As written in The Conversation by Shaelyn Strachan, Professor, Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management.
With record numbers of runners lacing up to run marathons, more of them will face the infamous experience of “hitting the wall.” Hitting the wall is the phenomenon where runners experience a sudden onset of debilitating fatigue, difficulty keeping pace, and often, a shift away from their goal pace towards surviving until the finish line.
The wall is brought on by a depletion of the body’s energy stores after prolonged physical exertion, often around the 34-kilometre mark of the marathon. While nutrition and pacing may prevent the wall, about 50 per cent of recreational marathon runners, especially novice ones, report being acquainted with this running “rite of passage.”
Even if runners avoid the wall, most runners will experience fatigue and discomfort over the course of a marathon. The fatigue and suffering can feel like an unfair payoff after months of training.
Hitting the Wall
I have run 10 marathons and during some, I hit the wall. As an exercise psychology researcher, I was disappointed that I didn’t cope better when I first encountered the wall. My initial response involved typical negative thoughts (for example, I will never finish), emotions (despair, panic) and a desire to quit. Like many other runners do, I tried to distract myself, deny what was happening and suppress my negative thoughts and emotions.
This didn’t work well and research explains why. Such coping strategies can use up cognitive resources, paradoxically increasing rumination and undermining performance.
Since those early marathons, I have learned a lot about mindfulness through my research and teaching at the University of Manitoba. I was able to bring mindfulness to a recent marathon where I was reunited with the wall. This approach offered me an alternative to trying to suppress and control my thoughts and feelings, which allowed me to cope better.
Rather than trying to change what is happening, mindfulness involves changing our relationship with what is happening. When mindful, we intentionally pay attention to and allow whatever is happening, without judgment. Mindfulness allows us to be objective observers of our present experience which creates distance from, rather than entanglement with, our experience.
Read the full story in The Conversation.
