3rd Half Marathon Jitters

skingszoo

So my 3rd half marathon is Sunday and I am scared to death, to the point of panic attacks. WTH is wrong with me?!?! It's not like I don't know whats going on.

Back story I ran my 1st half Sept 2011 with umm like no training and the longest I had ran was 8 miles once before the race. It was terrible, I cried, cussed, cramped it was awful! I finished 2:56:17 which my goal was 3 hours. I was then terrified to ever run that far again but decided I was going to attempt another half to get over my fear last year. I ran this SAME race that I am running this year last year and finished in 2:15:37! PR'd by 40 minutes and felt amazing! My goal was 2:30 but I got into a groove and stuck with a couple ladies at 10mm pace for the first 10 miles. I couldn't believe it!

This year, I am better trained than I was last year and ran a 11 mile last week and 14 mile a couple weeks ago. I KNOW I can do the distance but I think I am scared my time is going to be worse than last year since I was shocked I did so good. I think I am getting focused on what my pace was last year and what my pace has been during my training runs (which is slower). But I do take my dog on my long runs and he is a 1.5yo German Shorthair Pointer that has ADD so we get distracted ALOT. My goal was to finish sub 2hr but I am not sure if I can do a 9mm for 13 miles. I know this is mental, any tips besides chanting that I CAN DO IT! Im going to run today, on the treadmill and Ill see what 9mm feels like and see if I can push myself. I think I can! I just don't want to be disappointed when I cant during the race. Makes me wonder how I'm going to pull off my Full in Sept if I'm such a nervous Nelly now. :P

MrsSp00ns

Good luck with your HM! I understand where you are coming from in that you want to see improvement but maybe if you took a little pressure off yourself it would help?

I'm doing my second HM in a couple of weeks. My first came in under 2hr30 and I'd like to beat it. But I am also aware that this new HM is considered hilly whereas my first was flat. Where I live there are no hills and I'm not prepared hillwise. So after panicking about it and the pressure of running and bring sponsored in memory of a close friend of the family, I've set myself three goals. 1) is to finish; 2) is to come in at around the same time as my 1st; and 3) to come in at around 2hr15. As long as I complete goal 1 whilst trying my best I can come away satisfied. If I make 2) and ideally 3) I'll come away very happy. Maybe you could do something similar with sub 2hr being your third goal so you are still aiming high but you are not setting pass or fail in your head on this?

skingszoo

Good luck with your HM! I understand where you are coming from in that you want to see improvement but maybe if you took a little pressure off yourself it would help?

I'm doing my second HM in a couple of weeks. My first came in under 2hr30 and I'd like to beat it. But I am also aware that this new HM is considered hilly whereas my first was flat. Where I live there are no hills and I'm not prepared hillwise. So after panicking about it and the pressure of running and bring sponsored in memory of a close friend of the family, I've set myself three goals. 1) is to finish; 2) is to come in at around the same time as my 1st; and 3) to come in at around 2hr15. As long as I complete goal 1 whilst trying my best I can come away satisfied. If I make 2) and ideally 3) I'll come away very happy. Maybe you could do something similar with sub 2hr being your third goal so you are still aiming high but you are not setting pass or fail in your head on this?

Oh I understand I HATE hills! Fortunately this is the same course I ran last year so I am familiar with it but it's going to be storming like crazy so now my goal is to just finish. If there is any wind at all it is going to shatter my time goal. I just need to go and have fun! Not like I'm looking to win any awards or anything. However they do give awards to people who PR. Maybe I can get a PR of a minute

handyrunner

your story is almost identical to mine...minus being afraid..but ive done 4 races and each one i get a little nervous just before..worried about how i will do..

the only thing i can say is...trust the training,,,and at the end of the day have fun!!