Mind Over Matter: How Meditation Improved My Running

Mental Health

Aug 14

When I began running as an awkward tween, I found the mental side of training the toughest. Plowing through 3.1 miles during my first cross country race felt like hell, and, embarrassingly, I even contemplated tripping myself to quit running by the middle of the race. Despite the pain and my vow to never run a cross country race again, the love of the run took hold of me. And, later on, meditation allowed me to enjoy running even more, and get faster in the process. Here’s my awkward tale of triumph.

In the beginning, racing was a mentally demanding game of what-ifs, negative thoughts telling me I couldn’t do it. The voices in my head would say I was going too slow/fast/easy/hard, running the wrong pace, ate the wrong breakfast, and on and on. Basically, I would doubt myself so many times during the course of a race without even realizing it. Besides hindering my performance, my negative thought patterns took the joy out of racing.

Despite my mental turmoil during races, I still enjoyed practice – the exhilaration of running fast, pushing myself through humid St. Louis summer days, and the team camaraderie built through sweat, tears, and yes, even puke. I was hooked on running and the running lifestyle – weekends and summers spent on the track, running trails, keeping mileage charts, and hanging out with running friends.

For me, and most runners, the challenge with running is mental. The same overactive mind that landed me in honors courses in school also served to undermine my confidence, especially before races. I’d overanalyze, overthink, and, worst of all, doubt my own abilities. By the time I reached the starting line for a race, in my head I would have already played out a million scenarios of what could happen. I’d question my training, my abilities, and everything from what I ate to fuel up to whether I was running the right pace. In short, I was a mess.

Despite the support of my parents and running friends and coaches, once it was just me out there racing, no amount of outside cheering could quell my inner demons. Don’t get me wrong, I still ran well enough to make varsity my freshman year, but that led to a whole new level of nerves.

My race anxiety hit an all-time, embarrassingly awkward peak when I got so nervous before my first varsity track race that I ran right off the track and away! Forest Gump gone completely wrong! After that I didn’t want to show my face to anyone, and I even considered quitting running out of my embarrassment. You would think I was an Olympic athlete the way I was moping around the house like my whole world had just ended.

Luckily I had an awesome running friend and teammate, Flannery O’Rourke, who gave me a 3-feet large card of a teddy bear that said “THINK OF THIS CARD AS A GREAT BIG HUG.” Without judging me or saying much, Flannery helped ease me out of my self-imposed prison. The card cheered me up, smiling at me from the corner of my bedroom. And my mom, never short on commonsense, told me running is supposed to be fun so there was no need to get so worked up about it. Finally, I left my room…and returned to practice. My running coach was wise enough to realize my own embarrassment was punishment enough. And awesome enough to lead some visualization exercises. I started to learn the art of relaxation, and my racing improved.

By college, I became mentally stronger than ever after reading a book called Magical Running by Bobby McGee. Doing the step-by-step guided visualization exercises helped me get a reign on all the doubts, negative self-talk and unwanted anxiety before races. In fact, using that overactive mind of mine helped me to really create an immersive visualization experience where I could see, hear, smell, feel, and taste the whole race experience in my mind in a positive way before it even happened. I focused on feeling strong, using the magic of mantras with thoughts like “I can and I will” to replace the “I can’t” and “I’m too tired, slow, young, old, etc etc” self-talk.

I will get more into the research and effects of visualization in a later post, but I want to note something really quick. Visualization is such a powerful tool that when you are in a deep meditative state and you visualize a race or event, your mind registers it as if the event is really happening. So when you perform on race day, you are actually just replaying what your mind thinks you already achieved. Visualization transformed my running and life by helping me to enjoy and appreciate the whole running experience – including racing. And as I learned to meditate and visualize, my race times dropped drastically.

I went on to do some meditation workshops in NYC and Atlanta. I began meditating regularly on my own using the tools I learned to breathe, relax and basically breathe out all the intense emotions that can build up over the course of a day, a year, a lifetime.

This tale does not end in me winning the Boston Marathon or bringing home an Olympic medal. I can, however, say that through meditation and visualization – as well as complementary activities like yoga – I have learned to relax more, run stronger and faster, and most of all, enjoy my running and my life more than ever before.

Have you tried meditation? What techniques do you use to relax before a big race or event? I’d love to hear your stories below, or on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Marnie Kunz is a NASM-certified personal trainer, USATF, and RRCA-certified running coach and the creator of Runstreet Art Runs, which bring together communities through running and street art. She is a Brooklyn resident, trainer, Akita mom, and writer. She enjoys running coaching, traveling, art, and eating messily. You can follow her running and events at @Runstreet Instagram and Runstreet Facebook and follow her on Twitter for more on her running adventures.