When the Race Doesn’t Go to Plan… What Keeps You Going?

Do you ever enter an event and question yourself? Not “what training do I need to do?”, “Will I be fit enough?”, “do I need new shoes?” but more wondering what is your “why” – why am I doing this?
Many people enter races for the final result and the thrill of going for a PB, but others do if for charity, for the scenery, for the camaraderie, for the celebratory food and drink afterwards (or even at aid stations along the way), or just to escape the grind of daily life or to get the motivation to go out to a run.

Having recently been at Tarawera with the CurraNZ crew and experienced the horrendous weather and trail conditions first hand, it made me think about things out of my control that can affect my “target” or ‘A’ race. The way that people react to these situations is often dependent on their “why” for being there in the first place.
We often hear the phrase “it’s about the journey, not the destination” and this can also be applied to running.
If you run with a “purpose” rather than a “target”, then you’ll not be disappointed by what happens on race day, as the event itself is just the icing on the cake - the main event has already happened - you got yourself there, whatever form that journey took.
Another thought is that if it is all about the goal, then it’s very easy to get “post-race blues”….after all, if you’ve achieved your target then what have you left to look forward to and strive for….but if it’s about the journey then you’ll never really arrive as there’s always more to come.
I’ve been to events with torrential rain such as this year’s Tarawera mud-athon, or Ultra-Kosci a few years ago (when many runners were forced to stop for a while due to dangerous storms). I’ve also seen baking heat affecting runners and their times, eg Sydney marathon in 2023, an incident causing a diversion on a course (natural : the first time I ran Pollock parkrun in Glasgow it was 5.3km due to a tree having fallen across the normal path, or manmade: Ultra Jervis Bay had the route diverted to enable clear access to the air force base due to Middle East politics), or even an organisational glitch (aid stations not being set up by the time we got there, and drop bags not having yet been dropped) …. but in the grand scheme of things, at each of these events, we were all still out there running. We all had the satisfaction of knowing we’d put the work in week after week to get there, and that was what it is all about!
Consider intrinsic motivation vs extrinsic results - you won’t always run a PB, but you can always be thankful that you’re still out there running!