One Year to 26.2: Mental Preparation (PART 3 – Lindsey Clark)

This is the third in a 4-part series on my journey to training and completing my first marathon. I’ll cover (1) my ‘why’ and training, (2) nutrition, (3) mental preparation, and (4) the stories from race day. For anyone thinking about training for their first marathon, I hope this can inspire you and provide some understanding of what you might experience in your own training journey. 

The “Why”

Almost one year ago from today on February 21, 2025, I had my first call with Coach Lana. A lot of personal things had happened in my life over a long 6-year period, and I had let that interfere with my fitness. Part of my ‘why’ early on was to return to myself, to prioritize activities that I loved to do and bring me joy and support. Unsurprisingly, Coach Lana also brought up the ‘why’ early on in coaching and the role of defining the ‘why.’ It was really in the first couple months that I wrote down my ‘why.’ I think this is a really important step, and it becomes quite critical when the days get long and hot, training becomes a little monotonous, you get tired, your body is often fatigued, miles are stacking up. Training for an endurance sport can really take up a lot of your time and mental and emotional space. Understanding your motivations very deeply and not allowing it to entirely encompass your life can be a challenge. Further, I routinely re-visited my ‘why,’ and it surprisingly changed a bit over the year. It’s still changing some. As I get further into my endurance sports journey, my motivations shift slightly-for me, defining the ‘why’ is a continual process where there’s no such thing as a state of done. I make a commitment to think about it deeply and refine if needed at least once every 8 weeks.

Mental Game: Early Training

If you talk to almost anyone who has run a marathon, they will often tell you that the mental game is half or more of the battle. I’m no different. The mindset component was crucial, and this remains the case as I continue to new goals this year. Early in my training, the mental game really centered around consistency and presence. For several months, even into the summer, I was hyper focused on working the training plan. I typically didn’t look too far ahead in my training plan unless I was on business travel. I just got up every day, looked at what I needed to train my body to do that day, and executed the plan. I had to learn quickly how to discern between when I needed just to push myself and when my body legitimately needed a rest. This is very difficult to do and really takes practice and patience. There were a few times I went out for a run, and a mile in, I was just exhausted and/or my body was hurting. I knew immediately to back off the training for that day. You learn how to listen to your body. I think a key element was maintaining presence each and every day-I looked at each day as an opportunity to incrementally improve. My goal was always to train for that day-work on form, lift heavy if I could, work on mobility. Don’t think about the marathon. Think about what you need to accomplish that day and that day only. 

Mental Game: Late Training to Marathon

Toward the end of the summer, especially when my long runs were getting over 10 miles, a new mental game had to kick in. I had to start practicing a lot of mental presence for long periods during the weekend long runs. Also, the summer was so hot-running through all that had been brutal. Training was becoming pretty routine and it was wearing on me. One thing I did that wasn’t planned, but I think helped a lot, was that I very randomly decided to do a sprint triathlon in September. Coach Lana was all for it-I didn’t quite realize it at the time, but having something to break up the routine a little for a month or so and have another focus really helped keep things interesting. It was a nice mental break honestly, and my marathon training didn’t suffer for it. After the tri, it was right back to regularly scheduled programming for the most part. The only difference was, now I had some swimming added to the cross-training mix, which was nice. 

It was really after my long runs started getting over 13.1 that I had to really change that way I was mentally approaching them. Even when you like to run, it’s easy to get stuck in a mindset that it’s a task to be completed. Honestly, if I had kept that up, I don’t think I would have made it. This is where the why comes in-I re-visited my why a lot during this period of training. I recall that one run I had that was about 15 miles, I made a commitment to really looking forward to the day-I hydrated, slept well, had all my stuff prepared. I went out to my regular place Haw Ridge to run that day, and told myself, “I get to do this.” There are people out there who can’t do what I get to do today, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be here. It entirely changed my perspective-I didn’t wear headphones, noticed a lot about the area and the people I passed. It was a wonderful day. I recall getting back home entirely energized. 

Another mindset that is important is the technical mindset-I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase that your mind gives up before your body. I think there’s some truth to this. There have been many times, and there still are, that I’m in the middle of a run and I’m just starting to feel heavy. My legs are heavy and my pace is slowing. You have to think to yourself that your body is prepared for this and start focusing on maintaining good form. I have found that running requires a phenomenal amount of presence that has spilled over into other areas of my life, and I’m grateful for it. 

The message here is: preparation of your mind is just as critical as preparation of your body. We’ll cover more mental game in part 4 and discuss the mental game during the event. Stay tuned for part 4 and the last of this series!