Runners Amnesia

It is kind of ironic that I can’t remember if I have previously blogged about “runners amnesia” but I thought I would touch on the subject since it is relevant to my last race. I first learned about runners amnesia on a shuttle bus back from the 2006 US Cross Country Championships on the radio station that the bus driver was tuned into. I don’t know why I was actually paying attention to the background noise, but I was. The station was one of those typical overly loud sports talk shoes where most armchair quarterbacks rant and rave about nothing important. However, on this shoe they had a sports psychologist on who was touching on the importance for baseball players to develop instant amnesia. He used several of the greatest baseball players in history as examples of players who had developed the skill to completely forgeting all their shortcomings, which is typically seen as arrogance from outsiders, but to the player this “forgetfulness” leads to overwhelming self confidence.

As I thought about what the sports psychologist had to say it really stuck with me. I thought a lot about how I tended to brew on bad workouts and races for days, months, sometimes even years. I thought about how I let previous failures impact my future performances by going into races with zero self confidence because I was remembering all my previous bad races and workouts. It was then that I realized I needed to develop instant runners amnesia.

It has taken a lot of practice to develop runners amnesia, but I must be getting better at it because as I was thinking about what to write my blog about I started writing about going to Minnesota to watch Sara compete in the US 1 mile Championships, then I suddenly remembered that I was in the race as well. I guess I am finally developing the skill of forgetfulness.

Of coarse, as with most things in life, there is a balance here. I should obviously learn from my mistakes (like running the first 400 meters of a mile faster than I have run a 400 in over a year) but I shouldn’t hold those mistakes against myself. This is were grace comes in. I have to constantly give myself the grace to mess up sometimes and not mull on it and beat myself up over it. Easier said than done for sure, and it certainly takes practice, but it can sure go along way in improving our overall joy in our races and it also builds the confidence that is so important in athletics. So next time you have a bad race or workout, take a deep breath and forget it.