Cross country: a sport that involves running, running, and well…more running. People think it’s crazy that they can run miles and miles at a time. They often ask “How do you do it?” The question that usually follows is “What do you think about while you run?” To put an end to this mystery, I asked some of the cross country runners what they think about during races.
Here’s what they had to say:
Sophia Fricke: “Well, I don’t know, it kind of depends. Sometimes I just think about whatever is going on in my life. It’s like my zen space and I just kind of chill.”
Peter Merkel: “I’m gonna pass this guy, I’m gonna pass that guy. Sometimes I think of songs, songs go through my head. But really, I just think about…GO!”
Abby Richardson: “I don’t really think that much at all when I race unless I’m catching up to somebody and I feel like it’s raceable or I can try to catch them. And then I think about trying to catch them and then if I catch them, I’m like ‘don’t be upset if they catch you back.’ It’s just gonna happen, probably, maybe…and then if they don’t, I’m just happy and if they do, I’m like ‘whatever…’”
Forest Fleischer: “I always think about…like sometimes I get super competitive so I just need to calm myself down and be like ‘Forest, just think about your own time. Stop worrying about everyone else.’ And sometimes I think if I don’t wish someone…not good luck but if I pass them and don’t say ‘good job,’ that it’s gonna come back to me as karma and they’re gonna beat me. So I always have to say ‘good job!’
Graham Miles: “Well, what I normally think about is just tactics. I always try to focus on running the inside of curves, passing people in an efficient way. I always try to…if I ever start cutting little deals with myself like, you know, ‘oh, I don’t need to PR today I don’t feel so good,’ I’ll just say ‘shut up, Graham, shut up!’ I talk to myself and try to get myself psyched so I can just focus on just running the best race that I can. If I did that, it doesn’t really matter what I got. I gave it my best shot.”
Caroline Unger: “Okay, today we ran at Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. So, I thought about all the other teams as being Confederates and traitors and just…you know terrible people. And we were the Union. So yeah, that’s what I thought about.”
Claire Lawson: “Usually I think about how much it hurts. And then today, I took Jasmine’s advice and thought about Arabic, and then that wildebeest scene in The Lion King. And then I had a song stuck in my head. And then I thought ‘okay it’s halfway done so…now I only have fifteen hundred to the turn and fifteen hundred back.’ And…yeah! It was actually a pretty decent mental race today.”
[in reference to Gettysburg College and the Civil War] “I also thought about the really open field and how they usually stand (gestures) this line and this line and shoot at each other. I was like ‘well, at least we’re not dying today.’”
Calvin Ball: “Well, I think about just having a good time, improving on getting faster, just doing the best that I can physically. And just work hard every day, and just relieve stress. That’s a big thing with running in college. It gets rid of the stress of all your classes and it just gives you a moment just to reflect.”
So that’s what goes on in some of their minds while they run. No two runners think about the same thing, so the definite answer to this question will always be a mystery.
There’s a quote that holds some truth for all runners: “Running is a mental sport…and we’re all insane!”
