In general, athletes are a very superstitious bunch, and runners are definitely not an exception. We all have some silly idiosyncrasies that, for one reason or another, have become a part of our personal race ritual. Some of the time, we actually start to believe in these rituals as a necessary factor for success. So…are they?
A lot of these behaviors became a part of our routine by chance. Humans are remarkably good at identifying and then repeating patterns. From an evolutionary perspective, it’s one of the main reasons we’ve flourished. In the running context, maybe you wore a certain pair of socks and ran a PR. Must be lucky socks. Maybe you had a burger and a Guinness then ran a PR the next day. That must be the lucky pre-race meal. You get it…if something occurs in close temporal proximity to a good outcome, there is a tendency to attribute causality in that relationship.
First, let me say that I don’t believe that superstitions actually have some metaphysical benefit. Performance on race day is mostly a byproduct of the training that was done leading up to that day. Does black fingernail polish actually make your body more physically capable than blue? No. Does using four gold safety pins from home instead of four silver ones supplied by the race organizers make your body more physically capable? Of course not. Does wearing gear all from the same manufacturer improve your stamina or turnover? Nope! So, at face value, this is all just a bunch of silly gobbledygook, right?
Well, not entirely. Like I said a few lines ago, how we do on race day is mostly a factor of how well we trained. But it’s also partly (or maybe even equally…) a factor of how confident we are. That’s why, for whatever reason, superstitions rituals tend to actually improve performance. My first example (black fingernail polish) is something Kara Goucher has been known to do. The other two examples are a past and current superstition of my own. And I’m the guy who is telling you that superstitions are at least partly silly.
Here is my favorite example of superstitious behavior, although not from the world of running. As a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan, I’ve seen Nomar Garciaparra do the same pre-pitch batting ritual hundreds, if not thousands of times. I can assure you that he already had his batting gloves tight enough, and his cleats were already clear enough of dirt to be effective. But, even in his first at bat in the minor leagues, Nomar was doing the exact same superstitious behavior as he was hitting walk-off home runs in the majors:
The key to any superstition is that it does one of two things:
- It helps an athlete calm their nerves before a moment where they need to focus (Nomar)
- It helps an athlete build anticipation before a moment when adrenaline or confidence will provide a performance boost (running)
As a coach, I want my athletes to show up for a race with no doubts about their ability to perform. So, if they have a certain ritual or superstition, I’m totally OK with it. I don’t actively encourage them, but I do want them in the same confident head space each time they race.
In an indirect way, those silly things that we do are actually helping us run our best. So long as your superstition doesn’t actually cause you or anyone else any harm (I wouldn’t advocate adopting eating a package of bacon as a good luck ritual, which I have seen done in high school to very negative consequences…), go right ahead and do what you need to do so that when you toe the line, you’re confident and ready to rock.
And if you happen across my little gold pins, I haven’t run with them in quite a while but I seem to be doing OK despite missing my good luck charms…