Have you ever reached the final couple of weeks before a race… and suddenly convinced yourself you’re not ready? Like… logically, you know you’ve trained.

You’ve done the long runs.
You’ve sacrificed weekends.
You’ve dragged yourself out in bad weather.

But now your brain is suddenly like:
“What if I can’t do it?”
“Have I done enough?”
“What if this all goes wrong?”

And you start questioning everything.
Your pacing. Your fitness. Your plan. Your goal. Yourself.

If you’ve ever felt race week anxiety before a marathon or half marathon, you’re not alone – this episode is for you.

Because today I want to talk about why so many runners spiral before race day – and why it often has very little to do with your actual fitness.

If you’re new around here, hello, I’m Gillian or Coach G. I’m a running mindset coach – helping runners of all levels achieve their running goals. We do the training plan, the nutrition strategy, goal setting, race prep, but most importantly I dive in deep with mindset….because a lot of the time the body can do the things we want it to, it’s the mind that holds us back.

I release new running mindset podcast episodes every week, please subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.

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This topic feels very timely because we’re heading into peak spring/summer race season and I know there are SO many runners right now who are deep in race-week overthinking.

So if your brain has suddenly decided: “You are wildly underprepared and everything is doomed”.

First of all – welcome, hello! What you are thinking & feeling is very normal.
And secondly, I want to help you understand what’s actually happening psychologically here.

Because this used to be me.
MASSIVELY.

I used to hit race week and suddenly feel this overwhelming urge to do more.

One more long run.
One more speed session.
One more “confidence boosting” workout (which, spoiler alert, was never actually about fitness – it was anxiety).

I was terrified that I wasn’t ready.
Terrified I would fail publicly.
Terrified I wouldn’t hit the goal I’d told everyone about.

But underneath all of that was something much deeper: I had attached so much meaning to my race result. Because if I achieved the goal? I felt successful, disciplined, capable – I could do the things I committed to achieving with EASE.

But if I didn’t? Honestly…it felt like proof that maybe I just wasn’t good enough – that I couldn’t achieve these amazing race results, that it wasn’t in reach for me.

And THIS is the bit I think so many runners don’t realise.

Race Week Anxiety Is Rarely Just About The Race Itself

It’s about what the race represents to you.

For some runners, it represents:

• validation
• achievement
• worthiness
• identity
• proof
• belonging

And when we unknowingly attach all of that emotional weight to one race…of course race week feels mentally intense. Suddenly it doesn’t feel like: “I’m going to run a marathon”.

It feels like: “I’m about to find out whether I’m enough”.

And that is a VERY different emotional experience.

Now on top of that, your brain also hates uncertainty. Like…genuinely hates it.

And race week is basically one giant uncertainty spiral because no matter how well you’ve trained, there’s still no guarantee.

You cannot fully control:

• the weather
• your body
• how the day unfolds
• how you’ll feel at 35k
• whether the race goes to plan

Your brain desperately wants certainty, it starts trying to regain control.

Which is why so many runners suddenly:

• overthink every session
• obsess over splits
• compare themselves online
• panic about missed runs
• want to cram in extra training
• catastrophise everything

Your brain is basically going: “If we can just think hard enough, maybe we can avoid disappointment”.

But that mindset creates so much unnecessary suffering during a training cycle. This is one of the reasons I believe so strongly that runners need more than just a training plan.

Because apps can give you sessions.
They can give you pace targets.
They can tell you when to taper.

But they cannot help you navigate:

• fear
• pressure
• self-doubt
• identity attachment
• emotional spiralling
• the guilt of resting
• the panic of uncertainty

And those are often the exact things affecting your running performance.

I see so many runners who are physically capable of their goals…but mentally exhausted by the process of trying to achieve them.

They spend the whole cycle:

• doubting themselves
• forcing training
• overpushing
• seeking reassurance
• tying their worth to outcomes

And then they wonder why running starts to feel heavy.

Because they’re not just carrying training load, they’re carrying emotional load too.

And honestly? The calmest runners are not always the fittest or fastest runners.

They’re often the runners who have learned:

• how to trust themselves
• how to tolerate uncertainty
• how to stop making every run mean something
• how to regulate emotions instead of reacting to them
• how to stay steady when fear shows up

That is such a huge part of performance that nobody really talks about.

Because confidence is not: “I never feel scared”. Confidence is: “I trust myself even when I do feel scared”.

And I think race week becomes so much gentler when you stop trying to eliminate fear and start building self-trust instead.

You do not need to earn your goal through panic.
You do not need to squeeze fitness out of fear during taper week.
You do not need to prove your worth through one race result.

And feeling anxious does not automatically mean you are unprepared.

Sometimes it simply means: “This matters to me”.

That’s all.

Now, in each episode I give you some journal prompts to take what you’ve heard and apply it to what’s going on with you. I highly encourage you not to skip this step as listening to a podcast is great, you maybe got some ah-ha moments, but the work is in doing the work and journaling is doing the work to pick apart what is going on consciously and subconsciously.

So if you are listening to this in the lead-up to a race, I really want you to ask yourself these questions – grab pen and paper or using your notes app:

1. What am I afraid this race result will mean about me?

2. What am I trying to control right now?

3. What would race week feel like if I trusted myself?

4. What do I actually need right now instead of more pressure?

Maybe the goal isn’t just becoming fitter. Maybe the goal is becoming a runner who can move through a training cycle without constantly abandoning herself emotionally. And THAT changes everything.

If race week anxiety keeps affecting your confidence and enjoyment of running, this is exactly the kind of mindset work we focus on inside The Runner Identity Project.

Yes, we work on training and performance – but we also work on the mindset patterns underneath your running:

• perfectionism
• inconsistency
• fear of failure
• overtraining
• self-trust
• confidence
• emotional regulation

Because your next race build does not have to feel like this.

You are allowed to train for goals while also feeling calm, supported, and connected to yourself in the process.

If that sounds like something you need, you can DM me the word PROJECT over on Instagram and we can chat about coaching.

And if you found this blog was helpful, I’d absolutely love if you shared it to your stories or sent it to a running friend who might need to hear it before race day.

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