Thinking about Confidence - and how athletes build and keep their self-confidence

Stanford Website Heading:  “… Derrick ran two of the most courageous races in recent memory, attacking Lelang with everything he had.”

Saturday’s NCAA Men’s 5K Indoor Track Championship race was a lesson in courage, poise, and confidence.  And it wasn’t the winner who taught us the lesson. 

Entered in the NCAA 5K Friday night, Lawi Lalang from Arizona had a seed time of 13:08, Stephen Sambu of Arizona had 13:13, Leonard Korir of Iona last year’s winner had 13:19.54, and Chris Derrick of Stanford 13:19.58 the fourth fastest going into the finals.  But Derrick had LaLang in his sights, after coming in second to LaLang by 3 seconds at NCAA regional cross country championships at Stanford in November.  

Derrick felt like he had done all the training that was appropriate for him, and apparently he had a plan.  If you’re not a runner, let me explain the strategy here.  A 5K is 3.1 miles which is a long time to run at breakneck speed.  If you know that your biggest competitor has a famous “kick” - that is, he can just put on the afterburners and sprint with 200 meters to go - it is dangerous to be tied with him at that point. 

Derrick’s plan was to push the pace and take the lead before LaLang kicked, and with 400 to go (a long way!) he sped up to distance himself from LaLang.  They traded the lead, running a very fast race, and LaLang finished .77 seconds in front of Derrick.  

Again, on Saturday, the two of them battled it out again.  This time LaLang finished only .17 seconds in front of Derrick.  And when the weekend was over, Derrick had run 2 of the fastest races of his career.

I am a runner, have run many races on an indoor track, and my daughter Jaye is a track runner.  We both know what it takes to formulate that race strategy, believe we can execute the plan, think about it all week as we prepare for and travel to the race, and put our toe on the starting line still confident in our ability to accomplish our goal.  There are so many opportunities for self doubt. 

We runners obsess over what we’ve eaten all week, whether we’ve stretched enough, double knotted our shoes so they don’t untie. Jaye and I learned from Sports Psychologist Michael Gervais how to “breathe” ourselves down from a Very Nervous 10 to a Moderately Nervous 7 for optimal performance.  Coach and CAL All-American Kirsten O’Hara Leetch, tells my daughter, “When you put your toe on the line, just know that you have done all the work you need to do to execute your plan and win.” 

I watched Chris Derrick run that 5K, knowing, appreciating and admiring everything it took for him to make that gutsy move.  And I will be cheering for him when he comes in first next time.