We're 2 months into the New Year.  Seems like a good time to revisit the goals we set on 1/1/15.  Here's a look back at a great article by Dena Evans from 2010.

Goals seem like a good idea at the time.  They motivate us to start, they provide good fodder for conversation, they keep us organized.   However, if they are truly going to be accomplishments we look back on with pride, these goals must also include the risk that we might not pass the test.

Every runner or walker has a slightly different style.  Each of us move a bit differently, but if you are looking for a few quick and subtle tips to start with as you begin to train for a goal race, or are an experienced athlete looking for reminders, here are a few key concepts to keep in mind when trying to move efficiently.

Relax and drop your shoulders

Hunched up shoulders are tense shoulders.  Tense shoulders take energy away from where you need it and result in a fatigued feeling well before you have earned it.  Try to keep your shoulders low enough that if your arms hang at about 90 degrees, your hands will brush your pockets (or where your pockets would be) when you swing your arms.

Keep your head neutral

As you run, ideally your body should stack up in a column leaning barely forward. If your head is tilted forward looking at the ground or your chin is up due to fatigue, it disrupts the efficiency of this line and quickens the onset of that achy, tired feeling many athletes get in their upper back toward the end of longer efforts.  Keep your eyes on a spot around 15 yards ahead so your head sits in line with the rest of your spine, and avoid the distraction of an achy upper body for a few more precious miles.

Concentrate on a crisp stride cadence

Many athletes grow up assuming that longer strides will help an athlete cover more ground, faster.  While it is true that while sprinting, you might cover more ground per stride, your stride rate is pretty quick.  Concentrate on the rate aspect of the equation, rather than the distance.  When you take long, bound-y strides, all that time in the air just results in a greater decrease in speed by the time the next foot hits the ground.  Concentration on keeping a crisp stride rhythm can provide a welcome distraction when tired, and also helps keep your body in line.

Engage your core

The less your midsection vacillates or rotates per stride, the more efficiently your body can move forward.  Drawing your navel to your spine (figuratively) and using that tightened core to help your posture can make it easier for your legs to cycle under you efficiently, your arms to swing front and back, instead of side to side, and for your body to get to the finish line with less strain and hopefully less time.

There are innumerable exercises to help athletes improve their efficiency while striding (try these suggestions from a previous blog post). Sometimes these can be intimidating to recreational athletes, but these small tweaks can make a difference without feeling the need to completely overhaul your form. Experiment and see if the suggestions above can make a difference.

Over the course of a 13 or 26-mile effort, music can be a welcome distraction.  And after a few of these, bands or music along the course become a part of the day worth looking forward to.  Occasionally, there are some renegade bands or neighborhoods that will greet the athletes streaming by with some unexpected tunes, but more likely than not, there are some tested and true tropes that will appear like the daily mail.  See if this rings true for your next goal race or brings back fond memories of your last.

Fanfare

Goal races like marathons or half marathons are often signposts indicating the culmination of weeks and months, maybe years of hard work.  Race organizers know this, and rarely miss a chance to set the tone with music usually associated with the grandest stages and ultimate opportunities.  “Olympic Fanfare and Theme” can set the mood, or in the case of the New York Marathon, a ritual playing of “New York, New York” after the starting cannon sounds.  These songs mean to celebrate your achievement, and with a wink, remind you how awesome it is that you get to do such an amazing race as the one you are doing right now!

Movie Tunes

Without a scientific study it is hard to know for sure, but no experienced marathoner would be surprised if the Rocky theme was awarded the most played song award.  Those familiar notes are there to remind you that you are in a fight! You can win! All that training is going to pay off! “Rocky” along with the song from the opening credits of Chariots of Fire, and “Eye of the Tiger” are not there for subtle encouragement and secondary meanings.   Those songs are played and received as direct reminders of your purpose and your ability.  Listen and heed - the finish line is coming!  While the Chariots of Fire tune is a good song for the first few miles when the runners and walkers are thick across the road and optimism is high, playing “Rocky” or “Eye of the Tiger” too early implies that you should be tired and need encouragement.  Those are best deployed for the second half of the race.

Cover Band Music With an Inspirational Sweet Spot

Any band signing up to play along a half or full marathon must consider what overtly or even vaguely inspirational songs are in their wheelhouse.   Failing that, they must consider if they can play any songs that have lyrics related to running or even just the word “running” anywhere in the song. For many cover bands, this list includes “Runnin’ Down a Dream” by Tom Petty,  “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey, and  “Where the Streets Have no Name” by U2. For the guitar alone this last one works wonders on the tired spirit, but when you belt out “I wanna RUN” for that first line, you know you are legitimately helping people!  Urban selections might include “Runnin’” by the Pharcyde or “Tightrope” by Janelle Monae.  With a barely more subtle subtext than the overt anthems, these songs help to remind you (in case you forgot) that you should be running, moving, walking, progressing.  Just in case you did indeed forget.  Failing that, many of them have a good beat, which works just as well.

Highly inappropriate or sad songs

Sometimes, the best-laid plans go awry, and the playlist wasn’t quite as thoughtfully considered as it might have been.  For example, “Tears of a Clown” is probably not a winner (true story – it has been played), and other sad songs might greet a walker or runner who has the misfortune of passing a band who is now playing on vapors, exhausting the last drops of their repertoire.   Sometimes, a cheer station or a neighborhood lets loose with a song that nobody remembered had a line or two of completely inappropriate language or verbal imagery.  Better bet is to play the same solid songs three times each rather than a ballad, a sad song, or an explicit tune played over the loudspeaker to the entire neighborhood.  It might be boring to the band, but the runners and walkers only get the one moment.   A few depressing thoughts as well as a smile due to the randomness of the choice can occur as a result of these.  Even concurrently.  Additional note:  “We are the Champions” or “Celebration” by Kool ‘n’ the Gang should never be played unless the finish line is in sight.  That’s teasing!


High School Bands and Various Cultural Music Sources 

Sometimes school bands volunteer to support the local athletes in the big race or a band with a specific cultural musical specialty signs up to help.  What they may lack in anything resembling tunes that relate to running, they often contribute doubly in energy and spirit.  Sometimes it is their tunes and even the actual incongruence of the music with the situation that end up resonating as a fond memory in the days and weeks after the race.

Hype man

One of the many great informal traditions of a large running and walking event is the occasional neighborhood individual equipped with a microphone, a speaker, potentially some background music, and a great deal of energy.  Kudos to these folks, willing to just call out bib numbers, shirt colors, Sharpied names, and other filler for hours.  Never underestimate the power of having your name called over a loudspeaker, and never underestimate the ability of a well-timed musical distraction to make the finish line seem just a bit closer.

The recently held Berlin Marathon lived up to its potential for fast times and then some, with Dennis Kimetto shattering the existing world marathon record by 26 seconds and becoming the first human being under 2 hours and 3 minutes.   If you are keeping score, that is an average pace of 4:41 per mile, or essentially the equivalent of running 105 laps around a track and hitting 70 seconds on each one.

Performances like this can seem so many light years away that the average athlete may feel that they can barely relate.  Yes, Kimetto covered 26.2 miles in an amazingly fast time, but looking beneath the surface, races like his can yield connections that can encourage us all, even if we are in the middle or the back of the pack.

1. 1. It took the encouragement of a mentor for Kimetto to give running a serious try. Kimetto runs with many-time marathon winner Geoffrey Mutai in Kenya.  As detailed in the Chicago Tribune, Kimetto was a subsistence farmer who Mutai invited to train after basically seeing him lope through the streets with a good looking stride.  Many of us didn’t come out of the womb destined for marathoning.  A key health issue or charity push, the desire to accompany a friend or relative, or a life transition may have caused us to finally shift into action.   If you are new to the sport or don’t have a lot of athletic experience, console yourself that before 2008, neither did the world record holder, and he still believed in himself enough to aspire to big goals.

1. 2. Sometimes big goals come as the result of a steady progression. Dennis Kimetto has run several marathons before, and has had a lot of success, but he certainly didn’t break the world record on his first try.  He ran 2:04 in 2012, 2:03 in 2013, and has now run 2:02 in 2014.  While obviously this is WAY easier said than done, his accomplishment is the result of steady improvement.  Sometimes we can benefit from setting a target fairly far away on the horizon, and committing to small or medium length intermediate goals along the way, even if the journey is several years in the making.  The sense of accomplishment then comes from achieving the goals and for having the courage to be patient and persistence on the road there.

1. 3. A Personal Best is Personal – no one sets your goals except you. Dennis Kimetto could be forgiven for thinking he hard run the fastest he ever might – after all, he just ran the fastest time in all of history. However, in a feature article from the IAAF, he is quoted as saying “Actually, I think I could still be a very good runner 10 years from now, at 40.”  No one has the right to set boundaries on your belief.  When training, it is important to know your capabilities so you can make smart choices, but you have the right to make a goal for yourself, completely independent of arbitrary standards such as Boston, your personal best, etc.  What is important now is that you uphold and aspire to the standards and capability that you believe you have – not what society or the media might label as outside of the norm.

1. 4. Keep it simple in the race

The Berlin marathon benefitted from the mano a mano duel Kimetto  staged with his mentor Geoffrey Mutai.  Although we aren’t yet  looking for Must See TV or world fame with our distance exploits, having a complicated race plan can sometimes add more stress than it is worth.   Some top quality races have huge fields of aspiring world class athletes, but the race may become strategic as a result.  If a fantastic time is the goal, nothing beats an old fashioned foot race with one or two people.  The mind can’t drift and so stays alert, and the athlete is able to race at the optimum pace indicated by training.  Toward the end you can race for the finish, but until then remind yourself of your confidence, tell the truth about your training log, and wait patiently for your turn.