Several years ago, while living in Texas, I competed in a 50-mile race. The conditions were ideal for a fun time — sunshine, cool weather, great friends, and sloughs of despond (1) (mud pits).
The course was serpentine, with several loops that connected in the center, like flower petals. This was neat because it meant we never had to run the same stretch of ground twice. Or, at least, it should have meant that.
Before sunrise, the lead pack of runners went off course. I was among them. We retraced our steps and found our way back. A few miles later, a pack of runners went off course again. I was among this group, too. We found our way back a second time.
I only ran about two extra miles that day. This was not an appreciable sum in the context of running 50 more. But I lacked this perspective on race day. I was frustrated and despondent. At one point, I stood alone in the middle of a cow field, thinking, “Look at your life! Look at your choices!” My resolve evaporated, and my pace slowed.
Eventually, I found my rhythm again and enjoyed the rest of the race. But this was not the first time that poorly managed emotions impeded me from competing at a level commensurate with my fitness. It was not the last time either.
Sabrina Little dealing contemplating how poorly managed emotions could affect her race. Photo courtesy of Sabrina Little.
Running on Emotions
There is a popular expression in the endurance world: “Emotions don’t dictate outcomes.” The idea is that our feelings have no substantial bearing on how we perform. Feelings are unanchored from reality. We can ignore their declarations and carry on, executing our race plans regardless.
There is a semblance of truth here. Over a long mountain race, feelings often rise and fall in ways that mirror the topography of the course. There are lots of ups and downs. You can feel elated, sad, lonely, enthusiastic, and anxious — all over a stretch of a few miles — and carry on anyway. If you wait a few minutes, often these feelings (the very good ones and the very bad ones) will regress to the mean.
But like most slogans, “emotions don’t dictate outcomes” is not entirely accurate. This inaccuracy is worth pointing out because it can distort our understanding of the role emotions play in our lives and our responsibility to change them.
The Concept
Emotions are mental states. Unlike moods, emotions are intentional, meaning they have objects, or are ‘about’ something. You can probably name many emotions — anger, love, disgust, shame, excitement, awe, and frustration. Perhaps you have already experienced several of these today.
Emotions have characteristic feelings or sensations. For example, I feel lightness and pleasure when I am happy. Often, emotions involve bodily phenomena. For instance, my chest tightens when I am nervous. And sometimes emotions dispose us to perform certain actions. For example, when I am mad, I cross my arms or raise my voice (2).
While we often recognize emotions by the feelings they generate, they are best defined in terms of their perceptual content (3). For example, when I am angry, I construe someone or something as worthy of ire. When I admire, I appreciably perceive someone, construing them as excellent. When I love someone, I perceive them as worthy of my care and attention.
“Emotions don’t dictate outcomes.” Except when they do. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Why Emotions Matter
Emotions provide much of the richness and color of a human life. They connect us to one another and to the world. Emotions play an epistemic role, as a source of information. They play a motivational role, too — inclining us to act in certain ways. And emotions are integrally connected to character. Our desires, affections, apprehensions, and inclinations reflect who we are and what we care about. For example, the courageous person has suitable fear in the face of risk. The witty person takes fitting pleasure in jokes. The just person becomes angry at the right things and responds accordingly.
Emotions are also important for runners. They can be a source of motivation and strength. But it is also common for races to be upended by rogue or undisciplined emotions. Emotions can bolster our efforts, but they can also undo us.
With these things in mind, let’s explore three emotions that have a substantial bearing on how we perform, fear, excitement, and frustration.
Fear
Remember in the late 1990s, when pre-teens wore shirts that said “Fearless” on them? No? Okay. Me neither.
Fearlessness is not a good goal. It means we take unsuitable risks and put ourselves into perilous situations. We are reckless. We start races at paces too quick to sustain, and we end up in a hole. We summit peaks through lightning storms or otherwise put ourselves into harm’s way.
Of course, the opposite vice (cowardice) is not an asset for performance either. We do not want to be timid, experiencing outsized fear in the face of risks. This can prevent us from undertaking worthy challenges in the first place.
The goal is courage, an excellence with respect to fear. Courage is not the absence of fear. It is marked by well-ordered fear, enduring frights and difficulties that matter, in the right way, for the right reasons (4). Courage is an asset in performance and a constitutive feature of a good life.
Excitement
The cross-country team I used to coach once lost a race because of too much excitement. It was an important race — and local — so the school surprised our team by sending a bus full of students to support them. They had friends across the course, cheering everywhere. It was very kind.
But when I saw how quickly my runners came through the first mile, I knew they were in trouble. Their excitement rendered them incapable of executing their race plans. They came undone by mile two when the shock of that first quick mile settled into their legs. Thereafter, I watched them jog to the finish like their legs were encased in Jell-O molds as their friends looked on, clapping (5).
It is not just negative emotions, like fear, that can imperil racing. Sometimes positive emotions carry us away, or they prevent us from being thoughtful about race plans. We have to manage these emotions, too, if we want to get the most out of ourselves on race day.
Rogue or undisciplined emotions can affect performance and motivation. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Frustration
Earlier, I described a 50-mile race I ran in Texas, where I went off course twice in the first 10 miles. I felt bad for myself. I was frustrated. Honestly, frustration was an emotion that was appropriate, given the circumstances.
But route-finding is part of trail running. It is a feature, not a bug, of these events. If I want to ensure that I never go off-course in a race, I should just run track races instead.
Also, while my frustration was fitting, allowing that emotion to fester over the course of my race and squelch my joy would not have been helpful for me. I needed to recommit to the finish line and govern my emotions adequately so I could honor my competitors, and my training investments, well.
Thankfully, I was able to do that. Otherwise, I would have missed a great race.
Final Thoughts
Often our emotions are poorly ordered or ill-suited in ways that can have a direct bearing on our running. We experience too much or too little fear in the face of risk. Our excitement carries us away and interferes with clear thinking. Or we allow frustrations to thwart our commitment to finishing a race. In these cases, emotions can, indeed, dictate outcomes. They can undo us.
The great news is, our emotions can be matured. We can practice responding suitably to risk, developing courage. We can manage how we face adversity in training so that we can reliably do so with excellence on race day. We can practice committing to our plans despite race day excitement or nerves, and we can learn to stay put through the rise and fall of passing sensations.
Doing so is an important part of self-governance in running. It is also part of a flourishing life.
Call for Comments
- Have you ever let your emotions get the better of you during a run or a race?
- Do you have strategies for overcoming detrimental negative — and positive — emotions?
References
- This is an allusion to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1843 essay, “Celestial Railroad.” The slough is an extensive quagmire. These are my favorite racing conditions, but I would not enjoy a figurative quagmire, outside of racing.
- See S. Little. The Examined Run (OUP 2024), Chapter 3 for a more complete explanation of emotions as connected to running.
- There are many competing theories of emotions. Among philosophers, evaluative and perceptual theories are currently among the most dominant.
- Aristotle NE 1106b17–35
- S. Little. The Examined Run. p. 73
