“A” Race Traps

As a mindset and strategy coach, I often work with runners who feel immense pressure around their “A” race.

An “A” race is the one that’s incredibly important. It’s often the only big race that year - like the only 100-mile race of the year or a lottery race. They structure other races around it, spend months training for it and often have crew and pacers lined up for the event, adding to the weight of its significant.

There’s nothing wrong with having an A race. In fact, narrowing your focus to a single race—even if it’s not an A race but simply the next race ahead—can be incredibly beneficial. I highly recommend it.

The problem arises when everything rides on that race—future goals, self-confidence, even self-worth. Suddenly, failure feels unbearably high.

When failure seems intolerable, runners:
 

• Obsess over the outcome – The race must go a certain way. They fear even considering another possibility.

• Over-control what they can – They drown in unnecessary details, over-planning and over-organizing drop bags, crew, and logistics.
  stead of avoiding fear, walk through it. Imagine the worst-case scenario in detail.

• Try (in vain) to control what they can’t – Weather, competition, course conditions. Uncontrollable variables become sources of stress.

The result? They stress themselves into a DNF. They don’t enjoy the race. At the first major challenge, they give up—sometimes feeling relieved when it’s finally over, regardless of the outcome. And because this was the race, failure carries even more weight.

But the real issue isn’t having an “A” race or choosing one beyond your ability. The real issue is the fear of failing at it.

When you resist the possibility of failure, out of fear, you give it power. You try to control the uncontrollable while avoiding the one thing that actually needs confronting: your fear. And the more you fear and resist thinking about failure, the stronger the fear becomes.

To break free from this cycle, you have to do something counterintuitive and uncomfortable—face the possibility of failure head-on. What would actually happen?

• You miss your goal.

• You DNF.

• You feel devastated.

• People find out.

• They judge you.

• You judge yourself.

That last one is often the deepest fear—what you’ll be tempted to make failure mean about you.

But once you've imagined what failure would actually be like, ask yourself: Then what? You’ll probably feel frustrated, disappointed, and maybe embarrassed. But you’ll also survive. You’ll learn. You’ll get another chance. The world won’t end—and in fact, facing this fear makes you stronger.

You might worry that imagining failure will make it happen. It won’t. Instead, getting to know what failure would be like frees you from fearing it. It's not what you want but it's also not the end of the world. It's a stepping stone to bettering your races.

Facing the possibility of failure so it no longer scares you shifts your energy away from avoiding disaster and toward what actually helps: training, planning, and managing your thoughts. Knowing you can handle it IF it happens.

If you’ve been avoiding this fear, now is the time to face it. This is your “A” race, and you want to do everything you can to set yourself up for success. This is one of those investments that pays off exponentially.

Imagine running that race without fear of failure. The possibility of missing your goal is there, but you’re willing to face it and run into it—not away from it.

When you stop running from fear, you’re free to run your best. And that gives you the greatest chance of the success you want at your “A” race.