October 13, 1979 (Saturday)

From running log:
Ran 3.5 miles on the grass and roads around Warner Park in Madison after going to the Wisconsin Badger football game with Aunt Chris. It was cool and breezy, 42F. I ran well, and I feel good. I want to really kill it at the SCC race on Thursday.

30 years later:
Wisconsin Badgers football ... they finished 4-7 that year, but on this date in mid-October they managed to beat Michigan State 38-29. The previous weekend they had lost to Indiana by a score of 3 to 0, so clearly this was a marked improvement. Of course, the following week they'd travel to Columbus, Ohio to get shellacked by Ohio State 59 to 0. Ouch. But this isn't a blog about football ...

Our cross country team was riding the wave of a successful season and feeding off of a building momentum enhanced further by everyone's dedication and excitement. On this evening, while I was running at an easy pace around Warner Park, I was day-dreaming about running that conference meet. I was going over the course in my head, thinking about the start, the turns, the grass, the road crossings. The route around the golf course in Tomah was 1.5 miles long, so we'd be running two complete laps. It had only a couple of minor hills, but one was a significant up and down right before the finish line. In my mental rehearsal I plotted over and over again how I would attack that hill, on both laps. If anyone was still with me on that last lap, they would have to kill themselves to stay with me on that last hill.

Visualization is a technique of using guided imagery to go over your upcoming performance. Research has proven it to be effective across myriad sports. I was just a teenager then, I had never even heard the term. But I was using the techniques simply because I couldn't help myself. It's like the kid in the backyard at dusk, dribbling the basketball and counting down the final 10 seconds of the imaginary game until he tosses up his game-winning shot at the buzzer ... over and over again. These little games we play in our heads are inspired by our enthusiasm, and they also happen to create self-fulfilling prophecies. In other words, picturing yourself running strong and taking the victory can actually make it come true. Pretty cool.