It’s race day – and you’ve got nerves. Really serious nerves. Suddenly those nerves force you to have doubt:
“What did you do?”
“You’re not ready for this, what were you thinking?”
“My gosh, look at the size of those athlete – I can’t compete with them.”
When my wife and I got married decades ago, we bought a cat – a Maine Coon Cat that we named Woody. He was about six-months old when my mom called one afternoon to extend an invitation for dinner at her house; cat welcome. My mom’s house had 16-foot vaulted ceilings in the living room and a mirror that went floor to ceiling about ten feet wide. We came in through the garage as normal and put Woody down. He thought he was pretty hot stuff as he walked around like a King checking out his new castle.
Until he got to that mirror.
You could almost see him thinking, “There’s a cat in my house! No problem, I’ll scare him away!” He arched his back, started hissing, growling and finally charged the other cat.
Except the other cat had the same idea. Those two cats almost got nose to nose before they turned tail and ran. It was 20-minutes before Woody came out of whatever corner he’d sought refuge in to slowly sneak around the couch to make sure he’d scared the other cat away. Gaining confidence with every step, he reached the end of the coach, rounded the end table . . . and came face to face with the other cat that was doing exactly the same thing. We had a difficult time eating dinner through the laughter as Woody spent the next two hours trying to figure out how to scare the other cat out of his house.
The moral of the story is “Don’t be afraid of the cat.” That cat likely sees you the same way you see it.
On race day, the only person you are truly racing is the person you looked at in the mirror that morning.
“But Scott that’s not true, I’m in a race to win my age-group.”
That’s great! And I hope you do. The problem is, when you race somebody else’s plan, the results rarely work out in your favor.
On race day, it’s about YOUR fitness, YOUR plan, and how YOU execute YOUR plan. It’s about you, not the other person.
So don’t be afraid of the cat.
