Blog 2: Race Week Between the Ears
Part 2: Pre-Race Anxiety: What It Really Is and How to Work With It
Welcome back to Race Week Between the Ears. In Part 1 Dr. Keirstyn unpacked taper madness. The phantom niggles, the restlessness, the creeping self-doubt that arrives right when you should feel most prepared. If you read it and thought 'that is exactly me before every race,' you are in very good company.
Today we are talking about what happens in the final hours before the start. The dry mouth, the racing heart, the urge to use the bathroom approximately seventeen times, the sudden certainty that you have completely forgotten how to do the sport you have been training for months. Pre-race anxiety. Let us talk about what it actually is and, more importantly, why some of it is working for you.
The Physiology of Pre-Race Nerves
What you experience as anxiety before a race is your sympathetic nervous system doing exactly what it is designed to do. The fight-or-flight response evolved to prepare the body for physical demand and a race start is, by any biological measure, a significant physical demand.
When the sympathetic system activates, cortisol and adrenaline are released. Heart rate increases. Blood is redirected to working muscles. The digestive system slows down (hence the pre-race bathroom situation). Sensory acuity sharpens. Breathing rate increases. All of this is preparation, not malfunction.
The research distinguishes between two interpretations of this physiological state:
Anxiety:
Interpreting the arousal as threatening. 'Something is wrong. I am not ready. This is going to go badly.'
Excitement:
Interpreting the same arousal as energizing. 'My body is ready. I am prepared for this. Let us go.'
A landmark series of studies by Alison Wood Brooks at Harvard found that athletes who reframed pre-performance anxiety as excitement outperformed those who tried to calm down. The physiological state was identical. The cognitive label was different. And that label changed the outcome.
You cannot turn off the nerves. You can change what you call them.
When Anxiety Becomes a Problem
Not all pre-race anxiety is the useful kind. There is a point at which the arousal level becomes too high to perform well — what sport psychologists call going over the top of the inverted U. Signs that your pre-race anxiety has moved from productive to counterproductive:
Muscle tension so significant it affects warm-up movement quality
Catastrophic thinking that cannot be interrupted; the spiral of worst-case scenarios that takes over and cannot be redirected
GI distress severe enough to affect nutrition and hydration in the hours before the start
Paralysis in decision-making about race strategy, gear, nutrition; everything feels uncertain
Sleep deprivation across multiple nights leading into the race, not just the night before
The night before the race is almost always the least important sleep night. Research consistently shows that one poor night of sleep has minimal impact on performance. Two or three nights of significant disruption does. This is why the taper week sleep habits we discussed in Part 1 matter so much.
Practical Tools for the Hours Before the Start
These are evidence-backed strategies, not generic wellness advice:
The reframe:
When you notice the physical symptoms of anxiety, name them as excitement out loud or in your head. 'I am excited.' Not 'I am nervous.' This is not toxic positivity, it is a neurological shift with research behind it.
Physiological sigh:
Two quick inhales through the nose followed by a long exhale through the mouth. This is the fastest way to downregulate the sympathetic nervous system and has been validated in peer-reviewed research by Dr. Andrew Huberman and colleagues at Stanford. Two or three of these at the start line works.
Pre-race routine:
A consistent, repeatable sequence of behaviours in the final hour before racing anchors the nervous system in familiarity. The brain interprets routine as safety. Build yours in training and execute it exactly on race day.
Process goals not outcome goals:
In the final minutes before the start, redirect attention from 'what time am I going to run' to 'what does my first kilometre look like.' You can control the process. You cannot fully control the outcome.
One word or phrase:
A single cue word that anchors you to your best performances. Athletes who use consistent cue words in training build a conditioned association between that word and a state of focused readiness. Arrive at the start line with yours.
A Personal Note
I have stood on start lines feeling like my heart was going to exit my chest and told myself it was excitement. I have used the physiological sigh at a sprint triathlon start with cold water in front of me and a field of athletes around me. These are not theoretical tools. They work because the physiology is real, not because the mindset is magical.
Your nerves before a race are not evidence that something is wrong. They are evidence that something matters. That is worth something.
Up Next: When Things Go Wrong Mid-Race
You made it to the start line. The gun goes off. And somewhere around the halfway point, things stop going according to plan. Part 3 of Race Week Between the Ears covers the mid-race mental crisis. Why it is predictable, what to do when it arrives, and how the athletes who handle it best have prepared for it long before race day. See you there.
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Pre-race anxiety that is affecting your performance is something we can work on together. The mental side of racing is trainable, and I approach it the same way I approach the physical side — with evidence, with specificity, and with your goals in mind. Reach out to Dr. Keirstyn today book a consultation.
📍 Endurance Therapeutics | Oakville