As a former collegiate cross country runner I was geeking out over the great coverage ESPN provided Saturday of the NCAA Division I Championships. In the women’s race Florida’s Parker Valby won and led almost start to finish in the 6k. After the initial start Valby made her way to the front and never looked back.
At one point of the race one of the commentators said “if you run ahead like that you better be all in, there’s no looking back.” It’s a risky strategy to take the lead and try to hold it. It’s often easier to wait to move out until later on in the race. If you decide to move to the front you better be prepared to commit to holding that position and be “all in.”
Ironically I saw a motivational speaker for work last week whose talk was called “All In.” He works with athletic teams including the New York Giants and uses an analogy of poker chips. He passed out chips and told the team to put their name and number of the chip. And if you’re willing to be “all in” put that chip on the table.
If you want to stay or be all in you need to be fully committed to the team or whatever it is you’re doing-work, school, family. If we aren’t fully focused on our goals we get distracted and don’t perform as well. We are not all in if we let other things get in our way.
Both this talk I attended and the comments during the xc championships reminded me the importance of being all in. I get it. I don’t half ass things. I’m all in and sometimes too intense with things but I give my best effort at work, home, etc because it’s not worth just waiting in the back of the pack to see what happens. It’s not worth saving my energy. I want to perform my best.
Sometime this strategy doesn’t work (trust me I’ve been there and done that in races) but you at least went all out. What’s the point of just going through the motions or doing the bare minimum when you can take charge and exceed what is expected of you.
So don’t wait until runners and life pass you by. Don’t be afraid to take that lead and try to hold on to finish first. You may come up short but at least you went all in.
#allin #crosscountry #races #racestrategy #parkervalby
