Monterey Herald
-Don't mess with the running 'juju'
Don Buraglio and Mike Dove The running life For the next few columns
Buraglio and Dove will zero in on the Big Sur International Marathon,
which is less than a month away. Today, they look at bad "juju."
Juju is a term that is adopted from African culture and has various
meanings. It is not exactly superstition. It can be a charm or object
with magical powers, or any ritual act that influences the forces of
nature for better or worse.
As it relates to running, juju is a specific behavior that really
shouldn't have any affect on race performance, but inevitably does.
Acts that directly affect physical performance, such as inadequate
training, improper race preparation or foolish strategy, do not count.
For example, wearing a new pair of shoes on race day or eating
something unfamiliar before the race isn't bad juju, it's just
stupidity.
Experienced marathon runners are careful to avoid bad juju before and
during their event. The following are the most common examples:
· Rule No. 1: Predicting your own race time is bad juju. This is the
"pride goeth before the fall" postulate of juju. On race day, there are
too many variables that can conspire against you, to assume that they
will all come down in your favor.
Nevertheless, runners of all speeds frequently break this rule. As soon
as you state "I will finish in x amount of time," you are almost
guaranteeing yourself a much slower finish time.
Try this experiment: ask a veteran marathoner how fast they are going
to run an upcoming race. If they know anything about juju, they will
hem and haw and be more evasive than Mark McGwire in giving you a
specific answer.
To avoid bad juju, never forecast a specific time. It's much safer to
say, "I'm hoping to run x time," or "My goal is to run it in x time."
Both are statements that don't tempt fate nearly as much as a specific
prediction.
· Rule No. 2: Wearing the shirt of the race you are running is bad
juju. This falls under the "don't count your chickens before they
hatch" category of juju. It's never acceptable to wear the T-shirt for
the race until after you have actually completed it.
Just because you show up at the marathon expo and pick up your packet
doesn't guarantee that you'll finish the race the next morning.
Unforeseen injuries, stomach cramps, blisters, or a myriad of other
problems can quickly lead to a DNF, and there you'll be at the side of
the road, advertising the event that just kicked your butt. It would be
like the losing team deciding to go ahead and wear those "Super Bowl
Champs" hats that are printed in advance for each team, but only given
to the winners. How ridiculous would that look? That's the risk you run
by wearing the race shirt during the actual event.
(By the way, what does happen to all of those unusable hats and
t-shirts? Hopefully they are sent to impoverished villages that don't
have TV or Internet access. There must be a whole society somewhere in
a remote corner of the world that thinks the Buffalo Bills won four
Super Bowls).
· Rule No. 3: Wearing the shirt from one race while racing in another
is bad juju. The worst mistake a runner can make is underestimating or
disrespecting any given course. In order to race well, you have to
focus all of your energy on the challenge at hand, and not look ahead
to the next race, or dwell excessively on a past event. Wearing the
shirt from another marathon demonstrates conflicting interests and
loyalties. It's the equivalent of going out to a special dinner with
your girlfriend while wearing a sweater that was an anniversary gift
from a previous lover, and having your current girlfriend recognize it.
This is the "how can you be committed to me when you're thinking of
another girl?" tenet of juju.
The only exception to this rule that we may consider is if the race
distance of the shirt you are wearing is longer than the distance you
are currently racing. Some people do this to psych themselves up during
rough stretches, saying, "If I finished that race, I can finish this
one."
However, this is a pretty unreliable argument, as we have passed many
people wearing Ironman singlets or Western States 100-mile race shirts
who looked desperately exhausted while racing at Big Sur.
· Rule No. 4: Telling your finish line posse you'll be done at a
certain time is bad juju. This is a more severe variant of Rule No. 1.
It could be called contagious juju because it affects not just you, but
everyone who is awaiting your arrival at the finish line.
Imagine the worry and embarrassment inflicted on your spouse and
friends when they are looking for you, but you are nowhere to be found.
Progressively bad thoughts cross their minds for every minute you are
over your predicted arrival time.
When you finally arrive, instead of finding people who are sympathetic
to your bad day, you'll be facing an angry or stressed-out mob. Instead
of being a hero, you are merely "late" and a bearer of bad juju.
To avoid this plight, give your loved ones an "approximate window" of
arrival times.
These are the most obvious cases of bad juju in action, but we're
really just scratching the surface with these examples. While there is
no rational explanation for these phenomena, we have had enough
experiences and observations to believe in the power of juju.
As race day approaches, don't ruin all of your hard training with
foolhardy behaviors that can tip the scales of karma against you.
Take it from us, running a marathon is hard enough on its own.