RunnerspaceBlogsView

Tunnel Vision

Published by Benjamin.Bradley
Feb 20th 2013, 8:57am
PrintReport
Social
Images

“Take your marks”,
And you breathe deep,
This moment, this day, right now,
The reason for your lack of sleep.


“Set” soon departs,
The starter’s dry lips,
Straighten your knees,
Ignore the pain in your hips.


Before you begin,
You have a last thought,
You will not be beaten, defeated,
You cannot be caught.


“Bang!” it echoes,
The sound of the gun,
Quick as a Cobra’s strike,
You begin to run.


Find your pace,
At just the right speed,
To stay up with the leader,
That’s what you need.


The next corner,
Comes soon enough,
Life’s now giving you lemons,
The going is getting tough.


Push and push,
The last stretch to go,
Darkness begins to bind your vision,
Fatigue is starting to show.


The crowd’s noise,
Begins to fade away,
The finish line, all you can see,
You will not stray.

At the end,
Tunnel vision sets in,
You will use it to your advantage,
You will use it to win.


Hands on knees,
You’ve finished the race,
The darkness crawls away,
And you find out your place.


You have won,
You did not quit,
You used that tunnel vision,
To tough it out, you’ve done it.



Every runner knows that feeling. In the final one hundred meters of race, as the lactic acid seeps through your legs, you breathe has grown rapid, you want more than anything just to finish. It always in these last hundred meters, after an all-out effort, that everything but the finish line has faded to black and the noise of your teammates and the fans has dulled to a faint hum. Many a trackster has taken to calling this Tunnel Vision, and many a trackster have given in to its fatiguing effects.
Once upon a time I had a coach that taught me that this Tunnel Vision is not necessarily all bad, it means you have worked hard, and ran harder. You know your goal is in sight and that you are almost there. You just need to use this Tunnel Vision to stay focused on the finish line, and work just that much harder to make it there.
In most of my races where I have renewed a personal best time, I can hardly remember the final one hundred to one hundred and fifteen meters of the race. I knew this was because I had run harder and faster then ever before.
Tunnel Vision: Stay focused on your goals, and you will achieve them.

Image courtesy dailychristianinspiration.com.



 
 
Switch to Full Version