The Games People Play

They say a lot of running is mental. For me, this is pretty true. I've had to play head games with myself ever since I started running, convincing myself to keep going even when I felt awkward. Here are a few of my mental tricks:

I AM INVISIBLE. This helps whenever I feel slow, or clumsy, or self-conscious about wearing shorts. After all, if no one can see me, what I look like doesn't matter. It has the added benefit of making me extra careful about traffic.

I'M HELPING PEOPLE! I talk to a lot of runners who get offended or upset when someone passes them on the trail. Not me! I just think about how awesome the person who passed must feel. I gave them a feeling of self-worth and confidence, and that's worth running slowly for!

I'M THE HOTTEST GIRL HERE, AND EVERYONE IS JEALOUS OF ME. This is how I feel in any room, so it's pretty easy to adapt to running. Oh, wait, not really. It's actually a tough idea to maintain, and requires musical backup, so I listen to Flo Rida (or any artist who prefers Apple Bottom Jeans to skinny jeans).

I AM A CHARACTER IN HARRY POTTER. I only use this delusion when I'm running through Mountain Brook early in the morning and the owls are swooping. I repeat to myself, "I'm not afraid of owls. Owls are friendly. Owls bring you mail."

JAMES FRANCO IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS HILL. No explanation necessary.

Apparently, talking to yourself while running (silently, anyway) isn't that unusual. But more mature (read: "less crazy") runners refer to their inner dialogue as a mantra. One marathoner's mantra is, "Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional." Haruki Murakami writes of a particularly difficult race in which he repeated to himself, "I'm not a human. I'm a piece of machinery. I don't need to feel a thing. Just forge on ahead."

I tried something similar this morning. Thinking was exhausting, and, because it was raining, I couldn't use my iPod. I repeated "I feel good. I am healthy." over and over. It was nothing fancy, and I felt kind of silly at first, but it worked. Overall, I did feel good. I did feel healthy. It was the best run I had all week ... and I didn't even have to conjure up Hogwarts.