That elusive mantra.

I wrote a few weeks back about mantras and how I've been looking for a new one. There was a fantastic article in Runner's World this month (September 2011) called, "What's That You Say?" by Marc Parent. The subhead was "A running mantra doesn't have to make sense as long as it gets you up the hill." I laughed a lot as he described his first mantra ("Oh, c'mon! followed by C'mon, c'mon!") and as he explored motivational groaning. Passing the dead animal might've been my favorite. (---dead! Not like me! I'm alive!....Alive-Alive-o!....Alive-o, five-o!") He went on to talk about how some mantras can be good, but difficult to repeat when you're really tired. Since we've already discussed on this blog the fact that I cannot manage to keep a count of my laps at the track past, oh, say three, I can totally relate to this.

Last week I had a great mantra I'd built from some bible verses that I felt kept me strong. They came from all over the place, but basically it ended up something like, "Be Strong, Trust God, No Fear." I was so excited to go out for a long run and use this mantra. Unfortunately, I was far too optimistic in my ability to remember the word order while running uphill around mile 6. "No Strong, Trust Fear, Be God" was NOT the mantra I had planned. Moments later, I had a complete crisis, "Strong, What? Fear, huh?" From there on home, my mantra went something like, "I forgot, I forgot, what the heck were the words?"

Learning my lesson, the next time I set out, I concentrated on just one word. Strong. I can remember one word, right? The problem with that was on that same stretch of uphill, I did not FEEL strong. Strong was not working for me, no matter how much I tried to mash it into my head. It degenerated several times and finally ended up being "Shut up! COME ON! Stupid!" (What? It doesn't have to make sense, right?) At least I wasn't saying it out loud. Running along telling myself to shut-up would probably end with someone calling the police to come pick me up.

Parent closed his article with this - "Best mantra ever --- running through a list of what you care about most." I've been thinking about that one. If I can remember the names of my husband and kids on that uphill, I might just give this one a try.