How to Deal with Race Day Anxiety (Without Controlling the Weather)

You’re Not Anxious Because of the Weather.

(Or the cutoff. Or the aid station food.)

You’re standing at the start line—or maybe just thinking about race day—and your heart is already racing. And not in a good, I-can’t-wait-to-get-started kind of way.

You’re anxious. About the weather. The cutoff. Your stomach. Whether your headlamp batteries will make it to sunrise. (You changed them. Didn’t you?)

And then, just to spice up the mind drama, you start feeling anxious about being anxious.

You know that’s not helpful, but you can’t help it. It feels like you need to control everything to keep this race from going sideways. To make it go the way you want it to. You want to dictate the weather, the trail conditions, your stomach, your pace, your cushion on cutoff, even whether you fall. Because if you can just control all the variables, then maybe the race will go your way.

But here’s the reality: 

You don’t control all of it. 

You never did. 

And you don’t have to.

The Real Problem Isn’t the Weather

It’s the idea that you should be able to control the weather—or the cutoff times, or every twist your ankle might take at mile 72.

Anxiety often isn’t about what’s happening. It’s about the stress of uncertainty. It’s your brain arguing with what might happen, and trying to force it not to. That mental tug-of-war wears you out and builds pressure until your race feels harder than it needs to be.

The Process (Yes, There’s a Practical Way Through This)

Thankfully, you don’t need to control everything to finish strong. You just need a plan for how you’ll respond to what you don’t control.

Here’s a mindset shift I use all the time with my clients that helps them run calmer, stronger, and more in control—no matter what race day throws at them.

1. Make a list of everything that affects your race.

Weather. Course conditions. Cutoffs. Stomach issues. Crew snafus. Your mindset. Blisters. Whether the aid station has the hydration drink mixed right.

1. Now, go down the list and check what you actually control.

Your training. Your gear. Your fueling strategy. Your pacing. Your thoughts. Your list of blister solutions. (It’s a lot, actually.)

1. For everything you don’t control, make a plan for how you’ll respond—or solve the problem if it happens.

• It pours rain all day: How are you going to stay warm, fueled, and keep moving?

• You’re cutting it close to the cutoff: Do you have a plan to manage your effort and stay focused, rather than spiral?

• Your drop bag didn’t make it to the aid station in time: Can you roll with it and eat off the aid station table?

Important: You’re not aiming to eliminate every “what if.” You’re showing yourself you can handle them.

What Happens When You Do This

You start to feel more in control—not because you are controlling everything, but because you know you can make it through things you can’t.

You create trust in yourself. You stop checking the weather obsessively. You still might feel a little anxious (you’re human, and this matters to you), but the anxiety loses its grip. And that makes it far easier to think clearly, run strong, and keep going when things get tough.

And by the way—this works in real life, too. Feeling anxious about a tough conversation, job change, or chaos happening in the world? Same approach. Name what you control and the actions you can take. List your options and plan your response to what you don’t directly control.

Because peace doesn’t come from locking down the universe.

It comes from knowing you’ve got a plan and the problem-solving skills for when it throws you a curveball—and that you can handle it.