Do you have running dreams? I don’t mean “dreams” colloquially, as in, do you have any running goals, destination races, or experiences that you want to check off your bucket list one day. And I don’t quite mean symbolic dreams about running, either. In symbolic running dreams, you’re running away from something or someone, being chased, or otherwise just powering through a nondescript wilderness with the horizon in view.

Evidently there is a cottage industry that identifies dream tropes, and it suggests that all dreams have some deeper meaning. Many such “interpretation services” see dreams about running as a manifestation of anxiety, avoidance, unhappiness, or fear. You don’t have to go too far down this path until you get to Freud and the notion that dreams are the foundation of all human achievement, including art and culture, which is based on repression and the economy of psychic expenditure.

But what about the case of people who are recreational or competitive runners? What do we make of running dreams? In this newsletter I’m talking about dreams that involve the logistics of distance running, regardless of whether they mean anything, because I am amused by the idiosyncratic, nonsensical things that can flit into our subconscious minds while we sleep. It would be expected for people to dream about something that occupies such a large portion of waking life.

The Persistent Pre-Marathon Dream

Every month or so I have a recurring dream that involves running a marathon. In these dreams, there is always some obstacle that either keeps me from getting to the start on time or prevents me from making progress effectively once the race has kicked off. For example, I had a dream the other night where I began a marathon with a course that took runners immediately inside of a sporting goods store and through a backroom warehouse before exiting to the outdoor world again. For some reason, I was late getting to the start of the race, and by the time I arrived, most of the runners were far ahead. The organizers had already begun closing down that part of the course and locking up the doors to the warehouse, which I still needed to pass through to complete the race. I started yelling at the organizers for designing such a terrible course. In the dream, I imagined that there had been a huge bottleneck trying to make it through this tiny warehouse opening, and the fact I saw no one else alongside me by the doors only intensified my realization that I was very behind in the race.

I’ve had other similar dreams that don’t add up to anything either. In some cases, I am on the course, and I somehow lose my way and am not able to make it back on track. In others, I wake up and head to the start, only to realize after getting there that I had not in fact actually registered for the race. A sidebar: I did actually make this mistake in real life once, but not for a marathon, thankfully.

Why do I share these things? I’m mainly curious if other runners also experience these nonsensical dreams about running. And because I think it’s funny. It’s a slight diversion from what has otherwise been a tough month or so of running news. We’ve already seen Shelby Houlihan get disqualified from two Olympics cycles because she tested positive for a banned anabolic steroid, which she claims is attributable to a burrito she ate back in December, 2020. Then, this week, U.S. sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson tested positive for marijuana, which is somehow classified as a performance enhancing drug. The violation may also cost her a spot in the Olympics this summer. Both of these stories are frustrating, for different reasons to me. I don’t think that Richardson should face a penalty for smoking marijuana. Marijuana is legal in the state where she tested, and she had been recovering from the death of her mother.

Keeping a Pace for Long Runs

This week began my “official” training cycle for the NYC Marathon this November. So far, that won’t mean many significant changes in my running and training routine, but it does mean that I need to start following recommended paces for midweek tempo runs and long runs on the weekend. Yesterday was my first long run, and I realized that it’s been two years since I’ve trained for a marathon, and thus two years since I’ve had to think about my pacing in exactly this way. Having chosen to not run any virtual marathons during the pandemic, I’ve treated running mostly as a run-as-you-feel scenario during the intervening year. It’s nice to retrain my mind to focus on holding a consistent pace for double digit miles. We’ll see how it goes from here.

PhDistance is on Instagram and Strava

If you like reading what we’ve come up with so far in the newsletter, you might also want to connect with PhDistance on two of the leading social media platforms out there today: Instagram and Strava. That’s right! We’ve created an Instagram feed at phdistancerunning and a Strava club.

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Newsletter 13: “Running Dreams and the Start”