McArdle tries to talk to himself out loud before every race (Alex Moore) |
And that’s why so many runners have developed little quirks and rituals that must be practiced before the big race. For Marla Runyan it’s wearing a new pair of socks before every race, and for the BYU teams it’s going to church the day before a meet.
Sigmund Freud would have called it a superstition. And he also called it a waste of time.
But ritual brings comfort, and a reassuring feeling that eliminates any worries. Following that worn pattern that has stood the test of time just seems to work. And after all, the best ones do it.
“My one race ritual is that I have two bowls of cereal the morning of my race,” said Jorge Torres of Colorado.
That’s a fairly simple practice. But one of Torres’s teammates has a more unusual ritual.
“I don’t cut my fingernails,” Dathan Ritzenhein said. “I
only consider myself ever
having one really bad race. And that was the only time I cut my fingernails.”
Along that same line, Molly Huddle, a freshman from Notre Dame, can’t help but be superstitious.
“I change my nail polish before each race,” said Huddle. “It sounds dumb. But it\'s my way of letting go of the last race, whether I ran well or not, and taking the one to come as a fresh endeavor.”
For others it’s more logical.
“One big thing I had to do before every race in high school was talk to my coach,” said Nate Brannen of Michigan. “That was my big pre-race talk. Even if it was only for him to say, just do what you\'ve been doing, or whatever; I needed to hear something from him to feel like I was ready.”
Wisconsin sophomore Josh Spiker’s superstition is religious, even though he isn’t.
“I usually say a quick prayer. I don’t agree with a specific religion but it’s a habit and I\'d rather do it just in case,” said Spiker.
Freud would probably have considered runners their own branch of psychology, but not a positive one.
“I do not believe that an occurrence in which my mental life takes no part can teach me anything hidden concerning the future shaping of reality,” wrote Freud.
So maybe the goal is to not have superstitions, so nothing is left to chance. Tom McArdle, a senior at Dartmouth, thinks so.
“I have tried to eliminate all my pre-race rituals,” said McArdle. “I do not like to be dependant upon anything right before the race.”
But McArdle might have another problem that Freud would question.
“I talk to myself out loud before every race,” said McArdle. “I
just say whatever comes to my mind. It helps dissipate the nervous tension for
me.”