How do I stay strong when it hurts?
Build your own mental game plan for race day: cue words for each phase, an if-then plan for the moment it gets hard, and a short rehearsal to run through in the final week. Free, no account.
From your coach
“Your training runs the race. This won't add fitness you haven't built. What it does is keep your head in the game in the moments that decide your result, so the fitness you've got actually shows up. Build it once, then rehearse it.”
Relax and let it come to you. The pace should feel easy here, so hold back while everyone else rushes. Cue: Smooth and strong.
Lock into the rhythm. One kilometre at a time, repeating your word and trusting the work. Cue: Smooth and strong.
This is what you came for: the months of work I've put in. When the voice says "I can't hold this", you answer with your plan, not with panic.
WHEN it bites around 32 km and you hear "I can't hold this", THEN shorten your stride, drop your shoulders, take one slow breath, say "Smooth and strong", and run only to the next marker. Then do it again.
One rehearsed response for the moment that decides your race. This is the heart of it.
Run the first half with discipline. Come through halfway around 1:45:00, no faster. If it feels too easy early, you're doing it right.
In the last 7 to 10 days before the race, run this through in your head for five minutes a day. You're not picturing a perfect race. You're rehearsing how you respond when it gets hard, so on the day the response is automatic.
Run Gold Coast Marathon in your head. See yourself start calm and controlled. Feel the rhythm through the middle, relaxed, repeating "Smooth and strong". Then it bites around 32 km. This is the moment you rehearsed: you shorten your stride, breathe, say your word, and run to the next marker. You think of the months of work I've put in, and you keep moving. See yourself finish, knowing you stayed in the fight.
Train the body too.
A clear head only helps if the fitness is there. Build the plan, then rehearse it.