Note: This article originally appeared in our print magazine and is republished from the latest Championship Special Edition.
From Nice to Kona to Marbella to the Qatar T100 Final, championship season is here – and with it, the full spectrum of pressure, pride, and purpose.
For athletes lining up on the world stage, the nerves are real. But so is the opportunity.
Tim O’Donnell, ITU Long Distance World Champion with five podium finishes at World Championship events, puts it this way: “World Championship racing isn’t just about the course, the heat, or the competition. It’s about what it means to stand on that start line. It’s about representing everything you’ve built in training, and equally, the people who carried you to this moment.”
Lisa Bentley, an 11-time Ironman Champion and one of the sport’s most respected voices, builds on that idea. “What we do is a gift,” she says. “And I feel like if we can have that thought a bit more often – of it being a gift and a privilege – we probably would rise to occasions on a more regular basis.”
Visualize Who You Intend to Be
Bentley begins by saying the most important thing she does with her athletes as pre-race mental prep is deep visualization. Who do you intend to be on race day? And she means that as an invitation – a doorway to considering what the realization of your best self would look like.
“How you see yourself is how you will be,” she says simply.
She encourages athletes to mentally rehearse each moment, from setting up transition in the dark (a special moment for her, and one where she always made a point to smile), to standing on the start line, to how the swim, bike, and run will feel.
“If you see yourself very anxious and very nervous, that’s exactly how you’re going to be,” she says. “So personally, I would visualize myself going to the transition area and being happy and smiling and enjoying it, because this is exactly what I wanted to do.”
She also notes that her in-race cues were process-oriented rather than outcome-oriented, because the process is something we can always control. Am I finishing my stroke? Am I sighting well? Am I fueling according to plan? Am I running with good posture? If someone passes me, am I assessing whether I can go with them?
“If you take care of the process, you will probably have a pretty good race.”
Bentley also encourages athletes to identify a theme – something deeper than simply going fast.
“I found that to be important,” she says, “because if I could focus on something other than going as fast as possible – if I had a theme – I could sort of distract myself from the intensity of the day.” For her, aligning with a larger vision or intention offered strength, perspective, and emotional grounding.
One year in Hawai’i, recently married to her husband Dave, her theme was love. “This doesn’t mean it was all fun,” she laughs. “Being out of breath, your legs hurting in the marathon, those things aren’t ‘fun’…but I can love that I get to do this. I can love how it feels to push my limits. I can love the feeling of the water during the swim and the breeze on the bike. I can love the privilege it is to be a part of this.”
“If you can find joy in pushing your body to the limit, that’s where the beauty lies,” she reflects. “And that’s all mental.”
Gratitude for the Opportunity
Tim O’Donnell shares that gratitude has long been a driving force behind his best performances.
“When I stood on the line in Kona, what I felt most wasn’t fear or doubt, it was gratitude,” he says. “Gratitude for the chance to test myself on the world stage. Gratitude for the opportunity to rise to the challenge. That’s what racing at the highest level really is: an opportunity.”
Creating Your Own Championship Mindset
Our hope in sharing these perspectives is that the grit, grace, and wisdom of champions like Tim O’Donnell and Lisa Bentley can help guide you toward your own best mindset on race day.
Take a quiet moment and ask yourself: How do I want this day to feel? What do I want it to mean?
Lisa puts it best: “Mindset can elevate your performance by two, three, four, maybe even five percent,” she says. “But more than that, it can elevate your entire experience of the day.”
And Tim’s final words are: “Let’s rise up. Let’s celebrate this season. And let’s remind ourselves why we race.”
Lisa Bentley is a coach and author of An Unlikely Champion. To learn more, visit www.lisabentley.com.
The post The Championship Mindset: “Let’s Rise Up” appeared first on Triathlon Magazine Canada.