Gabriella Rao, RD

Hope your week is going well so far! This week, I wanted to change things up a little and talk about running mantras — a very useful practice for sharpening your mental running game. 

What are running mantras?

Mantras (in a running context) are short phrases that runners use to build mental fortitude and motivation to overcome fatigue, negative mindsets, and stints in the pain cave during difficult workouts or races. Studies have shown that positive self-talk, including the use of mantras, has benefitted endurance athletes by reducing rate of perceived exertion (RPE) and increasing time to exhaustion (TTE) (1,2). 

How to create your own mantra:

Mantras are often inspired by experiences that endurance athletes have had, leading them to ascribe meaning to a certain phrase. For example, during Des Linden’s grueling 167-mile stage race across the Moroccan Sahara, she yelled, “You’re a gritty bitch!” at herself as a means of self-motivation. Obviously not everyone would want to use that mantra for themselves, so it’s up to you to create something that has special meaning to you.

During past races, I have used the phrase, “This is what you came for.” This mantra has helped me to motivate myself to push through the transient discomfort of hard efforts. Rachel Entrekin, who recently became the first woman to win Cocodona 250, has said that during her race, she kept asking herself, “Why not you?” In an interview, Rachel says that she felt a lot of imposter syndrome while leading the race, and this mantra helped remind her that she had the experience and training required to be very capable of coming out on top.

Perhaps you’ll find some mantra inspiration in the suggestions below!

Some mantras that may pique your interest:

• Run the mile you’re in.
• You’re strong and capable.
• You’re a badass!
• I’ve trained for this.
• Relaxed and strong.
• Go one more.

I encourage you to create one or two mantras for yourself to use during your next hard workout or race. You might find them a very helpful tool! After all, they do say that running is 90% mental and 10% physical (the proportion might be a bit different from that in reality, but you get the idea).

1. Blanchfield AW, Hardy J, De Morree HM, Staiano W, Marcora SM. Talking yourself out of exhaustion: the effects of self-talk on endurance performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2014;46(5):998-1007. doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000000184

2. Wallace PJ, McKinlay BJ, Coletta NA, et al. Effects of Motivational Self-Talk on Endurance and Cognitive Performance in the Heat. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2017;49(1):191-199. doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000001087