You poured your heart, soul and a lot of training into this race, your third try at 100 miles.

And DNF’d…again.

Confidence shot, you half-heartedly wonder “Should I try again?”

I ran Daytona 100 this weekend and was reminded of this post.

There seemed to be a high proportion of first time 100-mile runners at the racer and I can see why - it looks easy.

At least on paper.

People ask for my secrets and here’s one of the biggest:

You can do more with mind work than defend against negative thinking.

A lot more.

An accomplished ultrarunner told me she recently realized she had a terrible "elevator pitch" when she talked about her ultra running.

“How do I embrace and communicate who I am without downplaying what I've done or accommodating others’ responses?”

I’ve been there.

The biggest mindset factor behind your results?

Your self image.

Self image is “one's conception of oneself or of one's role” - how you see yourself.

If you’re a woman ultrarunner, you probably have this unhelpful belief in your way:

“Good training is enough.”

Prepare enough - and hard enough - and your race will work out right. All you have to do on race day is “execute” the right answers.

While running No Business 100 a few weeks ago, I overheard a pacer justifying to her runner why she wasn’t ready to run a 100.

She listed what sounded like excuses, judging from her insistence, and assured her runner she had a plan.

But when asked about her plan, she was vague. No timeline, no distances, no specific races. Not even, “I’m running a 50-miler next spring and looking for a 100k in the fall.”

If you’re a road or trail runner, you know this fear:

“Is this the day I find the dead body?”

I recently had that moment for real.

Do you go into a race worried you might not have what it takes to finish?

You might be surprised to hear I did - or almost did.

And you can turn it around like I did.

“How bad is this going to hurt?”

I hear this question from first-time 100-milers, veterans going into a big or new race, and runners coming back after a break.

And if we’re honest, it’s probably in the back of all of our minds before every race.

What you say about yourself directly affects your race results.

The words you use about yourself - in your head and talking with other people - paint a picture in your mind.

Positive or negative, say it enough and it becomes your self image - how you see yourself.

The first time I ran Umstead 100, I dropped.

I was still new to the distance. It would have been my sixth 100 and it also should have been an easy one: a flat-ish five or six loops on gravel road with fantastic aid, in gorgeous, springtime North Carolina.

I just didn’t want to do the last lap or two.

This year’s Superior Trail 100 had to be better than the last.

I trained harder and longer.

I planned to run seriously and pay close attention to what I was doing.

Is it possible to have a perfect race?

Thirty five years ago, at the outset of my career as an engineer working in quality assurance and continuous improvement, I had to decide where I stood on the field’s one driving, hotly-debated question:

Is zero defects achievable?

In 2001 at Leadville 100, when I arrived at the busy, 50-mile Winfield turnaround, people rushing everywhere, a volunteer looked me in the eye and said curtly, “You have 15 minutes on cutoff.”

I’d never been close to cutoff before. Never even had to think about it.

And I was this close? How??

“I’m doing a 100 this weekend with no pacers and have been excited about the challenge but am now getting nervous, specifically about the nighttime hours when my mood will shift - any tips?”

Pacers do a lot, starting with the obvious - setting pace. They monitor your pace compared to your goal or cutoff and let you know if you need to speed up.

And if they’re magic, they keep you going…fast enough.

You don’t have it harder because you’re not a natural athlete.

You have it harder because you think you’re not a natural athlete.

Harder, because this thinking limits you.

I’ve heard a lot lately about people who are trying to run 100 100-mile races.

That’s great if it pulls you but that’s not what I’m hearing, so I’m sharing my own journey to clear up the most common misconception.

I copied my first ultra goal from Doug McKeever while running with him in my first 100 - run all 33 100s that existed at the time.

The long-term success and joy you get in ultrarunning depends on the game you’re playing.

Two specific games came up in client sessions this week.

The first and most popular is, “Make the race turn out the way it’s supposed to.”

When you start running ultras, or move up to a new distance, it’s easy to believe everyone knows more than you.

So the safest strategy seems like copying what everyone else is doing.

Same navigation, same time in aid stations, and most importantly, the same pace.