Parallels between rowing and running

I just finished watching The Boys in the Boat -- a great, inspirational movie from last year. So, why am I writing about this on my running blog? There are plenty of lessons that marathoners (and others) can take from it. In no particular order:

1) Take care of your body. If you don't, you can't expect to accomplish your goal.

2) Take care of your mind. Make sure that you allow yourself time for mental recovery, not just from physical fatigue, but also from any emotional setbacks unrelated to your upcoming race.

3) Be committed. If you ever tell yourself "I don't care," you won't succeed at your goal. No one else can care on your behalf and provide you the motivation that you lack within yourself.

4) Don't go out too fast! While there's plenty of excitement in the early miles, you need to conserve your energy for later in the race. As the adage goes, the first 20 miles is where the first half of your energy goes. You need the other half of your energy for the last 6.2 miles.

5) Always keep a little something in reserve for the home stretch. While rowing is competing with other teams to finish first, for well over 99% of marathoners, the true competition is only within oneself to meet or exceed the goal on the day, whether it is time to the finish or getting farther than you ever have before, or something in between. 

6) Pay attention to technique. There are so many ways that little flaws can harm performance -- both with respect to decreasing time as well as increasing the likelihood of injury. Having someone knowledgeable observe and critique your technique could very well be the extra tweak you need to achieve your goals.

7) Find a mantra that can break you out of a slump or distraction. Know how to talk to yourself to remind yourself of both your capability and your goal. ("You got this!" "You can do it!" "Pick up the pace!" "Run the mile you're in!")

I'm pacing the 3:40 group on Saturday. Hopefully I will be able to impart the above to my group's runners  in a meaningful way for them to get the most out of the day as possible. While I need to set the pace to get them across the finish in 3:39:30, I'm hoping that enough of them have already done most of these before race day, and that they do #5 well enough to blast away to finish a fair bit in front of me and shatter their goal time, and take advantage of #7 if it becomes necessary.