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Running a marathon is a demanding physical challenge, but sometimes the greatest battle takes place in the mind. When fatigue sets in, the legs begin to weaken and the finish line still feels painfully distant, mental strength can become the difference between giving up and achieving something extraordinary.

American distance runner Jess McClain demonstrated exactly that at the 2026 TCS New York City Marathon, where an intelligent psychological approach helped her overcome mounting fatigue and secure a remarkable second-place finish in the women's race.

Rather than allowing herself to become overwhelmed by the thought of running the entire 26.2 miles, McClain relied on a mental technique known as chunking — the practice of dividing a difficult or overwhelming task into smaller, more manageable sections.

The strategy became particularly important around mile 16, when her legs began to struggle and the physical demands of the race intensified. Instead of thinking about how much distance remained, she concentrated on reaching the next milestone.

Her immediate target was to get across the Queensboro Bridge. Once that challenge was behind her, she shifted her attention to the next section of the course, taking the race one landmark and one neighbourhood at a time.

First Avenue came next, followed by the Bronx and, eventually, the familiar roads leading towards Central Park, where the marathon would reach its dramatic conclusion.

McClain even described part of her approach as essentially "gaslighting" herself into believing that she would feel better once she reached the next checkpoint. It was a clever way of keeping negative thoughts at bay and preventing the enormity of the remaining distance from taking control of her mind.

By continuously resetting her focus, she gave herself smaller objectives to pursue, allowing her to remain engaged in the race even as the physical discomfort became increasingly difficult to manage.

And her determination produced a spectacular finish.

With the finish line approaching, McClain summoned one final burst of energy, producing a powerful closing 200-metre sprint that saw her overtake defending champion Hellen Obiri and claim second place in one of the most dramatic moments of the women's race.

Her performance was a reminder that marathon running is not simply a contest of endurance, speed and physical preparation. It is also a test of patience, concentration, emotional control and the ability to keep believing when the body begins to question how much further it can go.

For runners of every level, McClain's experience offers a valuable lesson: You do not always have to conquer the entire marathon in your mind. Sometimes, you only need to conquer the next bridge, the next street, the next kilometre or even the next few minutes.

Chunk by chunk, step by step, the finish line eventually gets closer.

When stepping up to a new distance, it can help by focusing on short intervals you're familiar with.

Up. Tap the pole. Down. Tap the Bridge. Up. Tap. Down.… Over the weekend, on one of many hill-repeat sessions, I came to the realization that the majority of my training for a 200-mile trail race through big mountain terrain has been on a single mile. It’s not even a trail, and, in fact, some of it is even paved. How can I possibly prepare for such a big goal on such seemingly wildly inappropriate training grounds?

There was a time when I could go out on any given weeknight and run for three or four hours. But: life. Now I find myself having to balance running with family obligations, keeping a new dog from chewing up all my shoelaces, and doing work on a new home. And it’s so easy these days, especially with Strava and social media, to fall into a trap of comparing my own training to people putting in loads of miles in the Alps or the Rockies. But the reality is no matter what goals we runners are training for, we have to work with what we’ve got. A few years ago, when COVID shut down my local trails, I found myself turning to a few of these short segments, and ping-ponging from end to end purely because there was nowhere else to go. While it was not the most scenic running I’ve ever done, I found myself getting stronger physically and mentally. It turns out I inadvertently adopted a training concept known as “chunking” in place of doing big majestic loops.

By necessity, I found out that I train better when I take a big, ambitious goal and break it down into things that seem reasonable: Each run or workout chips away at the goal, taking something that at the outset seems like a massive weight and bringing it down to something more manageable, more recognizable—like a carver tapping away with a chisel. No matter how small of a hill you might have to train on, or even if you’re confined to a track, or maybe not running at all due to injury—even the smallest chip you can manage whittles away at that giant block.

Two hundred miles is of course an extreme example, but when I first started running, as with so many runners, even a single mile sounded impossible. Even if you start with just one minute of running, you are breaking down whatever bigger goal you might have. For me, on race day, no matter what distance I’m doing, as the miles add up and the legs and lungs burn, I know I can focus, just as I did in training, on hearing that next tap. 

Pat Heine-Holmberg, Runner’s World’s Senior Video Producer, spends more time on trails in pursuit of going farther and higher than he does faster. PRs racked up during the 2023 Tor des Géants include earliest time to vomit (mile three), most ice cream eaten during a race (four bars), and worst night of sleep (an hour on the floor in an under-construction sports center).

 

All runners can benefit from learning these simple thought techniques.

Olympic medalist and champion marathoner Meb Keflezighi thought about dropping out of every marathon he ran—even the three he won.

So if you’ve had those thoughts, it’s certainly not just you. All runners have rough patches when pushing themselves, whether in a race, during a hard workout, or on a long run. Experts use the phrase “psychological crisis” to describe when your body’s signals dominate your attention and you think about slowing or stopping.

These moments often occur two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through a workout or race. Speaking about the Ursuline Academy runners she coaches in Dallas, elite runner Becky Wade says: “They’re deep enough into the race that they’re hurting, but not close enough to the finish line yet to get excited or start kicking. It’s easy to doubt whether they’ll be able to hang on, and they back off a bit as a protective mechanism.”

What separates Keflezighi, Wade, and other successful runners from some of us is that they know these rough patches will come, and they have mental strength techniques for dealing with them.

These techniques are quite simple. Even better, they can be learned, and then honed, so that you persevere despite the internal voice telling you to back off or drop out. Here are six elite-endorsed ways to build mental strength when the going gets tough.

1. Know Why You’re Doing This

Good goals not only guide your training. They can also fortify you during difficult stretches.

Know the purpose of a given workout or race, and how it will help you meet a personally meaningful goal, says Olympian Roisin McGettigan, a sport psychology coach who holds the Irish record in the steeplechase.

For example, “if it was a long workout, I would remind myself that this is the time to work on my strength and endurance,” McGettigan says. “If it was an early-season race, the purpose might be ‘to see where I’m at’ or ‘blow off the cobwebs.’”

These why-am-I-doing-this thoughts can occur not just when you’re acutely suffering, but also when you’re bored or apathetic. McGettigan says to remind yourself why you’re out there in those situations as well. Think of how easy running will help you recover for your next key workout, or how an hour alone on the roads provides a calming antidote to the message-a-minute pace of modern life.

If thoughts alone don’t do the job for you, McGettigan recommends using visual cues. “I often drew a smiley face or heart on my hand to remind me that I really loved what I was doing and I was saying ‘yes’ to this experience,” she says.

2. Enlist Family and Friends

Telling a few key people about your race or hard workout adds accountability. When a moment of crisis occurs, picture yourself recounting the run to them. Will you be proud to tell them how you handled the challenge?

Keflezighi was in 21st place halfway through the 2012 Olympic Marathon. Bothered by stomach and foot pain, he pondered dropping out. Then he thought about his family, who were waiting for him at the finish line. What kind of example would dropping out set for his daughters, he asked himself. He committed to finishing no matter what, and wound up crossing the line in fourth place.

You can also enlist others in practical terms. As McGettigan notes, most elite runners train with others, in part to be pulled through hard efforts when they’re struggling and might otherwise slack off. Wade tells the high schoolers she coaches to latch on to a teammate or competitor if their resolve falters during a race. Doing so can shift your attention from how much you’re hurting to the more straightforward task of maintaining contact.

3. Visualize Success

To reiterate: Successful racers know one or more psychological crises are likely to occur when they’re pushing themselves. One way they prepare for the challenge is to play the race through their head before they get to the starting line. As Wade, a 2:30 marathoner, puts it, “I envision myself in a race atmosphere, down to the course, competition, and atmosphere.”

A key benefit of doing so is that, when the urge to slow or stop strikes, you have a counter-narrative ready—that vision you implanted and watched several times of yourself rising to the challenge and continuing to run strong.

“I think having visualized the race going well in my head many times allowed me to stay engaged, because I had already told myself I was going to have a good race,” says Mark Coogan, whose long elite career was highlighted by a spot on the 1996 Olympic marathon team. “Knowing what I was going to do in the race allowed me to be more aware of how I was running physically, so I could stay loose and smooth.”

Coogan is now the coach of New Balance Boston, which includes on its roster Olympians Elle Purrier St. Pierre and Heather MacLean. He encourages his athletes to spend 10 to 15 minutes a day visualizing in the week leading up to a big race.

“I tell them to visualize seeing themselves running well,” Coogan says. “Visualize the race you want to happen.”

4. Focus on Your Body—But Not Excessively

Experts used to believe that experienced runners focus on bodily sensations (known as associating) and that less experienced runners focus on anything but their body (known as dissociating). Thanks in part to research by Noel Brick, Ph.D., a psychology professor at the University of Ulster and co-author of The Genius of Athletes, it’s now known that that old dichotomy is too simplistic.

Brick has shown that a Goldilocks-level of bodily awareness leads to lower perceived exertion. “Focusing excessively on bodily sensations, like breathing or feelings of discomfort, can be harmful to our performance,” Brick says. Focusing solely on these sensations can negatively affect performance by increasing how hard the work feels and making the run feel more unpleasant. This then leads to slowing down.

A better approach? Check in periodically, notice what your body is telling you, and then focus elsewhere. When racing a 10K, for example, Coogan would do a body check about once a mile. He’d make sure his shoulders were low and level, that his hands were cupped loosely, that he wasn’t overstriding, and so on. Now as a coach, he periodically yells “body check” to his runners to remind them to do a quick scan.

Consider running form cues when doing your own body scan, making sure you’re running relaxed but strong—after you make adjustments, take your thoughts elsewhere.

5. Chunk Your Miles

If, a few strides into a marathon you think, “Oof, 26.2 miles to go,” you likely have a long day ahead of you.

Successful runners avoid getting overwhelmed by what they’re attempting with a technique known as chunking. “I mentally break the effort down into manageable bites, and focus only on getting through the bit I’m in,” Wade says. “This often means completing a loop, making it to my water bottle, or getting through a specific stretch of road or distance.” Or, as U.S. half marathon record-holder Ryan Hall put it in his book title, run the mile you’re in.

Notice that Wade’s examples of chunking are specific tasks. Psychologists call these process goals—step-by-step actions that contribute to performing well in the short term. Focusing on process goals has two key payoffs. First, they keep you from overthinking the run’s outcome, such as what your time will be. Research has shown that thinking too much about outcome goals can induce anxiety and cause distraction.

Chunking via process goals also encourages actions that directly improve your performance. One of Coogan’s main focuses when marathoning was making sure he got his bottle every 5K, and then taking the time to drink adequately from the bottle. Doing so ensured that he stayed hydrated and fueled, and therefore didn’t falter in the final miles. Similarly, Wade’s focus on the next stretch of a road race, or her next split in a track race, leads to running that section of the race as well as possible.

Chunking is also helpful during interval workouts. Wade encourages the high schoolers she coaches to focus on just the current repeat or set, and reminds them that a recovery jog and chance to regroup is never more than a few minutes away.

6. Talk to Yourself Like You’re Your Coach

We all talk to ourselves when we run. (If you doubt that, monitor your mind on your next outing.) What matters here is the nature of that talk.

A study published in Psychophysiology found that people rated running at a given speed harder when they talked to themselves negatively compared to when their self-talk was positive. The runners also produced more cortisol, a hormone associated with emotional stress, when their self-talk was negative.

During a tough patch, Brick advises, “you might say to yourself, ‘my legs feel tired, but I can push through this.’ Research has shown that using simple statements like this can help us maintain our performance, despite how tired we feel.”

Coogan would repeat a few go-to phrases to himself, such as “you’re okay, Mark,” during races and hard workouts. And research supports Coogan’s tendency to speak to himself in the second person—using “you” rather than “I.”

In a study with cyclists, the participants did separate 10K time trials in which they used two versions of positive self-talk phrases. The phrases were identical except that in one they addressed themselves as “I,” and in the other they addressed themselves as “you.” Although the cyclists rated the time trials as feeling equally hard, when they spoke to themselves in the second person, they rode 2.2 percent faster. If that seems like an insignificant difference, consider that a 24:30 5K is 2 percent faster than a 25:00 5K. Which would you rather run?

Psychologists say this distinction works because addressing yourself as “you” provides emotional distance from the duress you’re under. In this set-up, you’re talking to yourself more like a coach would talk to you. And a good coach would never say, “you stink—drop out.” They would find a simple phrase or two that would help you weather the crisis and push through for a strong finish. With this simple switch in your thinking, you can provide that mental push for yourself.

 

The 10,000 meters at the Trials was run in unprecedented heat. Here’s how she kept her head in it.

A disappointing DNF in her last major race. Temperatures so hot that race organizers moved the competition nine hours earlier than planned. And a training partner and mentor who was unexpectedly absent.

None of this shook pro runner Emily Sisson at her third U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials. On Saturday, the 29-year-old went to the front of the pack five laps into the women’s 10,000 meters—and never let up. Not only did she claim victory and secure her first spot on an Olympic team, her time of 31:03.82 was a new Trials record.

In her post-race comments, Sisson offered a master class in mental preparation for difficult efforts. Here are seven lessons you can take on how to steel your mind for hard work ahead, even if you don’t have an Olympic berth on the line.

1. Grieve your defeats—then let them go.

In 2019 and early 2020, Sisson was “all in” on making the Olympic team in the marathon, she said. So after dropping out of the Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta at mile 22, she felt heartbroken and confused.

Though she typically excels at moving on from bad races, Sisson struggled a bit more than usual. She allowed herself some extra time to feel disappointed—then, with emotional support from her husband, Shane Quinn, and physical assistance from her chiropractor, John Ball, she began pulling herself forward toward the next big goal, the 10,000 meters.

“No matter what my previous performance was—whether I had a really good run or a really poor one—I always kind of look forward and work hard for whatever the next thing is,” she said.

2. Break the race down into parts.

Rounding the oval for 25 laps in the 10,000 meters can be mind-numbing even in optimal conditions. In the 85-degree heat of Eugene, Oregon, on Saturday, it had the potential to feel downright brutal.

To stay mentally engaged rather than overwhelmed, Sisson and her coach Ray Treacy devised a race plan involving several segments. She focused on hitting the halfway point in 15:50—keeping it steady at 76 to 77 seconds per lap—then picking up the pace slightly until five laps to go. Then, it was all about pushing harder until she crossed the line.

In fact, she was so focused on this strategy that she was somewhat surprised when she saw her speedy finishing time. “I was just focused on the section of the race I was in,” she said, “and wasn’t thinking overall of a certain time.”

This “chunking” concept can work in a marathon, too, says Justin Ross, Psy.D., a clinical psychologist in Denver who specializes in athlete mental health and performance. For instance, think of the first 10 miles as the warm-up, the middle 10 as cruising, and the last 6.2 as the race to the finish.

3. Draw on your past successes—and others’.

Forget Netflix or HBO Max—during her buildup, Sisson would frequently watch race videos. These include her own past performances, such as her personal best 30:49.57 in the 10,000 meters at the 2019 Stanford Invitational.

“Sometimes it’s just seeing something you've done before and reminding yourself, ‘Oh, yeah, my legs know how to do this,’” she said. “It sounds kind of cocky, but it’s for me, it’s helpful.”

Also in her queue: races won by two-time Olympian and American record holder Molly Huddle, who scratched from the Trials on June 14. Watching championship races where Huddle has taken the lead from the front, and then won, inspired Sisson and brought feelings of connection to her longtime training partner.

“I like looking at them; I am a very visual person,” she said. “I’ve watched and re-watched videos of her running, and running away from the field. Having her as a mentor has been huge for me.”

You might not have any of your own race videos at the ready, but “we all have the ability to draw upon our past successes, both in and out of sport,” Ross said.

He recommends using your training log as your own personal power journal. “With each day’s training, write down areas when you executed mental toughness and how you were able to get through difficult runs,” he said. Reviewing these notes prerace will ward off the doubt and anxiety that can often creep in last-minute.

4. Reshape your narrative.

Recalling those victories of the past can shift you away from negative thought patterns. You can also recruit someone who knows you well as a runner—for instance, a coach or a training partner—to reinforce the message.

During the final phase of her preparations, Sisson traveled from Arizona back to Providence, Rhode Island, to see Treacy in person. These sessions improved her confidence as well as her fitness. “He knows how I think, and he knows to challenge the stories I have about myself in my head,” she said.

“I was telling him something along the lines of, ‘Oh, I can't outkick certain people.’ And he’s like, ‘That’s not true,’” she said. “He brought up a race that I did in college where I outkicked someone and ran a 65-second last lap.”

Because she trusts him and knows “he’s a realist,” his assessment wards off her moments of self-doubt. “If he says, ‘You’re capable of doing this,’ I know that’s what I’m capable of doing,” she said.

5. Add to your toolbox.

In addition to reinforcing her past strengths, Treacy also assigned her workouts to build the exact skills she’d need to hone her finishing speed. “We actually practiced running a lot of faster 400s,” she said.

In addition, she ran three 5Ks in her buildup, in which she consciously focused on picking up her speed in the last two kilometers. “Even when I was tired, I knew with 2K to go: all right, time to go,” she said. “I think that was great practice.”

6. Remember: It’s tough for everybody.

Living in Phoenix likely gave Sisson an advantage in the heat, even though she did her recent training this year in cooler Flagstaff and Providence. Still, she channeled the memory of tough workouts in scorching temps—and implemented the adjustments to her routine they required, such as trading hot coffee for caffeinated gum or a shot of espresso prerace.

At tough spots during the competition, she honed in on those advantages rather than dwell on the bad conditions. “Even when it felt really hot, I kept telling myself: ‘I know, you’re feeling the heat. But so is everyone else,’” she said.

7. View obstacles as opportunities

When 41 women toe the line on a scorching day, not everyone will be able to keep up with the lead pack. In fact, Sisson lapped many talented runners—all but six others in the field—en route to her victory.

Though she—along with second-place finisher Karissa Schweizer and Alicia Monson, who finished third—had to weave a bit as the race wore on, Sisson didn’t view these competitors as a hindrance to her progress.

In fact, she was grateful the race was condensed to one section instead of two, as proposed by USATF in late May. That way, even as a front-runner, she had competitors to key off of. “It kind of gives me something to eye in front of me and reel in,” she said. “They helped me.”