- One bad race does not define your value: analyze, learn, and use it to come back stronger.
- Avoid dwelling on mistakes: it serves no purpose and you only risk losing motivation and enthusiasm.
- Distinguish between your own mistakes and external factors: improve what you can control and peacefully accept the rest.
In Hamlet Shakespeare wrote that There is no good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Of course, a race gone wrong is a fact, but you start with the assumption that doing is wrong, not doing is never wrong. It is part of the process, and we trust the process. You are a human being and as such you are fallible. The more you compete the more you expose yourself to the possibility of having to face an off day. It happens, it happens to everyone, even the pros. This is normal. The important thing will be how you react to the situation and an outcome in which you do not reflect yourself. Try to take advantage of this experience as well and draw lessons from it that you can add to your personal baggage and become even stronger.
Don’t fall into a black hole
A race gone wrong can bring you down and make you lose motivation. Brooding for a long time and expending a lot of energy thinking only and only about the negative aspects of the race will only drag you down a black hole without being of any help.
Make an analysis of the race
Instead, what you need to do is to try to make an analysis of what might have gone wrong. Making this step with a clear head is important so that you don’t make the same mistakes a second time. Try to identify and distinguish the factors for which you may have been directly responsible (wrong supplementation, poor hydration) from those beyond your control, such as gusts of wind or being a “victim” of a bottleneck due to a narrowing of the race course. Anything within your control can be changed at the next opportunity. What was beyond your jurisdiction, on the other hand, should simply be accepted, recognizing that there was nothing you could have done to change the facts.
File away the experience and focus on what’s next
No matter how disappointed you feel about what happened, life goes on, your athletic life too. You’re not done as an athlete, so put down those shoes you were about to hang up. You’ll need them for future races, which you’ll approach with more experience and perspective. At your next starting line, there’ll be a new version of you, wiser, stronger, and ready to give your best.