Track and Field Blogs - Dom Maio

So I had one crazy day today and a bit exhausted, and think I’m getting just a bit under the weather, but somehow I got everything I needed to get done today. Glad I picked today as a recovery day. I read Ryan’s blog post and watched the Monaco races after finishing everything today. I know that feeling he is referring to as the “Magic of the mind”

It is that feeling that made cross regionals so Important to me. I think I could list 50 reasons leading up to, the day before, during, and going to nationals after that race that made it so special. It all comes from that “Belief.....letting your mind have faith in yourself, in your coach, in your preparation” as Ryan put it. I remember writing (nationals?) at the start of cross country on my goal sheet. I had some great races during cross even the ones I hurt and was sick while running. The magic as Ryan puts it tends to put me in very strong mental states. Sometimes there so strong that there is nothing that is going to change my mind and I’m 100% totally committed to a race. Other times there is some doubt during or before a race that creeps in and you change that state during the end of the race where it’s do or die. I remember talking about nationals before regionals and if it was possible. I saw it was going to be windy and very cold, but I don’t really think that played a part in it. It was that fact that I was ready to lay everything out on that day no matter what the conditions were like. The warm up the day before was great and the mental imagery during it made me feel very good as I forgot a lot of the things that were bothering me at that point in time. It was cold the day before the race, but I wasn’t even really concerned about it wearing shorts and a T-shirt. Everyone probably thought I was on drugs not wearing warm-ups, but I think I was so focused that I didn’t notice or wasn’t allowing myself to notice. I felt really spaced out during the race and relaxed, but there are 5 or 6 moments during the race I remember very clearly in my mind. Nationals was a wonderful feeling as well. I was kind of nervous before that race, but ran very well after getting spiked and felt really good about it. The only thing that opened my eyes on that day and made me a bit disappointed, besides the fact that the season was over, was that this was a different experience. I road in the elevator every day before the race with Peter Kosgei and really kind of looked at him and Willy Kaul as these “Cross Country Gods”. Mostly due to inexperience, but I realized you can’t beat someone you believe is unbeatable or Godly. You definitely respect what they can do, but I started to think why can’t I run with these guys? What makes them so special? Just because everyone refers to them in terms of “Freak of Nature” “Beast” “Stud” does that mean you can’t do it? That guy ran 15:30 5k in high school. That guy is in D1. So what does he run now? Any runner can win/race well on any given day, so any seed time, any past running prs don’t mean a thing until the racing is over. I really re-enforced this during Outdoor Track and I can almost say that the Outdoor season had so many magic moments that it was more special that cross country regionals. Every race had something special to take away from it. No matter any doubts that entered my head before or during the race I handled it and it was Magic pr after pr and one hell of a triple at conference. I tried to race on enjoyment and feel and less thinking about what anyone would do. Anytime I lost focus I recognized it and got rid of it mentally before or during a race and just went. My gut feelings on races fueled my races and I stuck to my plan without compromising on anything. Even though indoor felt kind of bleak for me at times UWM stuck out as something to help turn things around even if I didn’t do it right away. Because I knew there would be a rabbit in the race I dorkishly wrote “follow the rabbit” as my status on facebook, but the morning of I changed it to “destroy the rabbit”, being that I wanted to pass the rabbit before he got to 600m. Indoor conference never went as planned with the mile and it affected the 800m and 400m. Same as Juror year, but I remembered that it fueled me for my triple at outdoor conference that year. Indoor last chance I was nervous, ignoring exhaustion, and not prepared or committed to a plan. Much like outdoor nationals, but I did the best I could given the situation. I think remembering some of the plans like UWM and Iowa State influence me in the outdoor season. Iowa I lied to myself to just run 600m and then when I got there I told myself to push and finish the 800m even though I was not feeling it. That was a huge mental turnaround. I’ve never really cared about winning too much, or being the fastest, and that’s what conference is all about. I really would rather execute a race plan, progress by running a desired time, or pr than win any day, but sometimes winning happens with that. I hate dropping out of races as training and I hate having to hold back sometimes. Outdoor conference was a race plan that I wasn’t sure how it would go, didn’t want to hold back, but when I stepped on the track I was ready for every race regardless of what happened. My senior year was very different than my past years at MSOE. I was fully committed to running every single day on my summer training plan. One night after parking cars and eating tacos I ran at 10:30pm and got scared to death after running past someone else on the bike path before getting up for an early engine test at work. After last chance indoor I missed only one day of running and if I didn’t run a long run I biked it. I was fully committed to ignoring what had happened before, learned from it, and took the next step to where I wanted to be. To get out every day and run because you enjoy it; knowing the training and support of people around you will make things happen. To reverse that “I didn’t feel like running today”, but picked up at the end, and achieve that sense of accomplishment that put you in that fun and positive state even if it meant learning from a poor race. That’s what makes running fun. The the ability to surprise yourself by doing something you didn’t expect or the mere feel of control of a perceived mentally uncontrollable event. All for that “Magic Moment”.