Run & Race Tip #2 - Running Through the Finish

“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” – Prefontaine

When you race, any race from 100m to 100 miles, you should be running to 5 yards beyond the finish line.  This is a lesson that was hammered into me as a high school runner by my father.  I could win a race by 100 yards and still get an ear full on the way home if I let up at the finish line.  He, of course, was right, and that was a lesson that maybe I didn’t learn as well as I should have, and still have to focus on.

Can you think of anything more embarrassing than getting passed at finish line when you’ve let off the gas?  Or missing your PR by a second because you didn’t gut out that one last stride?  Anyone can gut out one or two last strides, and that stride can make the difference between 1^st and 2^nd, a PR or a good run.

I got a good reminder of this at the Miami ING Half Marathon.  I coasted the last stride and got beat by another runner at the line who was giving it everything he had.  Results wise it didn’t matter much – chip time I beat him by 15 seconds, but every time I look at that finish photo I get to see him pushing past me.  Those last couple of strides were the difference between a great finish photo and an embarrassing reminder.

Why does this matter?  Well it doesn’t really if you’re just out there for a run, but if you’re racing, or trying to give it your all, of course it matters.  Letting up at the finish line, regardless of whether someone’s near you or not, means you left something out there on the course.  You should never be satisfied at racing less than your best.  If you’re not gutting it out to the very end and dry heaving just past the finish line you haven’t run your best race, and for that race, you’ve sacrificed the gift.