Important Club Links
Race Series Pages
Upstate Trail Series
Upstate Road Series
Upstate Brew Series
Upstate Youth Series
Upstate Giving Series
Upstate Ultra Series
Every summer, it happens again.
I tell myself, “Alright… this is it. The schedule slows down a little, I’m going to train consistently, I’m going to roll into fall feeling strong, prepared, and ready.”
And then summer does what summer does.
The heat shows up like it owns the place. A tropical storm rolls through. The humidity turns every run into a wet blanket. And suddenly that perfect little training plan I had in my head starts slipping through my fingers.
For a long time, I used to believe that one bad run could ruin everything.
One rough day, one scattered week, one missed long run, and I’d start thinking, “Well… there it goes. The goal race is months away, but I already messed it up.”
I used to think success required perfection. Like training had to be spotless, and then race week had to be spotless, and then the day before the race had to be spotless, and then race morning had to be spotless… and if anything went sideways, the whole thing was doomed.
But the longer I’ve been running, and the longer I’ve been coaching, the more I’ve realized something.
Running is a mirror.
It reflects whatever we’re carrying.
And I tell my athletes that all the time, especially the younger ones, because they’re still learning what pressure feels like, what doubt feels like, what frustration feels like. Honestly… I’m still learning too.
And sometimes I don’t have the perfect words for them in the moment.
But I do know this: most of what we wrestle with is temporary.
And a lot of the “problems” we feel in running aren’t even out on the course.
They’re between our ears.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at a start list before a race and thought, “Okay… who’s in my age group?”
Or worse… “Is that person showing up again?”
You know the one. The person you’ve built into this big rival in your head. The “arch nemesis.” The one you swear always catches you in the last quarter mile like they’ve got a personal grudge.
And after enough races, I’ve learned something humbling.
My arch nemesis has never been them.
It’s been me.
Because when we start fighting that uphill battle in our heads, we don’t just make excuses… we build them into terrain.
We make the hills steeper than they are.
We make the valleys deeper than they need to be.
And eventually we create this war between what we imagined training should look like and what training actually is. And the gap between those two gets so frustrating that we’d rather quit than feel “behind.”
That’s why I love studying the psychology side of sport.
Because athletes don’t always succeed or fail based on fitness alone.
They succeed or fail based on their ability to clear the hurdle in their own mind.
I remember the first time I thought about a marathon. It felt impossible. Like something other people did.
And then I ran one.
And what happened next surprised me. I didn’t think, “Never again.”
I thought, “Wow… I could go faster.”
And then my mind immediately followed it up with, “Wow… I could go further.”
That’s the power of perspective. And it changes everything.
And if there’s one coaching piece I wish I focused on even more with my athletes, it’s this:
When your mind is aimed at the goal instead of the obstacle, your actions start lining up.
Things start falling into place.
Not perfectly. Not magically....
