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It’s Not All Mental

It was the final cross country race of my senior year when we ran my least favorite

course. It was hot and I had been struggling with a hip injury. These were the thoughts I had in

the back of my mind while I warmed up simultaneously trying to dismiss these nagging

ruminations. I focused on the facts: the weather would not change, the hill would not go away,

and my hip injury would not magically disappear. I had to learn to let go of these things and try

to think positively and look forward to the race. The gun went off and I felt amazing. I thought to

myself “Stay strong. You can do it,” as I pushed away thoughts like “I do not want to feel the

pain today.” Then, we hit the dreaded loop, the one that unfailingly made me feel more fatigued.

My legs began to feel tired, but not enough to stop me. I knew I was weary and not fully

dedicated to the race, but I kept ignoring these beliefs attempting to stay strong. Soon, my legs

began to feel like lead. The feeling crept up making them heavier with each step. My body

became exhausted all while I was fighting a mental battle with myself.

Not even a mile into the race, my leg hit the ground abruptly and a sharp pain shot up and

into my hip. “My injury is back” was my first thought. Immediately, I became conflicted. Part of

me knew that I had to keep running harder and another part just wanted to give up. I gave up. But

not in an obvious way. I didn't stop running or slow down intentionally. Instead I collapsed

mentally. I tried so hard to keep running but as each step became harder than the last, my mental

state only spiraled downward. I gave up mentally and I used my hip injury as an excuse to slow

down subconsciously. In the end I placed 44th, well below my expectations. I learned many

things from this race. One of the most important lessons being that running is primarily mental.

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Running has been a passion of mine since second grade and my interest in psychology

and neuroscience has been an interest that has developed over the years. As I grew older, I was

able to connect the two topics to see how much psychology impacts my races. I realized that I

could try and control my thoughts to benefit me. Of course, I had setbacks where I let my mind

control me such as in the anecdote described above. The race could have gone well or poorly, but

I ultimately chose to succumb to my negative thoughts because it seemed easiest. But how

exactly did this happen? I have experienced that a positive mindset leads to good races and

negative ones results in bad races. Is this true for all endurance athletes? I hope to understand

how mental strength is connected to neurotransmitters and our biology and how that impacts

performance. The question I have chosen to research is:​ How do psychological thoughts prior

and during an endurance event affect performance?

With endurance sports comes many setbacks and obstacles, but the strongest athletes are

the ones who have overcome these barriers. The biggest one that athletes face is their mind.

Athletes are the ones who tend to hold ourselves back the most. Whether it be by saying they are

not strong or fast enough, or thinking negatively about a race, they tend to set themselves up for

failure. But contrary to that, there are athletes who have competed to their absolute maximum

and broken these mental barriers. Take Julie Moss, kinesiology student at Cal Poly San Luis

Obispo at the time, who impulsively participated in the 1982 Hawaii Ironman World

Championship. She had a spur of the moment decision to sign up as part of her senior project at

Cal Poly. Without any previous experience, proper training, or serious commitment prior to the

race she made her way to the start line. She was in first place until the last few steps of the race

when her body physically collapsed. She fell numerous times, lost bowel control, and in the end

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decided to crawl to the finish. She later recounted this moment in an interview written by Kragen

stating ‘“I let my head drop and surrendered to the disappointment and the pain,” she said. “Then

that inner voice said, ‘just crawl!’ That forward movement showed me the meaning of being

victorious. It wasn’t about beating someone, it was about finishing”’ (Moss). Julie Moss

demonstrated that what an athlete can truly accomplish is beyond our imagination. She did not

hold herself back and claimed in another interview that ‘“Part of me is comfortable being

uncomfortable”’ (Moss). This is what all successful athletes have. They welcome the pain and

are able to learn to accept it. She was able to mentally overcome this block and succeed.

Perhaps mental strength has more to do with the build-up of experiences than sheer grit.

A tribe from Kenya, The Kalenjin, are an example of this. As stated in ​“What Kenyan Distance

Runners​ Can teach Us About Achievement”, “There are 17 American men in history who have

run under 2:10 in the marathon, while there were 32 Kalenjin who did it in October of 2011”

(Linkner). There have been many speculations as to how these men from this specific tribe are so

fast. One is genetics. Due to their thin ankles and calves it is said that it is easier to run due to

there being less weight to carry in each leg. However, this is not the most valid reason. Many

athletes can have a similar body type, but the mental strength of The Kalenjin is incomparable to

almost any other athlete. To become a part of this tribe, each man must take part in an

excruciatingly painful ritual. Occasionally, mud is put onto the face and left to dry and if it

cracks anytime throughout the ritual due to grimacing from the pain you are seen as a coward.

They have to crawl mostly naked through a tunnel of African stinging nettles. After, a member of

the tribe was beaten on the bony part of the ankle and “then his knuckles were squeezed together,

and then the formic acid from the stinging nettle was wiped onto his genitals” (Warner). An

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experience like so would definitely lead to new levels of mental strength and with this, one can

become a much stronger competitor. Like Julie Moss, they have become comfortable with the

pain. They don’t let themselves build their own mental barriers by saying a race or ritual is too

difficult.

For athletes who are not as experienced, building this mental strength to override

negative thoughts can be quite challenging. In a seminar directed by Charles Woolridge, Cross

Country and Track & Field Coach of Campolindo High School, he explained the many factors

that can hinder mindset. Unconscious sources such as heat accumulation, muscle damage, low

glycogen stores, or the amount of oxygen in the brain lead to signals being sent to the brain. This

causes more fatigue in an athlete and affects their mindset negatively. There are also factors such

as fatigue, both mentally and physically, motivation, emotional state, recovery, sleep, prior

training, and self-belief (Charles Woolridge). What one must do is learn how to deal with these

triggers, and if possible, avoid them. Creating a distraction, giving false feedback, or trying to

reframe these thoughts can help improve an athletes mindset. For example, if an athlete’s legs

are tired it is often perceived negatively, but by reframing this thought one can instead view it as

their legs are working hard: a more positive thought. Another mental setback that can impact

one’s race performance is fear or pressure. When asked in an e-mail interview how to overcome

this Nicolas Hack, a psychologist with a PsyD explained:

Sometimes it can be helpful to draw a distinction between ​our feelings ​and ​our reaction

to the feelings. Often we experience feelings, but then we make judgments about them;

we don’t like the feeling, we want it to go away, we get more upset because we feel a

certain way. In racing it can look like this: we experience anxiety about the race we’re

about to start, and we don’t like that anxiety, so we start fighting with that anxiety, and

we get more anxious because of our anxiety. So often fear isn’t what affects race results;

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it’s our reactions to our fear that affects race results. We get stuck in a fight with

ourselves, we ruminate, we obsess, we can’t stop thinking about it. The fear isn’t the

problem, it’s our response to the fear that’s the problem.

This is a clear example of how some athletes tend to spiral when faced with difficult situations.

When feelings like this occur, methods like restructuring are critical to controlling one’s

responses to mental problems. It is evident that athletes themselves have the power to control

mindset by changing reactions and manipulating thoughts to win the mental battle against

themselves.

Though learning to deal with triggers and negative beliefs is important to understand, it is

also crucial to learn why and how these thoughts are related to race outcomes. Hack explained

that when we think of negative thoughts, we tend to focus on the feelings associated with them.

This creates a “positive feedback loop where we think about our legs hurting, so we focus on the

pain in our legs, so we think about our legs hurting…and that can impact performance if we try

to then get rid of the thoughts and pain by going easier.” Methods like creating a distraction or

reframing work during the race to prevent situations like what Hack explained, but there are also

those used prior to racing. To prepare Olympic athletes, who must deal with pressure from fans,

expectations, and scrutiny, athletes use distinct techniques given to them from their own sports

psychologists. The most basic include focusing on past triumphs and visualizing the race. These

are done to prepare mentally and allow the athlete to imagine future stressors. By doing so they

can have confidence and feel tranquil once they are under the pressure of hundreds of cameras

(Berkes). Daniel Davis, a track coach and former athlete with a major in psychology also stated

the importance of preparation when interviewed. When talking about his Mt. Sac Invitational

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race he shared that where he lived there were no hills. His coach had to take his team to fire

roads to train properly in preparation for a race with many hills like Mt. Sac. Reflecting on the

race, Davis felt that the many hill repeats he did prepared him and gave him the confidence to

secure his second place win. Not unlike others, this contributed to self-belief, a factor previously

stated by Woolridge that greatly impacts one’s mental state and race performance.

Confidence and self-belief are incredibly important to succeed as an athlete. If an athlete

does not believe they can do it, then how will it ever happen? Davis recollected the story of

another race where he struggled and faced many difficulties, such as an inability to breathe well.

This persisted until he realized that he had the potential to go faster. He recalls, “I remember

thinking ‘your times are better than this guy’s, you should beat him, so let’s go!’ and I beat him

and that was in the last 120 meters. ‘I thought I should do this, I can do this, so lets do it.’” He

easily could have succumbed to the pain he was feeling, but instead he decided to ignore the

discomfort and, knowing he could pass the athlete, he did. Racing, especially in endurance sports

are all about learning how to cope with discomfort. Author Matt Fitzgerald wrote, “In a race, the

job of the muscles is to perform. The job of the mind is to cope. But here’s the hitch; The

muscles can only perform to the degree that the mind is able to cope. Endurance sports are

therefore a game of ‘mind over muscle’” (11). An athlete has total control over their race

mentally, but whether they recognize it or not, or continue to give maximum effort or give up, is

their choice.

Though it has been said that endurance sports are a game of mental toughness, there is

more to this than just psychological thoughts. There is a biological and physiological aspect to

mental toughness as well. The body has both catabolic and anabolic hormones. Catabolic

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hormones are released when the body is stressed. This allows an athlete to focus as well as

provide immediate energy when one exert effort physically or mentally. However, the immediate

energy provided by these hormones removes necessary nutrients from our body. When this

occurs, anabolic hormones reverse the damage and bring our body back to its baseline state. In

an individual, the amount of anabolic hormones is greater than catabolic hormones, this is the

growth index. When an athlete has a higher growth index they have a higher capability to

recover from mental or physical stress faster (Tri). This is what forms an athletes mental strength

and allows them to fatigue less easily. Amine chemicals, which are derived from ammonia, are

also important biological aspects of mental toughness. These chemicals are formed by the

“breakdown of proteins in foods” (“Animes”) and allow us to focus. Amines have many similar

functions as cortisol, but the difference is that amines disappear as soon as the stressor does. Tri

explains this in more detail claiming ​“In tough individuals, amine levels are lower at rest, but rise

more quickly and prominently when stressed or threatened, and then shut off quickly as soon as

the immediate threat is disposed of”. Due to this, an athlete’s baseline state and equilibrium is

not easily changed because of their tolerance for stress. Between these stages of stress and rest,

mental toughness is built through switches in anabolic and catabolic states. As stated by Tri,

“This constant switch builds endurance and builds the capacity for longer-lasting amine

reactions. So the answer to building mental toughness and mental resilience...seems to be

exposure to acute stress, followed by intermittent periods of rest in between acute stressors”. As

stated, building mental strength comes from exposing the body to stressors, similar to the

Kalenjin tribe mentioned earlier, and having the ability to adapt to them. But again, there is more

to mental toughness than just psychological and biological aspects.

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There is also a neurological aspect related to mental strength. Our neurotransmitters play

a major role in an athletes mental toughness and personality. Our body contains six major

neurotransmitters that send chemical signals between neurons. These neurotransmitters are

connected in almost every aspect forming what type of athlete we are and how we perceive

situations. In terms of endurance sports, these neurotransmitters play a significant role in how

athletes perform. The first is dopamine which affects an athletes motivation. Those who are more

sensitive to dopamine “​will have more mental toughness as well as a higher level of

self-confidence. Dopamine is in large part responsible for competitiveness, grit, and

self-confidence” (Thibaudeau). Those who are dominant in dopamine also tend to thrive with

intensity and hard-work. These dopamine-dominant athletes would prefer to have a variety in

workouts and they are so motivated, they can often work too hard putting their body at risk

(Sisson). However, unlike dopamine-dominant athletes, there are those who are dominant in the

neurotransmitter acetylcholine and tend to prefer a constant routine. This permits them to focus

on each part of the workout and perfect it. They are able to handle intensity, but only for periods

of time since they need to recover (Sisson). Another neurotransmitter is called Oxytocin which is

coined as the “bonding hormone”. A popular app used by endurance athletes named Strava is

able to hook its users by activating this neurotransmitter. By creating clubs, Kudos, or course

records users are more likely to enjoy the app as they feel more connected to others (Riley). Not

only is it evident there, but this chemical is why most people enjoy running with a group or

partner better. These positive and bonding social interactions can make a person happier and

more willing to run faster.

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A fourth neurotransmitter is called GABA, (g​amma-aminobutyric acid)​. This is the

primary inhibitory neurotransmitter meaning it slows the speed at which a neuron fires and

regulates muscle tone. Due to GABA being an inhibitory neurotransmitter, it can reduce anxiety:

however low levels of this can cause depression. This is proven by Christopher Bergland who

stated that ​“Major depressive disorder is often characterized by depleted glutamate and GABA”.

Luckily, it is possible to raise these levels of GABA. ​In a study performed by UC Davis

“researchers found that GABA and Glutamate levels increased in the participants who exercised

vigorously, but not among the non-exercisers” (Bergland). Since GABA and Glutamate levels

rise with exercise, this can allow an athlete to maintain a stronger and happier mindset when

competing, resulting in a better race performance. The most common neurotransmitter is

Serotonin, known as the “happy chemical”, which greatly impacts a person's stress and anxiety.

People with low levels of serotonin tend to be more anxious and “crash under pressure” which

affects their races immensely (Thibaudeau). However, exercising more aids in reducing this

anxiety because it “prioritizes the delivery of tryptophan (an amino acid) into the brain for

conversion into serotonin” (Sisson). For those athletes who do struggle with anxiety and want to

activate serotonin, one can display their medals, bibs, or trophies. By doing so one automatically

associates these materials with positive memories, activating the serotonin (Riley). Endorphins

are the last neurotransmitter and it is the most important for endurance athletes. Knows as the

“euphoria hormone” it is released during high levels of physical activity. An amazing sensation

called “runners high”, very similar to morphine, is created by this hormone and happens because

“Endorphin inhibits the transmission of pain and can produce a feeling of euphoria very similar

to that produced by other opioids”(Riley). For an athlete this is what one strives to reach. To feel

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so positive, strong, and unstoppable. All worries aside, no anxiety, no stress, and most of all:

mentally strong.

Though it may seem that mental strength is only psychological, there is much more to it.

Whether it be biological, neurological, or both they are all connected. To summarize, positive

thoughts lead to better races and negative ones may obstruct a race. However, it is clear that

thoughts are not the only component of a successful race. If an athlete were to have low levels o​f

serotonin they may not perform well under stress, their thoughts become filled with anxiety and

stress, their r​ace is then hindered due to trouble breathing or self-destructive thoughts. However​,

on the contrary, ​those athletes with high dopamine levels are desperate for success and will not

stop a second​ short o​f their goal. Their enthusiasm and mental toughness aids the​m, as well as

their teammates, b​y building a healthy and strong atmosphere in a team. Our neurotransmitters

affect our thoughts, and then these thoughts are what an athlete must learn to control. Any athlete

has the power to succeed. Whether it be by practicing how to maintain a strong mindset in a race,

or adapting the body to different stressors, or raising levels of certain neurotransmitters it is

always possible to accomplish one’s goals. As a famous runner, Steve Prefontaine, once

revealed, “It’s not who’s the best-it’s who can take the most pain” (“Steve Prefontaine Quotes”).

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Works Cited

“Amines.” ​Caution: "Cultured Dextrose" - Food Intolerance Network​,

www.fedup.com.au/factsheets/additive-and-natural-chemical-factsheets/amines​.

Bergland, Christopher. “Neuroscience Pinpoints Unique Way Exercise Fights Depression.”

Psychology Today​, Sussex Publishers,

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201602/neuroscience-pinpoints-uni

que-way-exercise-fights-depression​. Accessed 9 Mar. 2019

Berkes, Howard. “Mind Games: Making Olympians Mentally Fit.” NPR, NPR, 10 Feb. 2010,

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123565231​. Accessed 29 January 2019.

Davis, Daniel. Coach for SJV Track & Field Team and Cross Country and Psychology Major.

“Personal Interview.” 24 Feb. 2019.

Hack, Nicholas. Psychologist with a PsyD. “Email Interview.” 8 Mar. 2019.

Kragen, Pam. “Ironman Vet Julie Moss Recounts Her 1982 'Crawl of Fame' in New Memoir.”

Sandiegouniontribune.com,​ 2 Oct. 2018,

www.sandiegouniontribune.com/communities/north-county/sd-no-julie-moss-20181002-s

tory.html​. Accessed 5 Feb. 2019.

Linkner, Josh. “What Kenyan Distance Runners Can Teach Us about Achievement.” ​Detroit

Free Press​, Detroit Free Press, 25 June 2017,

www.freep.com/story/money/business/columnists/josh-linkner/2017/06/25/what-kenyan-

distance-runners-can-teach-us-achievement/424543001/​. Accessed 10 Mar. 2019.

Matt, Fitzgerald.​ How Bad Do You Want It?​ VeloPress, 2016. Accessed 3 Mar. 2019.

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Riley, Sean. “Harnessing Neurotransmitters for Performance Gain.” ​Mind Over Matter

Endurance​, Mind Over Matter Endurance, 8 Feb. 2017,

www.mindovermatterendurance.com/coaches-classroom/2017/2/8/harnessing-neurotrans

mitters-for-performance-gain​. Accessed 2 Mar. 2019

Sisson, Mark. “Do ‘Dominant’ Neurotransmitters Impact Training? (and a Giveaway).” ​Mark's

Daily Apple,​ 18 Jan. 2018,

www.marksdailyapple.com/do-dominant-neurotransmitters-impact-training/​. Accessed

25 Feb. 2019.

“Steve Prefontaine Quotes.” ​BrainyQuote,​ Xplore,

www.brainyquote.com/authors/steve_prefontaine​. Accessed 10 Mar. 2019.

Thibaudeau, Christian. “Tip: Dopamine, Serotonin, and Toughness.” ​T NATION​,

www.t-nation.com/supplements/tip-dopamine-serotonin-and-toughness​. Accessed 4

February 2019.

Tri. “The Physiology and Biology of Mental Toughness.” ​Examined Existence,​

examinedexistence.com/the-physiology-and-biology-of-mental-toughness/. Accessed 24

January 2019.

Warner, Gregory. “How One Kenyan Tribe Produces The World's Best Runners.” ​NPR,​ NPR, 1

Nov. 2013,

www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2013/11/01/241895965/how-one-kenyan-tribe-produces-t

he-worlds-best-runners​. Accessed 5 Feb. 2019.

Woolridge, Charles. Campolindo Track & Field and Cross Country Coach “Track and Field

Clinic.”. 2 Feb. 2019.

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