(Nobody) Ask(ed) Adrienne: Oktoberfest 10k Race Reflections

Adrienne Neal, MA LPC-S

Okay, so the title is halfway true. Hey everyone, I’ve missed y’all. Between running my
practice, teaching, and training harder than I probably should the writing ideas took a bit
of a backseat. Or maybe I didn’t have another “5 ways” to do something that the internet
doesn’t have 1000 posts on already. Instead, I’ll try and blend sport psychology with
storytelling, and what better way to discuss what happened inside my head a couple
weeks ago at the Oktoberfest 10k/RRCA 10k Championships.

For starters, I didn’t know it was anything more than your local 10k to support a half
marathon until a few days before. Cue some doubt and then feeling silly about doubting
myself but doing it some more. In case I haven’t told you guys, this is totally normal to
have thoughts ping-pong in your head in the days leading up to a race. If we are aware
of what’s going on, they are more simply annoying and don’t have to mean anything.
Goal-wise, I wanted to finish Top 3, or first Master, however, what was more important to
me was to focus on the things I have control of- focusing on rhythm was a big one this
race- and accept how uncomfortable I was going to get at some point. It’s interesting if
we accept that something might suck, we are better able to meet it head on. More on
that later.

Moving on to race morning…
Ate my familiar breakfast of a bagel and began to sip my personal “jet fuel” aka Maurten
with caffeine (I’ve trained with it countless times, so know what works before you race,
just a PSA). Caffeine, for those who aren’t sensitive, can be a great performance
booster, but it also can make you more anxious. Arriving at Kyle Field I felt the usual
pre-race anxiety and simply labeled it as such. Yeah, it sucks, but if it is something I’m
just ‘experiencing’ and I just need to get out on the course and find a rhythm, I’m usually
good. Warming up and socializing a little tends to help.

Onto the race itself –
I have a bad habit of going out too fast. Upon reflection, I have realized it is a lack of
trust in myself mixed with a feeling of immediacy that is not entirely true for a race
longer than a 5k. This time, my first mile was exactly what I wanted it to be. I was able
to settle into a rhythm until the inevitable happened. Traffic jam. Given the Half
Marathon started 5 mins before the 10k, I knew I needed to stay calm and just go with
the situation. No sense getting frustrated in the moment when I can’t control it. I also got
to work on my running back skills and staying calm while my rhythm gets broken. Not a knock on the situation, for the most part, but cooler heads while racing saves a great deal of mental energy.

The mental energy I saved paid off in the second half, where after dodging, weaving,
and perhaps stopping abruptly and starting back again, physically, I was starting to feel
it. There usually is a moment of panic where the brain spits out “I can’t keep doing this”
or some variation and it’s our job to remind that voice that what we are doing is hard.
Follow that up with a simple thing to focus on, in this case was the thinning of the crowd
down Stotzer Pkwy, where I was able to get my breathing back to normal and simply
use upcoming turns as reference points. “I get to Olsen, I’m good” ….” I climb the little
hill, it flattens”, “I get on the military walk, let the statue pull me in”. These little
benchmarks may sound silly, but in practice can be really helpful.

I knew once I could see Kyle Field, I should get a second wind if I managed myself right.
Fortunately, that seemed to be the case. Even if my legs and lungs were burning-
because they were, I was able to tell myself all kinds of encouraging things to get me
into the stadium.

I went from feeling awesome, to a little frustrated and tired, to managing effort, to
excitement. My legs and lungs were still talking loudly to me; I told myself to give the
last push through the tunnel upon entering the stadium. Hearing my name called out as
“state champion” was really cool, and I probably smiled for the first time in the entire
event. It was also really cool to represent the BRC in getting to the line first-despite the
challenging situations I faced.

Bottom line-racing is hard. No matter what pace you are currently at. If we allow
ourselves, however, we can work to access our best racing selves by looking and
working within. Hope y’all enjoyed and maybe even got a little nugget here or there you
can use in your own running. See y’all out there.