The Single Best Thing To Do For Your Crew

Take full, 100% responsibility for your race.

That’s it.

I see so many runners avoid this once they have crew.

You can understand why. As race pressure mounts, it’s a relief to hand responsibility to others. They’ll be there to take care of you.

But it hurts the working relationship between you and your crew, your relationship with yourself, and extremely likely, your race.

So here are three ways to solve it.

1. Do your own believing.

Believing you can run a tough race takes effort. It’s tempting to hand that over to others, especially when they already believe in you 100% and want the best for you.

But the problem isn’t their belief - it’s yours.

When you outsource believing to them, you actually stop believing in yourself. It becomes harder to finish without crew, and eventually they stop believing in you too. There’s only so long they can carry that for you.

You’re the leader here. It’s your job to believe…and theirs to follow your lead.

2. Make your own decisions.

About whether to change socks, eat aid station food, add or shed a layer…

But especially the Big Kahuna - whether to drop or keep going.

It’s your race, not theirs, and making decisions IS part of the race.

Period.

They’re there to support you - not do it for you.

Get their input, advice, and opinions but make your own decision. If you’re swayed by what they say, you’re still letting yourself be swayed.

3. Own your own result.

Giving all the credit to your crew - declaring you couldn’t have done it without them - isn’t the thank you gift it seems.

First, no one literally believes it. It’s possible you could have finished without them.

And second, you lose a hard-won chance to start seeing yourself in a new way.

Instead, be more specific about the difference they made - they helped you shave time, stay comfortable, or stay positive.

The other half of owning your results is not blaming your crew.

Blaming crew for bad results is a double-whammy. It not only makes it harder to find crew next time, you also lose all the learning you could have gained from the race.

You can run any distance without crew - I have. If you have people willing to spend their weekend taking care of you, sometimes in truly crappy conditions, appreciate it.

And figure out what you can do better next time.

Doing these three things to take responsibility for your race will immediately boost your likelihood of finishing and improve your performance.

No matter how dependent you feel on your crew, you can build stronger self-belief, learn to make confident decisions, and get better at creating the results you want.

You can be a confident runner who trusts her own judgment and ability.

I’ve done it and I help clients do it every day.

If you’re ready to take full responsibility for your race, use this link to set up a free consult call.

It’s time to become the ultrarunner you’re meant to be.