The Survival Trap

You sign up for a race you’re excited about, eager to run well and have a great experience.

One of the first things you do is check the cutoff time. You think, “I just need to stay ahead of this.”

But from there, your mind goes in one of two directions.

In the first scenario, you think, “I’m going to run this strong and see how well I can do.” You show up at the starting line nervous but excited, ready to give it your all. You run your strongest race yet.

You aimed for your best, and that’s what you got.

In the second scenario, doubt creeps in. You think, “I don’t know if I can do this—I just need to stay ahead of the cutoff.” You’re scared you’ll overestimate your ability, run too fast, get exhausted and miss cutoff. So you play it safe, running as slow as you can while maintaining ‘enough’ of a cushion on cutoff. But this cautious approach means spending the entire race stressed about cutoff.

You aimed to survive, and that’s exactly what you got.

In both cases, your results match your what you aimed for - the minimum necessary effort or the best you really want to run. 

This is what I call the Survival Trap. When you’re driven by fear of failure to set your sights on the minimum required to finish a race, you rob yourself of the opportunity to run better than the minimum - to perform at your best. While this careful approach may lead to a finish, it holds you back, limits your joy, and keeps you stuck in a cycle of playing it safe. You come to believe this is the best you can do.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a fast or slow runner—the Survival Trap works the same. If your goal is simply to survive a 30-hour cutoff, you’ll direct your energy toward that and limit yourself to minimum you need to stay ahead of 30 hours. But if your goal is running your best, you remove those self-imposed limits, open up all kinds of possibilities, and reach for more - like a 27-hour or 24-hour finish.

The solution to this trap isn’t to ignore cutoff—it’s to adjust your aim. Focus on running your best instead of just surviving. 

To do that, you have to see how running your best is actually safer and more reliable than running to survive. 

Running your best - a comfortably strong level of effort you can sustain the whole way - is physically easier than running slow. When you deliberately run slower than is comfortable, it changes your gait, creates tension, can lead to injury, and takes more energy. And besides, it gets boring. 

If you run comfortably strong, you’ll still hit lows during the race, but you’ll feel better overall, enjoy the race more, and achieve better results. Trying to do your best is less stressful than trying to avoid what you’re afraid of and you’re far less likely to face cutoff stress. It actually puts less pressure on you.

Don’t fall for the Survival Trap. You don’t have to give up your potential for a “safe” finish - it’s the opposite. Running your best is more likely to get you to the finish than holding back for survival.

Set your sights high, run the best you have that day, and enjoy.

P.S. - If you’re ready to move beyond the Survival Trap and other mental blocks and discover how it feels to have your mind helping you run your best, I can help you make that shift. 

Let’s talk about how 1:1 personalized coaching will help you do more than finish. Schedule a free consultation call today and take the first step toward running your confident best.