From Running Times online...

Racing Your Best When You're Feeling Your Worst

Learning to make the best of a bad day can help you become a better runner

By Matt Pulle
As featured in the December 2010 issue of Running Times Magazine

 

In the middle of a Gigli-style flop of a race, many of us will console ourselves to the point of fantasy, but at some point we eventually realize -- usually well before we stumble dejectedly across the finish line -- that we're running poorly. So poorly, in fact, that barring divine intervention over the next few miles, we're going to fall well short of our expectations. The challenge now is to summon the motivation to give your best effort.

This is a story, then, about how to race badly. Or, to put it more instructively, how to race when the race is going badly.
Read on here.