The Stories We Tell Ourselves on Race Day—and How to Change Them
Lessons on Nerves, Focus, and Fear from the World’s Best
It’s late May, which means championship season is here for Track and Field. One of the most common questions I’ve been asked is how to handle the pressure of a big race. I’ve seen it up close: from competing at the NCAA Championships to coaching at the Olympics. Every big race comes with pressure. What separates the greats is how they respond to it. Below are seven tactics and mental shifts that the best athletes and coaches have taught me about excelling in high-pressure environments.
Normalize the Noise.
If you’re nervous about race day, congratulations—you’re human. Our brains are hardwired to scan for threats, not deliver pep talks. That’s why doubt spikes when the stakes rise. Even Olympians feel it; you don’t outgrow pre-race nerves, you just learn to run with them. The presence of anxiety doesn’t mean something’s wrong, it means something matters. If your goal didn’t stretch you, it wouldn’t stir you. Reframe the moment: This isn’t a threat. It’s a challenge worthy of your effort.
Fear feels a mile wide but is only an inch thick.
Seneca said it best: “We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” Anxiety thrives in avoidance, but it shrinks when we approach it. Think about how your nerves spike before the gun, then vanish the moment the race begins. It’s normal to envision worst-case scenarios that never materialize. You wouldn’t believe the number of times I’ve walked onto the track thinking: How will I be able to run 5K at this pace if 1200m felt hard in practice 10 days ago? When you approach those thoughts with curiosity, not panic, you usually find they’re hollow. You’ve had doubts before. You’ve raced well anyway. Each time you do, you build evidence that fear isn’t fact.
Automate Your Decision Making.
In college, my coach (Chris Miltenberg) drilled one principle into us: routine breeds readiness. Every Tuesday and Friday, our pre-workout ritual was identical—warmup jog 60 minutes out, drills at 30, strides or 200s 10 minutes before the start. Sure, it primed our physiology, but more importantly, it trained our psychology. No matter the weather or time of day, the rhythm stayed the same on race day. My body and mind learned exactly when to flip the switch. It’s amazing how much comfort you can derive from a familiar routine in an unfamiliar environment.
Coach Milt used to say, “Live your life like a clock.” The point? Eliminate decision fatigue before race day by rehearsing your process in training. You don’t want to waste energy debating what to eat or when to warm up. Lock in the routine now, so your focus is free when it matters most. Ruminating on unimportant decisions drains the mind of precious willpower. Decision fatigue is a real phenomenon. Steve Jobs famously wore a black turtleneck every day. Obama wore the same type of suit nearly every day for this reason.
The night before race day, I’ll write out everything I need to do, sometimes down to the minute. When will I eat my last meal? When does the bus depart from the hotel? When do I do my pre-race shakeout jog? Big decisions within a race require a clear mind, not clutter.
The Stepping Up Fallacy.
High-stakes races don’t demand more effort—they demand the same quality effort you’ve practiced all season. If you treat the postseason like it’s a different game, you’re saying the preseason didn’t matter. That’s a mistake. At any moment, you’re either cultivating quality or sloppiness. As Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Therefore, excellence is not an act, but a habit.” Your job is to bring the same mindset to every race, start to finish.
In college, Coach Milt drilled this into us: “Nothing changes!” Whether it was the opener or the NCAA finals, our approach stayed the same. His belief: the athlete’s job is to put forth the same effort at the season opener as NCAAs; the coach’s job is to make sure the same effort yields bigger returns over time. Mike Smith of NAU puts it best: “At the NCAA championships, being good is actually excellent.” Those who swing for the fences strike out more than they hit home runs. You don’t need magic, just execution. Great races aren’t built on miracles or dream scenarios; they’re built on consistency of effort and mindset.
Find Your Sweet Spot.
Most distance runners don’t need more hype—they need more calm. My pre-race routine early in high school consisted of loud hype music and war movies. It felt powerful until I burned most of my matches by halfway through. That kind of adrenaline is like kerosene, fast to ignite, quick to extinguish. The best races are run with a slow, controlled burn. In college, I pivoted to a radically different routine. Slower music, deep breaths, and cracking jokes with my teammates.
Too many athletes start at max mental intensity and fade with every lap. I’ve seen far more athletes lose a race in the first minute than win by trying to break the field in their first 100 strides. The real edge comes from staying composed early so you can turn up the dial when it matters. Performance in distance races improves with hype—but only to a point. Olympic speedskating legend Apolo Ohno was known for yawning at the start line. If you watch Grant Fisher on the starting line, he’s often laughing or chatting with his competitors. The best athletes don’t waste energy before the gun, they build into their moment. So take a breath. Let the race bring it out of you.
Don’t worry too much about how you feel.
Heavy legs? Slight nausea? A little breathless before the gun? I’ve felt all of that before some of my best races. The mistake is assuming that how you feel in the moment reflects how you’ll perform. When the work is in the bank, surface sensations don’t matter nearly as much as we think.
That tightness in your chest? It’s not a flaw—it’s your body gearing up. If you look under the hood, the cause of that tightness is that your blood pressure rises and adrenaline floods your system to unlock more power. That nausea? Your body shuts down the gastrointestinal system to divert more oxygenated blood towards your muscles. As Kelly McGonigal writes in The Upside of Stress, those feelings aren’t signs of weakness, they’re physiological upgrades. It’s important to interpret those symptoms correctly. Next time you feel those sensations, remember the pressure isn’t breaking you. It’s building version 2.0 of yourself.
Purpose Over Pain.
Pain gets louder when purpose goes quiet. As the central governor theory suggests, the brain and body are always negotiating. When the pain feels bigger than the discomfort, you keep moving. But when the pain overshadows the why, it wins. Purpose gives you something to fight for.
One of the athletes I’ve coached is a former Marine turned ultrarunner. He runs to honor the soldiers he lost in combat. His mantra: “For those who can’t.” During his first 100-mile race, he carried photos of each one and filmed a tribute at every aid station. Talk about a transcendent purpose. Viktor Frankl said, “He who has a why can bear almost any how.” If you truly care about what you’re chasing, you don’t need to be pushed. The vision pulls you. Find a purpose with enough gravitational pull that it eclipses the pain, drowns out the doubt, and pulls you forward when nothing else can.
If this made you think bigger, imagine what it could do for someone else? Share The Run Down and help ignite belief where doubt used to live. One share could spark a new starting line.
Great post for athletes of all abilities!!