Not that anyone is listening to a 20th place finisher ;-) but the one thing
that really works for me is talking through the course, out loud.
For some reason I can never do it at big events, too much on my mind or
something, but when we have a smaller event, and especially when I take a
passenger (newbie) on a run, I talk out the course and it feels like I am
going so slow, but the time is one of my best runs. Since I am describing
what I will be doing, I am ready for it and it just happens that much better,
without ever getting behind or being supprized.
Of course at Nationals, I got to the end of the (much longer) courses, and
didn't say a word, and had to think about what I did, it was not fresh in my
mind. I was only able to think of what corners I did bad, most of them. I
finally was able to talk it through on my last run on the north course, and
it was better, and mved me up 4 places from the previous days finish. I guess
some of it is the big event jitters. The most recent event I ran against Jeff
Cashmore, I was less than 1 second behind on a 50 second course (I was
feeling like a trophy was possible). In Topeka I was over 2 seconds back,
each day!
This Sunday we have another local event, I sure hope I can get back to where
I was before Nationals. I am currently 10th out of over 100 in both Chicago
SCCA and TSSCC. This is definately a mental sport, much more than physical.
Gary M.
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