It’s Friday the 13th so I couldn’t let the day pass without posting about superstitions! I mostly have 3 racing superstitions:
- Can’t race with a Garmin. Despite my recent Garmin-love posts, I feel like racing with a Garmin will cause me injury or lead me to the worst race of my life. Silly, right?
- Can’t wear the race shirt pre-race or during the race. This came about because I wore the race shirt the day before once and had a horrible race. Crazy, I know.
- Can’t talk too much about goals pre-race. I don’t like to discuss my race goals too much before they happen. I will talk about them with the important people- coach, race director who gets me comp entry, husband, but no one else. Don’t want to jinx it!
Do you have any racing superstitions? Running superstitions? I would love to hear them!
I like hearing about superstitions, they always make me laugh. But I don’t have any… that I can think of. Kinda lame. womp womp.
HA! So level headed! I know I’m not the only superstitious one around though!
definitely not… I think more people are than aren’t actually!!!
I have weird OCD about having the same meal before every race (banana w/PB and my homemade oatmeal raisin cookie) and I always have to have my nails painted! haha. I think I had them done right before I did my first half and it spiraled from there…
Well, the meal thing is a smart one. Everyone says stick to what you know works so good job! And the nails are a pretty cool superstition!
I’m TOTALLY with you on the no-race-shirt-before-or-during-race. If I don’t finish the race for whatever reason (only one or two of those), I can’t wear the shirt. Used to be I couldn’t wear the shirt unless it was a GOOD race but then I got older…and… I used to refuse to wear a watch while racing, too, because I wanted to run as hard as I could regardless of time (which would often just make me panic if faster than normal), but then I ran longer distances and realized I go out too hard if I’m not paying attention. In high school and college I used to wear a necklace that my grandpa earned when he ran track in college. (I’d much rather have one sweet track-shoe-pendant necklaces!) Now I just need PB and J on race morning, wait to wear the race shirt, and poo before the gun goes off!
Oh yes, the poo before the gun goes off is huge. Not a superstition, just a necessity!