at ARD to have such tremendous support. A huge majority of our club will actually be flying up to Durban for the sole purpose of helping us get to the finish. Having familiar faces to see along the route is such a tremendous help. I remember my first Comrades, we were planning to meet up with the club at halfway and then see them at a couple spots along the route. The traffic was so bad though that they could only make it to the finish just in time to see the first ARD cross the line. Still, the thought of seeing my friends and family really pushed me to carry on. I thought ‘they will be just around this corner here. I’ll run just past this corner and I’ll see them’.  The down run is also nice because as you get closer to the finish, there are more and more spectators on the road cheering you on. Unlike the up run where it gets more and more desolate the further along you go. In 2014 there were a couple of spectators who would ask us what we needed, if we could have anything right now what would it be, they would then radio to their contacts further on the route to get our requests. We didn’t know these people, they were complete strangers. It is really amazing the support we have. Draw on that, think how tired the people are who are just supporting. Many of them, especially the ARD supporters, are up before we are to prepare our food and snacks so we can run. We can’t let them down. Acknowledge the supporters, thank them or even just smile as you run past. It helps, try it.
   

Those are some of my mental tricks I use to get through Comrades. The road can be lonely, even though you are surrounded by people. Stay focused on your goal. Please respond in the comments section with any of your own.