Prepare To Win

Juma Ikangaa is a marathon runner from Tanzania who won the New York City Marathon and placed second overall at the Boston Marathon. After he won the NYC marathon he said “The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.” I have always liked this quote because it stresses the importance of training/having a good work ethic. Many athletes want to win on race day, but only the athletes who put in the work have a chance to be successful. 

• Around ten years ago, I came up with the idea of wristbands for the team. I wanted us to have a motto to focus on, to give us motivation when we trained. I couldn’t fit the whole “will to win” quote on the wristband, so I shortened it to “PREPARE TO WIN.” We’ve had different color wristbands over the years, navy, white, silver, gray, but it’s always said the same, “PREPARE TO WIN.” The kids enjoy collecting the wristbands and like to ask for an extra one to put on their water bottles. When our team wears the wristband, we seem united. Maybe we aren’t capable of winning a state championship, but at least we are focused on becoming better. For me, there has always been comfort in seeing a bunch of our kids work hard together towards a common goal

• I have been fortunate enough to speak at a few coaching clinics. Most of the coaches look at me funny when I tell them that a big reason for our success is the wristbands. They are looking for some secret workout or race strategy we implement, but instead of hearing about those things, they mostly hear about PREPARE TO WIN. I stress the importance of this because if athletes aren’t motivated to do the workouts, then what difference does it make? What does it matter if we do 10×400 or 4×1 mile if the athletes don’t see the point?

• As coaches, we try to emphasize the importance of the process and to reward athletes for their consistency in our practices. We had a student recently complete our LRC (long run challenge) for the past five weeks, despite the bad weather. I made sure to acknowledge his dedication and consistency in our morning team meeting, and expressed how proud we are of his hard work. Although we have had athletes run the LRC faster, none have completed the run for five consecutive weeks.

• Motivation is a constant battle, and I won’t pretend that it has always been easy in our program. Although we have a great group of athletes, even the most driven among them need encouragement and a pat on the back. Before each practice, we have a team meeting, and I use that opportunity to greet the team in a positive manner and to encourage them for the day’s workout. We also use the meeting to discuss things such as team culture, 5 keys to success (see previous blog post) and other random things related to running like safety on the roads.