Head Games

Two weeks from today is my next attempt at a marathon.  The Virginia Beach Shamrock Marathon.  The last one (San Antonio) didn’t go too well mainly because I strained my abductor muscle a few weeks before, and they lied about having food at the start.  The one before that (Phoenix) didn’t go well because of my torn meniscus.  I still ran the full, but because I had missed a lot of training, I knew I would be hurting to do the whole thing.  But I knew that going in so I wasn’t the slightest bit disappointed.  This time, I am not convinced that I am ready, but really it’s all in my head.  I should be ready, but part of me isn’t sure.  It’s a lack of confidence in myself that I need to get over.  How can I do it?  Is there a formula, or a pill that I can take that will give me a mind boost?  I know that there are actually running psychologists that specialize in this type of thing.  Maybe it’s worth it to talk to one of them?  Has anybody out there done that?  I talk to other runners that I run with, and the successful ones all say that the first time that you get those negative thoughts out of your head, you will be fine after that.  And the only way that they did it was to battle within themselves when those thoughts would start to creep in.  They say that because you’ve done the training, you should be able to this.  Sure your legs are going to hurt.  They are going to hurt whether you keep running or whether you stop, so might as well keep running.