Race day psychology

As you know I follow a very strict training plan which my coach sets taking into account my seasons goals, my health, fitness and work schedule.  Every training session has an objective which keeps me focused.  The objective could be distance, speed, heart rate so I’ve always got something to aim at which motivates me through every session.  But is it different from race day?
This week I got to put it to the test.  My pal Stuart was running the Kielder 50 km Ultra on Saturday and Beth & I were going along to support him.  The idea was for us to run ahead of the race, cheer him on and then run back to see him finish.  That way we could get our training run in but the problem was how could we carry enough water for such a long run?  The answer; why not enter the race!  We were later joined by Gavin so Stuart had three supporters - well at least at the start line.  And that’s the problem when my toe stands at the start of a race.
I’d got a pass for the race from my coach on the basis it was a “training run” - didn’t want to upset her carefully balanced plan.  She set me a target of 5hrs 30 mins and looking at previous events I thought this was OK but I wasn’t going to be able to hang around.  I felt good in the run up to the race so when the hooter went off I headed out confidently.  After 3 km I was slightly ahead of my pals and pressed on thinking they might catch up later and I was comfortable with the pace I was running at and knew I’d slow down as the race went on.
The course was fantastic with the vast majority of it is truly trails and very little tarmac.  Some of the downhills through the forrest were technical as the ground was soft mud with hard rocks underneath and I had to catch myself a few times with a few ankle turns.  There was 995m of climbing and this is one of the differences I think with a training run.  Where ever possible I ran/shuffled the hills which was quicker than power walking.  If there was someone ahead of me then I “painted a target” on their back and hunted them down.  I made sure when I passed them I did so at pace and you could almost here them give up when they saw “the auld yin” pass them.
I ran the race on my own which is a good practice because you need to be happy with your own company but I learned a valuable lesson.  At one point there was a fork in the trail but there was no marker.  I didn’t know which way to go so followed the organisers instructions and ran back the direction I came from.  Fortunately I bumped into Ali who had downloaded the route onto her Garmin.  With her help we took the right direction so thank you Ali.  I will definitely be learning how to do that before my next race.  Me and technology have a difficult relationship!
I’m glad I had the race profile in my head as it allowed me to pace myself and know what was coming up.  At the 34km checkpoint I had a dropbag and my long awaited custard, mini pork pie and washed down with flat coke.  This was a real lift to my spirits and the fuel to get me up the remaining hills.  Still no sign of my pals so once I was over the last hill I picked up the pace - I didn’t want to leave anything out on the course, this wasn’t a training run.
I finished in 5hrs 6mins which I was very happy with as I’d definitely pushed it, the thought of a training run had been binned on the start line.  I was also delighted to find out I was the first over 50 male and received a lovely trophy from the organisers - chuffed to bits.  I was there to see my pals come in and between us team ATHelite rocked the event.  My coach was pleased and gave me today off to recover, because tomorrow I have a 2hr 8min run!  I’m using the time to eat my body weight in food, rest and study my next race which is the Highland Fling, a 53 mile hilly ultra on Saturday 27th April.  My fast time yesterday will mean I need to reprogramme my head about what time is possible.  Exciting times, excuse the pun!