I recently have been thinking about what goes into running a marathon, mentally. After just completing another marathon (Erie Marathon in PA) and going through the all to common battle of the mind to break free of that fabled “wall” we all dread at about around mile 20, I’ve realized that the marathon is really a mind race. Truly if your mentally in there fighting you will do good and come out on top.

It’s funny to look back and see how little things during such a stressful and long race can make a big impact. Myself I found that even though I might think I’m doing really bad during the race, sometimes I’m not running as slow as I might think. Has this ever happened to you?

If so I now know from experience you should ignore it and just run your race and pretend as if you’re running wonderfully and running the pace and time you want or at least never give up on the possibility you get reach that time or pace even if it seems almost impossible with what you have already run during that race. It’s never impossible!

One of the things we seem to forget is a marathon is really a long race and there is actually a lot of room for making up on mistakes and such you may have made during the way.

So as to not ramble on too much about this. I suggest really keeping strong mentally in a marathon, in fact I would say it’s one of the most important things. Its really funny, I’ve made that mistake… as I was so concentrated on other aspects of the race (my legs, food, water) and never really put the attention on being mentally strong. But I now see that it is more important than any of the other aspect.

In the end I’m really glad I’m a runner and that I’ve learned and realized the things I have from pushing myself through till the finish. These things help one not in just running but also in the living-ness of life.