Acceptance is Key

Bad days are unfortunately inevitable, but they do not define you as an athlete. Everybody has them and they aren't fun. But you have to know that the road to success isn't going to be easy and there are going to be days that are easier than others, it's just a fact. The best way of getting over a rough day is just accepting that that is what it was, it was just one bad day in between many good days.
So you show up to your track meet that day expecting to PR and then you get the worst time of your career. I am living proof that it can happen. Yep, yesterday I had a track meet and I was expecting so much from myself, maybe too much. I thought that I could PR, and instead my time was the slowest that I could ever remember myself getting. Days like this you may go through a few stages:
Stage 1: Tears
You are upset with yourself. So upset that you could cry, and maybe you do. It's perfectly okay, let it out. Wipe those tears away and get back up, remember that all you can do is improve for next time.
Stage 2: Rage
After you are over being upset about your time, you will probably just be mad at yourself. I know that I am. I just want to drop everything and quit. I hate that I ran slow and that I couldn't move faster. I'm just mad at the world at this point.
Stage 3: Acceptance
When you decide that the world isn't actually after you, and you forgive yourself for how you ran, you have reached the stage of acceptance. Accepting that sometimes days like this happen and you just have to work that much harder next time.
These are the phases that I go through after a bad race, maybe you don't, that's okay too. If you finish a bad race and right away accept that it is something every runner experiences then that is fantastic. However for the runners that struggle when they perform poorly, know that you aren't alone. The point is, after a race like I had yesterday, you must become accepting. It is the only way to get through the bad days. Every athlete has them, acknowledge it and move on.

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