Runner's World Blogger Event Recap {Part Two}

Good morning!  If you follow my blog, you already know that I was involved with several Runner's World Half & Festival blogger events over the past few days, as well as the 10k race.  To visit those posts, you can find them below.

Thursday Night BBQ at Runner's World Headquarters 

Blogger Event Recap {Part One} 

10K Race Recap 

As I also said, the Steel Stacks area of Bethlehem is gorgeous and the old Bethlehem Steel blast furnace provided an amazing backdrop for all of the festivities throughout the weekend.

Finish line set-up on Friday...

Our group of girls {and Harold} was so excited to meet Shalene Flanagan.  Here are a few of us before the Q&A session...

I have to say, meeting US Olympian Shalane Flanagan was pretty cool.  Shalane is the 2008 bronze medalist in the Olympic 10,000 meter race, as well as the American record holder in the 3k, 5k and 10k on the track.  In August, she represented the US in the Olympic marathon with her training partner and friend, Kara Goucher.  

We sat down for a {25 to 1} Q&A session where we had the chance to ask Shalane questions about anything such as diet, training, racing, travel, making special appearances, etc.  The bloggers asked some really in-depth questions and Shalane took the time to answer them thoroughly.    

 

Of course, I wanted to know about her pre-race preparation.  My question to Shalane was:  Do you get nervous before races, and if so, do you have any tips on how to control your pre-race anxiety?  

Her answer was this in a nutshell:

• Shalane used to suffer from nerves before races more when she was younger than she does now. 
• She tries to think about all of the hard workouts she has done leading up to a race and uses that to give her the confidence she needs to compete.
• During hard wokrouts, she likes to put herself in uncomfortable situations to simulate how she would feel during a race so that way, her body can better remember the feeling and adapt to what is going on.  
•  A little nervousness is good.  Her coach likes to see her a little jittery before a race because he feels she will run better feeling that way, rather than not.  

Shalane's point about believing in her preparation is key.  Jesse and I always talk about the workouts I did in the past when mapping out a strategy for a race and it's so important to write workouts down for future reference.  I just can't seem to shake the nerves issue, still, after all of these years. 

The gang and Shalane...

I ran into an old friend {Kathleen Jobes} who works at Runner's World.  She won Saturday's 5k race.  

We wrapped up our event with a talk from RW writer and author, Jennifer Van Allen, and RW Twitter Expert and author of Runner's World's Ravenous Runner blog, Meghan Loftus.  It was all very interesting! 

This about wraps up my exciting weekend with Runner's World, and I learned some valuable information that I will be sharing in future posts.  I also received some great products to test out and review, so look for those articles in the very near future too! 

Have a great Tuesday!