Preparation

"The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare"

That quote sits next to my picture in my senior yearbook. It was my quote for the track season. It summed up all the work that was put in during winter training. But preparation is more than the physical workouts that you pull and drag your body through during all the miles of training. It is mental and emotional as well.

The emotional preparation is easy for some and hard for others. The ability to think about the positive and know that if you give your best there is nothing to feel down about. The confidence to know that you will leave it all out there will leave you happy and proud of what you have accomplished. The understanding that the butterflies will come but it's how you deal with them that matter. I always say butterflies are a good thing because it shows you care about what you are about to do. So let's just go do it. I have two weeks for those butterflies to come and when they do I will embrace them knowing that I will give it my all because of them.

The mental preparation is probably my favorite though. During training the mental preparation for a marathoner is to not be scared of the 26.2 miles that are ahead. I'm passed that now. I can run 26.2 miles. However, the race preparation begins now.

I can remember my senior track season. The above quote was sitting in my head, as I sat in Ms. Bromley's Pre-Cal class. I was thinking about the district meet that was 2 weeks away. I was visualizing the meet from the warm-up to the cool-down and what the day would look like. I knew all the athletes that I would be up against. I raced against them for the last 3 years. I knew who had the strong kick, who would take the lead on the first lap, and who would try to go early. Knowing all this, I made my race plan. I would go out conservative(like always). Let the race develop in front of me. The second lap I would move up right behind the leaders. I would sit there. Nothing to be done until 300 meters to go. I know who would go first. The person with the worst kick: David Reid. We would all follow him and get by him on the back stretch. I would move past the Wilsonville boys on the back stretch then I would be on Reed Huskey's shoulder through the turn. Sit there and wait until the 100, where I would sling shot around him off the turn and then put my eyes up on Ryan Horton where I would give it my all to try and catch him for the win.

I told my friend, Matt, this during Pre-Cal. Somehow he still got in trouble for talking, even though I did all the talking that day. I guess I get the benefit of the doubt being quiet the rest of the year. Matt would tell me how he could almost describe my race plan because I told him so many times and so clearly.

Mental preparation is visual. The ability to see what you are about to do and do it over and over again until it gives you the confidence to say "This is what it is. This is what it has to be. Let's go achieve the goal."

My preparation for the marathon starts today. What do my first miles look like? Where do I fuel up? Where are the aid stations? What miles am I going to really push my body through? The more I see it, the more it will happen. The marathon is 2 weeks away. But it starts in my head today.