I'm running on a half, but everyone else is full

You are going to pick up your race packet for the half marathon you are so eager to run in. You have trained hard and are ready for a PR the next day at the race. As you walk into the expo, you see 2 areas; 1 for the half marathon event, the other for the marathon event. The area for the marathon event looks nicer, but who cares, you are picking up your race bib. You are then directed to get the rest of your racing swag; clear bag for putting your warm-up stuff in, tech shirt, samples, etc. As you approach this area, it's packed. You look around and notice that most of the people around you have bibs for the marathon. For some odd reason you start feeling uncomfortable, even a little embarrassed. All of the sudden your excitement for your race turns into a slight panic. Why do you feel this way?

Welcome to being a human! Competitiveness is a natural instinct. And although you may be shooting for a 10 min / mile pace for that half marathon, the idea of other people doing that marathon just drives you nuts. And that is completely natural. Even if you aren't ranked, professional, elite, etc., you will still feel the urge to be as good or better than everyone else around you, based on some factor you determine subconsciously. So, if this were a half marathon race only, the shear fact that you are here to complete the race and everyone around you is here to at least complete the race, puts you on equal footing. However, you doing the half and others doing a full marathon means you are running half the distance they are. You have therefore decided subconsciously that your competitive factor for that situation is total distance. For some people, it may be the fact that they are getting their number in the general line, but see others getting their number from the elite runner line. Now the factor is either speed or title or both.

Sadly, this feeling tends to discourage many people and even though they might complete their half marathon, they may give up and not do anymore races unless there is no other distance or runner status other than what they will be doing. In some cases, it causes a person to train even harder so the next time they will be one of those elites, or the person running the top distance, or something else. So, is there a way to cope with or use this natural instinct to your benefit?

The simple answer is yes. The truth is that it can be challenging and difficult. For someone like me, I fall into this classification: Competitive self-competitor. This basically means that although I feel very competitive with others, my primary focus is competing against myself. Using various psychological profiling techniques, I can justify this and say this is completely natural. But can I change this? Can I see someone else who is better and then make myself stop at nothing to beat them? Aside from physical limitations, I can achieve this. However, it's in my nature to analyze and over think everything, and then to come to a realization based on my conclusions. Therefore, it's extremely challenging for me to strive to beat someone else.

Here is a good example. I currently have trained to try and run an 8:30 min/mile pace at my upcoming half marathon. My prior time for a half marathon was around 9:07 min/mile. Based on what you now know about me, this time I trained for will more than satisfy my competitive nature. However, I have a coworker who will be running the same race. He is looking to run at a 6:52 min / mile pace. I find that impressive and inspiring, but know there is no way I will get to that level anytime soon. Therefore, I am not going to go out after my race and start training to run at that pace. However, I can take my coworker's time, and look at my long-term goals. One goal is to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I need to be running around a 7 min/mile pace to qualify. So then I tell myself "I can run as fast as him, and to prove it I am going to train to qualify for Boston in a couple of years". Now I have no limits. Usually, my typical thinking is "Okay, knocking another 1:30 min/mile off of your current goal time is not only not reasonable, but impossible for the short term." But because I can now use my coworker and put his time in terms of a way I can compete with myself, I will now be trying to achieve that goal time in as short a time as I possibly can.

So, do I already have a plan even though I don't know if I will even hit my current 8:30 min/mile goal? You betcha! To get myself to thinking this was rough. I had many failures and gave up many times. But I finally got it right, and now the sky is the limit. As a parting note, I used a half and full marathon as the example here, but you can use this for any distance or any event; running, swimming, cycling, triathlons, rock climbing...anything! If I can do it, you can do it too; just figure out what makes you tick; what drives you.  Good luck and remember, always persevere!