4. How To Manage Pre-Race Anxiety
Is your upcoming race filling you with that familiar knot of anxiety? You're not alone. As ultrarunners, we often experience intense pre-race anxiety, but most of us don't talk about it honestly or know how to handle it effectively.
If you’re feeling the pressure now, that overwhelming anxiety doesn’t disappear at the starting line… it comes with you into the race, waiting to sabotage you when things get tough. So, what can you do about it?
Tune in this week to discover the simple, practical three-step process that will transform your relationship with pre-race anxiety and ultimately get you to the finish line. This isn't about eliminating anxiety (that's impossible) or forcing positivity (that's exhausting). It's about learning how to acknowledge your anxiety, so you can return to calm and refocus on what matters most.
If you’re loving the show, please take a moment to follow, rate, and review wherever you listen to podcasts today!
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
How fighting pre-race anxiety actually drains your energy before you even start running.
Why anxiety isn't a sign of weakness but simply means you care about your performance.
3 steps to manage your pre-race anxiety.
Techniques for quickly returning to a calm state when anxiety spikes.
How to reframe pre-race anxiety, so you feel stronger at the start and finish your ultramarathon stronger.
Listen to the Full Episode:
Featured on the Show:
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Full Episode Transcript:
That's one thing to know about pre-race anxiety: it doesn't stop at the starting line just because we call it pre-race anxiety. You carry it into the race with you. And when things got hard for me, it was right there, waiting to talk me out of going on. What I needed was a simple, clear way to deal with the fear before the race started, and that's what I'm going to share with you today.
Welcome to Unstoppable Ultra Runner, the podcast for ultrarunners who refuse to let anything hold them back. I’m your host, Susan Donnelly, veteran of over 150 100-mile races, and a coach who helps runners like you break through mental roadblocks, push past doubt, and run with confidence. Let’s go.
Hey there, and welcome to the Unstoppable Ultra Runner. I'm so glad you're here. Today, we're talking about something almost every runner feels, but most don't talk about honestly: pre-race anxiety. That deep, restless, gut-churning feeling that creeps in during the final days or even hours before a big race. Maybe you felt it as a tight stomach, a racing mind, or a shaky kind of self-doubt that makes you question everything you thought you knew about yourself.
If that's where you are right now, if your race is coming up and anxiety is shaking your confidence, this episode is for you. But even if you're not racing this weekend, this isn't just about race day nerves. Anxiety under pressure shows up everywhere: in long training runs, in big life moments, and in anything that matters to us. So stick around because what I'm going to share can change how you relate to pressure and nerves for good. Let's dig in.
I want to thank everybody who followed, rated, and reviewed the show over the past week. We debuted at number eighteen in the running category in Apple Podcasts, thanks to your support. I've randomly drawn three winners from those of you who entered the giveaway for a custom pep talk. And actually, I saw a lot of familiar names and wanted to pick everybody and give everybody the prize, so I cut up all the names and I put them in a bowl, and I had my mother pick out three. And the winners are: Tina M, Cat C, and Kathy A. Congratulations, you three! You should already have an email from me in your inbox.
And everybody, please share the podcast with anybody you know who might be interested, and let's see if we can take this to number one.
Alright, back to pre-race anxiety. And let me take you back again to Leadville, my second try at Leadville 100. I DNF'd the race the year before, so when I showed up this next year for my second try, I was carrying something heavy. Not in my pack, but in my chest. It felt like a weight that wouldn't let me breathe. I made two changes since that first DNF: I trained harder that year, and I promised myself no way was I dropping this time. That just wasn't going to happen again.
That first DNF rattled my confidence, and it wasn't supposed to happen because Leadville was my kind of race. Trails, mountains, it was everything I loved, and I was supposed to finish and move on to other bigger, harder things, more adventurous races. Instead, here I was, stuck at Leadville again, still trying to do the thing I thought I should have already done.
So this time, I poured more into the training, and on the surface, I looked ready. But under the surface, the pressure had built into something else. It wasn't just that I wanted to finish; it felt like I had to. And what if I couldn't? What if I failed again? What would that mean about me? If I dropped again, a second time, I'd have to rethink everything. Maybe I wasn't as capable as I thought. Maybe I'd have to choose different goals, less ambitious ones than the ones I dreamed of. That thought, right there, scared me more than the race itself.
So, in the race, when I hit the fifty-mile aid station and a volunteer looked me square in the eye and said, 'You've got fifteen minutes on cutoff'—the exact same thing I'd heard the year before at the exact same place— it felt like history repeating itself, like my nightmare coming true. Like I was right back in the exact spot I feared the most. And I dropped again. I felt fated to. I felt doomed to. All my fears came true, and I was just overwhelmed. I didn't see another option because I didn't have the tools I needed yet.
Looking back, I can see that race wasn't lost at mile fifty; it was lost in the days leading up to it. I just didn't have any of the mindset tools and processes I've developed since then. I didn't even know mindset existed or that I could manage my thoughts. This was before I became a coach and started on that journey, and I just didn't have a way to manage my fear and anxiety, so it went unchecked.
And that anxiety didn't magically disappear at the starting line; it came with me into the race. That's one thing to know about pre-race anxiety: it doesn't stop at the starting line just because we call it pre-race anxiety. You carry it into the race with you. And when things got hard for me, it was right there, waiting to talk me out of going on. What I needed was a simple, clear way to deal with the fear before the race started, and that's what I'm going to share with you today.
Let's talk about what most runners do when pre-race anxiety shows up. They try not to think about it. They try to shove it down or power through. They tell themselves to stay positive, but inside, they're spinning. They keep busy to distract themselves from it, doing things like over-preparing drop bags, laying out gear, checking the weather umpteen billion times, changing gear, altering training plans, rethinking race strategy, talking to crew and pacers yet again, thinking that if they find the right solution, they won't feel so anxious.
Other runners go quiet. They pull back from conversations or stay off social media because even seeing someone else's pre-race post feels like pressure. And of course, there's the classic myth we all like to believe: 'Oh, it'll go away once I start running. Once my shoe hits dirt and we're running, it'll go away.' Except it doesn't.
What actually happens is that the anxiety stays with you. It becomes background noise, and the second something goes wrong—your stomach turns, or the heat kicks up, or the climb feels steeper than you anticipated—that anxiety spikes. And now you're not just dealing with the race; you're dealing with your own brain turning on you.
Avoiding pre-race anxiety now by forcing positivity is exhausting. It wears you down mentally and physically before you even get halfway through. So, let's reframe this.
The problem isn't the anxiety itself, believe it or not. The problem is fighting it. Trying to force yourself to stay calm just adds more pressure. But learning how to get calm? That's the game-changer. And the earlier you start doing it before the race, the better.
Pre-race anxiety is normal. It means you care. It means you've worked hard, and now you're stepping up to something uncertain. It's a vulnerable place to be. But when you try to ignore that vulnerability, when you resist the feeling, it just builds, and it gets stronger. It's like trying to hold a beach ball underwater. It takes effort, and the second you let your guard down, it shoots up out of the water even harder.
But what if you didn't need to hold it down at all? What if you just let it float and turned your focus to what you were there to do? That's the shift I want you to make. Instead of resisting anxiety, you learn how to ride it.
Feeling nervous doesn't make you weak. It's not a sign that you're weak or that you're going to fail. It makes you human, and this is solvable. It's not about pretending you're calm or needing to stay calm all the time; it's about knowing how to get back to calm when you need to. And once you know how to do that, race week starts feeling a whole lot lighter.
Here's the process I use with runners I coach and what I wish I'd known back at Leadville. And it's three steps. It's very simple, repeatable. You can use it today. The first step is simply to feel it. Instead of stuffing that anxiety down, name it. Say to yourself, 'I'm feeling anxious because this race matters to me.' And then notice where it shows up in your body.
When I say feel it, it helps to really notice where it shows up in your body. Is it your chest, or your shoulders, or your stomach? And this might feel counterintuitive, but what I want you to do is just give it space. Let that uncomfortable feeling be there, and just stay with it. Don't immediately shift to a distraction or try to push the anxiety away. Just let it peacefully exist without resistance and sit with it. You're not feeding it this way; you're just acknowledging it, and that alone can start to lower the volume on it.
Alright, that was step one. Step two is to calm it. Not with mantras or with fake positivity; with grounding. Take three slow breaths in through your nose, out through your mouth. There are lots of ways to breathe, but simple works. And if you want, place a hand on your chest or belly, wherever you feel the anxiety most, and say something in your head to it like, solid and steady, like, 'This feeling is allowed to be here, and I can still do what I came to do.' Or, what I would say to my anxiety, and what I do say to my anxiety, is, 'Hello, anxiety. Glad to see you here again. You're welcome to ride along, but I'm driving as usual. I decide where we go and how we get there.'
I think of it like sore muscles. You don't get in a race and panic when your quads hurt; you just notice it. And you adjust. It's like, 'Yep, my quads are sore, and maybe I need to take the downhills a little bit easier.' And you just keep going. It's the same here. You're just running with a little anxiety in your pack. It's no big deal.
That was step two. Now, step three: refocus. Now that you're grounded and your heart rate's down, gently shift your focus to what's ahead, what you're here to do. Think about your plan—not whether you'll finish, but how you're going to run your race. Visualize yourself moving well through the early miles. See yourself adjusting when things go sideways, because you know, they will at some point. And hear yourself staying calm and steady, even in the hard stretches or even when things look a little bit uncertain. Just visualize all that. You're not chasing certainty; you're building confidence. The confidence in your ability to respond and to problem-solve and keep going—and that gets you to the finish line. That visualization is critical.
And if you're thinking, 'These three steps sound too simple,' or 'I've tried something like this before and it didn't work'... I'm going to invite you just to play with it again and keep doing that and keep trying it. Don't just give it one try. Try it again under different circumstances, and once you get it, you'll know. Because small shifts can make a big difference, especially when you use them consistently.
When you follow these steps, you're not anxiety-free, but you're not stuck in it either. It's no longer in control. You've moved it out of the driver's seat and into the passenger seat, right where it belongs. And the effects are real and physical. Your thoughts settle; there's no more spiraling 'what ifs.' Your body calms down; you've got a slower heart rate, less nausea, less muscle tension. You save energy—emotional energy—by not fighting your own mind, and you arrive at the starting line more grounded, not jittery. And maybe the best of all, you shift from dread to anticipation, from 'What if I fail?' to 'Hey, let's see what happens.'
That second Leadville, the one where I dropped again, that moment turned out to be a turning point. Because in the year that followed, I started asking a different question. Instead of just, 'How do I train harder?' I started asking, 'How do I train my mind?' Because I knew it was my mind that had taken me out of the race, not my body. And I knew I didn't want to feel that way again: tight with pressure, crushed by fear, overwhelmed, and unable to think of options. So I started learning. I started studying mindset and anxiety and what it literally means to manage your mind on purpose.
That year changed everything for me. And when I came back to Leadville for my third attempt, I wasn't just physically stronger; I was mentally prepared in a way I had never been before. I had tools, I had perspective, and I had the beginnings of the process I teach today. And I finished. Not because I was fitter—my training was the same— but because I wasn't carrying the weight of all that unmanaged anxiety anymore. I could breathe. I could adjust. I could trust myself when things got hard.
That race was the beginning of what would become my work as a mindset coach. Because once I learned how to do this, how to work with my mind instead of against it, I knew I had to share it. Not just for me, but for every runner out there who's ever thought, 'I've done the work. Why do I still feel like this? Why do I keep DNFing?'
You don't have to stay stuck in that. And you don't have to figure it out alone.
Here's a takeaway. If you've got a race coming up and the nerves are starting to build, here's what I want you to remember. You don't have to make that anxiety disappear. You just need to stop giving it power it doesn't deserve. You don't need to fight it. You don't need to hide from it. You don't need to avoid it. It's way simpler than that. You just need to let it ride quietly, shotgun, while you drive.
That starts with being willing to feel it, and then step-by-step, getting yourself calm and focused on the race again. And this is a skill. The more you practice it, the easier it gets. So I want you to practice it.
This is exactly what I help runners with—not cheesy mantras, but with grounded, practical tools that actually work when the pressure's on. So, if you want help learning how to use this process for real, especially for big races you've got on the calendar, check the link in the show notes. And if you remember nothing else from today, remember this: You don't have to stay calm. You just need to know how to return to calm. Step number one: feel it. Feel that anxiety. Step number two: calm that anxiety down, breathe. Step three: refocus forward on what you're there to do.
Alright. You've done hard things before, and this is just another one, and you're ready. See you next week.
Thanks for listening to Unstoppable Ultra Runner. If you want more ultra talk, mindset tools, and strategies for running with confidence, visit www.susanidonnelly.com. This podcast receives production support from the team at Digital Freedom Productions. That’s it for today’s episode. See you next week.
Welcome to Unstoppable Ultra Runner, the podcast for ultrarunners who refuse to let anything hold them back. I’m your host, Susan Donnelly, veteran of over 150 100-mile races, and a coach who helps runners like you break through mental roadblocks, push past doubt, and run with confidence. Let’s go.
Hey there, and welcome to the Unstoppable Ultra Runner. I'm so glad you're here. Today, we're talking about something almost every runner feels, but most don't talk about honestly: pre-race anxiety. That deep, restless, gut-churning feeling that creeps in during the final days or even hours before a big race. Maybe you felt it as a tight stomach, a racing mind, or a shaky kind of self-doubt that makes you question everything you thought you knew about yourself.
If that's where you are right now, if your race is coming up and anxiety is shaking your confidence, this episode is for you. But even if you're not racing this weekend, this isn't just about race day nerves. Anxiety under pressure shows up everywhere: in long training runs, in big life moments, and in anything that matters to us. So stick around because what I'm going to share can change how you relate to pressure and nerves for good. Let's dig in.
I want to thank everybody who followed, rated, and reviewed the show over the past week. We debuted at number eighteen in the running category in Apple Podcasts, thanks to your support. I've randomly drawn three winners from those of you who entered the giveaway for a custom pep talk. And actually, I saw a lot of familiar names and wanted to pick everybody and give everybody the prize, so I cut up all the names and I put them in a bowl, and I had my mother pick out three. And the winners are: Tina M, Cat C, and Kathy A. Congratulations, you three! You should already have an email from me in your inbox.
And everybody, please share the podcast with anybody you know who might be interested, and let's see if we can take this to number one.
Alright, back to pre-race anxiety. And let me take you back again to Leadville, my second try at Leadville 100. I DNF'd the race the year before, so when I showed up this next year for my second try, I was carrying something heavy. Not in my pack, but in my chest. It felt like a weight that wouldn't let me breathe. I made two changes since that first DNF: I trained harder that year, and I promised myself no way was I dropping this time. That just wasn't going to happen again.
That first DNF rattled my confidence, and it wasn't supposed to happen because Leadville was my kind of race. Trails, mountains, it was everything I loved, and I was supposed to finish and move on to other bigger, harder things, more adventurous races. Instead, here I was, stuck at Leadville again, still trying to do the thing I thought I should have already done.
So this time, I poured more into the training, and on the surface, I looked ready. But under the surface, the pressure had built into something else. It wasn't just that I wanted to finish; it felt like I had to. And what if I couldn't? What if I failed again? What would that mean about me? If I dropped again, a second time, I'd have to rethink everything. Maybe I wasn't as capable as I thought. Maybe I'd have to choose different goals, less ambitious ones than the ones I dreamed of. That thought, right there, scared me more than the race itself.
So, in the race, when I hit the fifty-mile aid station and a volunteer looked me square in the eye and said, 'You've got fifteen minutes on cutoff'—the exact same thing I'd heard the year before at the exact same place— it felt like history repeating itself, like my nightmare coming true. Like I was right back in the exact spot I feared the most. And I dropped again. I felt fated to. I felt doomed to. All my fears came true, and I was just overwhelmed. I didn't see another option because I didn't have the tools I needed yet.
Looking back, I can see that race wasn't lost at mile fifty; it was lost in the days leading up to it. I just didn't have any of the mindset tools and processes I've developed since then. I didn't even know mindset existed or that I could manage my thoughts. This was before I became a coach and started on that journey, and I just didn't have a way to manage my fear and anxiety, so it went unchecked.
And that anxiety didn't magically disappear at the starting line; it came with me into the race. That's one thing to know about pre-race anxiety: it doesn't stop at the starting line just because we call it pre-race anxiety. You carry it into the race with you. And when things got hard for me, it was right there, waiting to talk me out of going on. What I needed was a simple, clear way to deal with the fear before the race started, and that's what I'm going to share with you today.
Let's talk about what most runners do when pre-race anxiety shows up. They try not to think about it. They try to shove it down or power through. They tell themselves to stay positive, but inside, they're spinning. They keep busy to distract themselves from it, doing things like over-preparing drop bags, laying out gear, checking the weather umpteen billion times, changing gear, altering training plans, rethinking race strategy, talking to crew and pacers yet again, thinking that if they find the right solution, they won't feel so anxious.
Other runners go quiet. They pull back from conversations or stay off social media because even seeing someone else's pre-race post feels like pressure. And of course, there's the classic myth we all like to believe: 'Oh, it'll go away once I start running. Once my shoe hits dirt and we're running, it'll go away.' Except it doesn't.
What actually happens is that the anxiety stays with you. It becomes background noise, and the second something goes wrong—your stomach turns, or the heat kicks up, or the climb feels steeper than you anticipated—that anxiety spikes. And now you're not just dealing with the race; you're dealing with your own brain turning on you.
Avoiding pre-race anxiety now by forcing positivity is exhausting. It wears you down mentally and physically before you even get halfway through. So, let's reframe this.
The problem isn't the anxiety itself, believe it or not. The problem is fighting it. Trying to force yourself to stay calm just adds more pressure. But learning how to get calm? That's the game-changer. And the earlier you start doing it before the race, the better.
Pre-race anxiety is normal. It means you care. It means you've worked hard, and now you're stepping up to something uncertain. It's a vulnerable place to be. But when you try to ignore that vulnerability, when you resist the feeling, it just builds, and it gets stronger. It's like trying to hold a beach ball underwater. It takes effort, and the second you let your guard down, it shoots up out of the water even harder.
But what if you didn't need to hold it down at all? What if you just let it float and turned your focus to what you were there to do? That's the shift I want you to make. Instead of resisting anxiety, you learn how to ride it.
Feeling nervous doesn't make you weak. It's not a sign that you're weak or that you're going to fail. It makes you human, and this is solvable. It's not about pretending you're calm or needing to stay calm all the time; it's about knowing how to get back to calm when you need to. And once you know how to do that, race week starts feeling a whole lot lighter.
Here's the process I use with runners I coach and what I wish I'd known back at Leadville. And it's three steps. It's very simple, repeatable. You can use it today. The first step is simply to feel it. Instead of stuffing that anxiety down, name it. Say to yourself, 'I'm feeling anxious because this race matters to me.' And then notice where it shows up in your body.
When I say feel it, it helps to really notice where it shows up in your body. Is it your chest, or your shoulders, or your stomach? And this might feel counterintuitive, but what I want you to do is just give it space. Let that uncomfortable feeling be there, and just stay with it. Don't immediately shift to a distraction or try to push the anxiety away. Just let it peacefully exist without resistance and sit with it. You're not feeding it this way; you're just acknowledging it, and that alone can start to lower the volume on it.
Alright, that was step one. Step two is to calm it. Not with mantras or with fake positivity; with grounding. Take three slow breaths in through your nose, out through your mouth. There are lots of ways to breathe, but simple works. And if you want, place a hand on your chest or belly, wherever you feel the anxiety most, and say something in your head to it like, solid and steady, like, 'This feeling is allowed to be here, and I can still do what I came to do.' Or, what I would say to my anxiety, and what I do say to my anxiety, is, 'Hello, anxiety. Glad to see you here again. You're welcome to ride along, but I'm driving as usual. I decide where we go and how we get there.'
I think of it like sore muscles. You don't get in a race and panic when your quads hurt; you just notice it. And you adjust. It's like, 'Yep, my quads are sore, and maybe I need to take the downhills a little bit easier.' And you just keep going. It's the same here. You're just running with a little anxiety in your pack. It's no big deal.
That was step two. Now, step three: refocus. Now that you're grounded and your heart rate's down, gently shift your focus to what's ahead, what you're here to do. Think about your plan—not whether you'll finish, but how you're going to run your race. Visualize yourself moving well through the early miles. See yourself adjusting when things go sideways, because you know, they will at some point. And hear yourself staying calm and steady, even in the hard stretches or even when things look a little bit uncertain. Just visualize all that. You're not chasing certainty; you're building confidence. The confidence in your ability to respond and to problem-solve and keep going—and that gets you to the finish line. That visualization is critical.
And if you're thinking, 'These three steps sound too simple,' or 'I've tried something like this before and it didn't work'... I'm going to invite you just to play with it again and keep doing that and keep trying it. Don't just give it one try. Try it again under different circumstances, and once you get it, you'll know. Because small shifts can make a big difference, especially when you use them consistently.
When you follow these steps, you're not anxiety-free, but you're not stuck in it either. It's no longer in control. You've moved it out of the driver's seat and into the passenger seat, right where it belongs. And the effects are real and physical. Your thoughts settle; there's no more spiraling 'what ifs.' Your body calms down; you've got a slower heart rate, less nausea, less muscle tension. You save energy—emotional energy—by not fighting your own mind, and you arrive at the starting line more grounded, not jittery. And maybe the best of all, you shift from dread to anticipation, from 'What if I fail?' to 'Hey, let's see what happens.'
That second Leadville, the one where I dropped again, that moment turned out to be a turning point. Because in the year that followed, I started asking a different question. Instead of just, 'How do I train harder?' I started asking, 'How do I train my mind?' Because I knew it was my mind that had taken me out of the race, not my body. And I knew I didn't want to feel that way again: tight with pressure, crushed by fear, overwhelmed, and unable to think of options. So I started learning. I started studying mindset and anxiety and what it literally means to manage your mind on purpose.
That year changed everything for me. And when I came back to Leadville for my third attempt, I wasn't just physically stronger; I was mentally prepared in a way I had never been before. I had tools, I had perspective, and I had the beginnings of the process I teach today. And I finished. Not because I was fitter—my training was the same— but because I wasn't carrying the weight of all that unmanaged anxiety anymore. I could breathe. I could adjust. I could trust myself when things got hard.
That race was the beginning of what would become my work as a mindset coach. Because once I learned how to do this, how to work with my mind instead of against it, I knew I had to share it. Not just for me, but for every runner out there who's ever thought, 'I've done the work. Why do I still feel like this? Why do I keep DNFing?'
You don't have to stay stuck in that. And you don't have to figure it out alone.
Here's a takeaway. If you've got a race coming up and the nerves are starting to build, here's what I want you to remember. You don't have to make that anxiety disappear. You just need to stop giving it power it doesn't deserve. You don't need to fight it. You don't need to hide from it. You don't need to avoid it. It's way simpler than that. You just need to let it ride quietly, shotgun, while you drive.
That starts with being willing to feel it, and then step-by-step, getting yourself calm and focused on the race again. And this is a skill. The more you practice it, the easier it gets. So I want you to practice it.
This is exactly what I help runners with—not cheesy mantras, but with grounded, practical tools that actually work when the pressure's on. So, if you want help learning how to use this process for real, especially for big races you've got on the calendar, check the link in the show notes. And if you remember nothing else from today, remember this: You don't have to stay calm. You just need to know how to return to calm. Step number one: feel it. Feel that anxiety. Step number two: calm that anxiety down, breathe. Step three: refocus forward on what you're there to do.
Alright. You've done hard things before, and this is just another one, and you're ready. See you next week.
Thanks for listening to Unstoppable Ultra Runner. If you want more ultra talk, mindset tools, and strategies for running with confidence, visit www.susanidonnelly.com. This podcast receives production support from the team at Digital Freedom Productions. That’s it for today’s episode. See you next week.
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