Racing Anxiety

   Nerves! I've been running over 40 years, and still feel them at the start of a race. The Watchung Hills Alliance 5-k or New York Marathon, it doesn't matter. The feeling of tension, consciously and physiologically, is the same.
   Sometimes I look at is an advantage - that the only reason I'm doing better than some others is that, in my own perception, I care more, or I'm more willing to push myself closer to the edge. Other times, I think it hampers my performance: over-thinking (who, other that myself, really cares about my final time at some local 5-K?), tightening up, and losing any semblance of form in my stride.
   I thought a lot about that while watching some of the Olympic events last week. During the Men's 5000-meter speed skating, the color commentator mentioned that in the last third of the race, the pain extends from "their toenails to their fingernails!" No doubt, and yet, they're able to keep seemingly perfect form as their heart rate hovers around 190 beats-per-minute!
    Nerves apparently played a part in Nathan Chen's disappointing performance in the Men's Figure Skating Short Program February 17th. A delay in his start time due to debris on the ice (actually Winnie the Pooh bears thrown in appreciation of Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu's performance) seemed to effect his concentration. Chen, the event favorite, failed to land cleanly on a single jump in his program and left in 12th place. The following night, with the expectations of winning a medal off, he landed an unprecedented four quad flips, and jumped all the way to fifth place!
  And skier Mikaela Shifrin openly addressed the topic of race anxiety after an all-over-the map performance in her events last week.
   Shifrin was under the radar four years ago at the Sochi Olympics, and excelled as an 18-year old. More success, and pressure, followed in succeeding years, and Shifrin became one of the faces you always saw on television in NBC's promotion of the PyeongChang Games.
   The New Hampshire native (with Jersey roots!), took gold in the Giant Slalom on February 16th, but the next day, suffered from either a stomach flu or severe anxiety that made her vomit before her opening run of the slalom, and placed a disappointing fourth.
    At the top of the slope, she felt "Almost like a food poisoning feeling," she told reporters. "Like, what is happening!' Between her first and second run, she said, "Okay, get over yourself and do what you can!"
   Every weekend warrior, like myself, can relate!