Dream On

In a previous post of mine I wrote about my pre-race nightmares. When I have these dreams I do well in my races. It's when I don't have them that I do poorly. So far I have had four pre-race dreams before the Munich Marathon. The weird thing was that most of them were six months before the race, right around the time I decided I wanted to run Munich. Judging by the number of pre-race dreams that I have had so far, I should do well in Munich next month.

All sorts of things have happened to me in my pre-race nightmares: I have missed the start of a race, I have come in dead last, I finished after everything from the race had been cleaned up, I have gotten lost (usually combined with being all alone on the race course), I ran on courses that went through buildings or other strange places, I had no idea where the race start was, I was stuck in a long line to register for a race mere minutes before the start, I couldn't find my race gear or clothing, I ran on courses that were more like mazes than road races, I was supposed to race with a partner who was sleeping and wouldn't wake up, and I wore inappropriate clothing to races. In other words, anything that could have gone wrong in a race usually did in my dreams. I have run through houses, parks, castles, museums, construction zones, and even the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse at Disneyland. If only some of the real courses I have run on were that interesting.

Just when I thought that I had experienced every bizarre possiblilty in a pre-race dream, I had a totally new dream experience earlier this week. Here's what happened. I was at the beach with my husband and son. There was a marathon taking place at this beach. But there was no set start or finish time. The runners could start and finish anytime they wanted to. The catch was that the race was through the water to an island with a lighthouse on it and then back to the start. I decided to run this marathon. I was dressed in running shorts and a shirt with a race number on my shirt. I was barefoot. I took a big inner tube (it was the one that we bought in Italy for using in the water) and got into the center of it. Then I walked into the water to start the race. I ran on a hard, narrow ridge, which was supposed to be the race course. Imagine that ridge being like the plates on the back of a Stegosaurus. I ran in the middle of the inner tube on that ridge for a ways. Suddenly the ridge disappeared and there was nothing for me to run on. Yikes! I could tell that the water was over my head. There was only one thing to do--turn back to the shore and forget about doing the race. I turned around but couldn't find the ridge that I was running on before. It seemed to take forever just to move a couple of  meters in the water. Then I woke up.

It's good to see that after over 20 years of having pre-race nightmares, something new can happen. My dream a few days ago was the first one in which I ran in the ocean. That's what makes my pre-race dreams so fun. I never know what is going to happen in them or where I will end up. I hope that as long as I keep racing I will continue to dream on.

I Don't Sleep, I Dream

I chose the name of a song by REM for today's entry because it fits perfectly.  In my last entry I briefly mentioned pre-race nightmares as one of my "running neuroses." Since running my first half-marathon back in 1991, I've found that these pre-race dreams are a good thing. When I have at least one, I do well in a race. It's when I don't have them that something goes wrong during a race. My record is three before a race. A couple of days ago I just had my first nightmare before the Muenchener Stadtlauf (Munich City Run) half-marathon, which will be on the 27th. My pre-race dreams fall into several categories:

1) Not knowing where the starting line is or where the race will be held. In real life that has never happened. I always scout out where the start will be, where to get my number, where to park, where to leave my bag, etc. in advance. By the time race day rolls around, I know exactly where to go. I remember one dream where my friend Charlie and I were supposed to run a race together. He knew where the start was, but I didn't. He was sleeping and wouldn't wake up no matter what I did, and race time was getting closer. 

2) Being late for the start or totally missing it. I've never missed a race start, mainly because I show up to a race very early. I always give myself plenty of time to use the Porta-Potties, stretch, and generally get my head into the race.  In many of my dreams I made it to the starting line only to find that all of the other runners were long gone. In my latest dream, runners were only allowed to register just before the race. There were hundreds of people in front of me, very few people to handle the registration, and it was just a few minutes before the start. 

3) Getting lost on the course or running on a very strange course. I'm a middle of the pack runner, so I follow the people in front of me and hope they're all going the right way. So far that strategy has worked.  I've had dreams where the course went through houses and even one where the course went through Disneyland's Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.

4) Finishing dead last or so far back that the organizers are packing everything away. So far that never happened to me. My biggest fear before my first half-marathon was finishing last, which my running partner assured me wouldn't happen (it didn't). 

5) Wearing inappropriate clothing. In one of my more memorable pre-race nightmares, I was in the starting area and happened to look down at my feet. Instead of my usual running shoes, I was wearing pink bunny slippers!

Pre-race nightmares are a way of working out any anxiety that I may have about an upcoming race. When I wake up from one, I know that the situation in my dreams would not really happen. I also feel relieved about having a pre-race nightmare because I know that nothing will go wrong in my next race. Even though my training for my upcoming half-marathon has been going very well, my pre-race nightmare will give me a little psychological boost.