How to Mentally Prep for a Marathon Like a Pro

From prepping your crew to visualizing a breakthrough moment, steal these strategies for your own race prep. [View in Browser]( [Runner's World Logo]( [SHOP]( [RW+ EXCLUSIVES]( [SUBSCRIBE]( 📺 What to Watch at the Olympics on Thursday 🇫🇷 Bonjour! Today’s dispatch comes via Brian Dalek, director of content creation. Attending his first Olympics, he’s been impressed every session with the performance of the athletes. But it’s the field events and the crowd support behind them that have surprised him in a good way. *** Clap!...Clap!... Clap! When you hear that rhythmic crowd noise from the stands of a track meet, it’s rarely for the runners. It’s for the Mondos who vault with ease and the Crousers who heave shots far distances. It’s for jumpers like Yaroslava Mahuchikh from Ukraine, gold medalist in the high jump who said she competes for the people from her home who fight and defend. When you get more than a week of track and field, it really allows the field part of the equation to shine. Oftentimes it takes over the attention of the stadium between various heats and pauses in the action to set up hurdles. If you get a chance to attend a big track and field event like a U.S. championship, world championship, or perhaps the Olympics (in L.A.?), I think you’ll fall in love with field events, too. So it made me wonder why everyone doesn’t love the field events as much as a whole. (We are Runner’s World, of course, so our focus is running. But maybe that should be changed.) And with the recent announcement of Michael Johnson’s new Grand Slam Track league not having any field events, it’s another dig at field events. What gives? “There's such potential and excitement for field events to be embraced. Some of these new circuits being created are definitely disheartening, and it's going to be interesting to see how they play out being exclusive to track,” said Valarie Allman of Team USA, who won discus gold earlier this week. “In all events, particularly the throwing events, it’s all about creating a storyline and embracing it. Most of the time, we are the ones who show up and compete the most, we are willing to go head to head all the time and create great battles.” If you love field events and the athletes who dedicate their lives to them, keep up the clapping and cheering. *** Afternoon Race Schedule (Eastern Time) - 1:35 p.m.—Women’s 1500 meters semifinals - 2:00 p.m.— Women’s long jump final 🥇 - 2:25 p.m.—Men’s javelin throw final 🥇 - 2:30 p.m.—Men’s 200 meters final 🥇 - 3:25 p.m.—Women’s 400 meters hurdles final 🥇 - 3:45 p.m.—Men’s 110 meters hurdles final 🥇 We’ve already had one final, [the men’s 1500](, that fans will talk about for years. Here’s another good candidate. Reigning Olympic champ [Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone]( lowered her own world record to 50.65 when she won the U.S. trials in June. Reigning Olympic silver medalist and last year’s world champ, Femke Bol of the Netherlands, became the second sub-51 woman in history when she ran 50.95 in July. Neither had close competition in those races. So you have to wonder: How much faster can they go when they’re in adjoining lanes and Olympic gold is on the line? There’s really nothing more to say about this epic showdown besides watch it live if at all possible. [Read More](   🇺🇸 Athlete Spotlight: Quincy Hall Quincy Hall became the first American to win the Olympic 400-meter title in 12 years on Wednesday, overtaking early leader Matthew Hudson-Smith in his final two strides to prevail in a personal best of 43.40. Hall’s win is a return to former form for U.S. 400-meter runners. Between 1984 and 2008, U.S. runners won 15 of 21 possible Olympic medals in the event, including all six golds. But in the three Games between 2012 and 2021, there was only one U.S. medal, bronze by LaShawn Merritt in 2016. [Read More](   ⁉ Did You Know? What’s up with the bell that gold medal winners ring in Stade de France? Well, rugby was held in Stade de France the first week of the Games, before track started. And the winner of each match rang the bell, including Ilona Maher (who now has 3 million Instagram followers) and the bronze medal-winning American women’s rugby sevens team. Someone had the bright idea of keeping it around for track. This bell, made in Normandy, will hang in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame after the Games, a gift from the Olympics to the city. [According to NBCOlympics.com](, the bell is engraved with the Paris 2024 emblem. It is part of the legacy project for the Games, “with the idea that the sound of Olympic victory will be heard for decades to come,” NBC wrote. 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