What Winners Know
What Winners Know
This is a story about competitive advantage. It’s a tale of
fiercely ambitious American distance runners who are celebrating historic successes in the world’s biggest races. Their edge isn’t speed work or extra training miles. It’s teamwork. And you can put it to work in your own
life.
HER ARMS WERE
stretched wide. Her running jacket was drenched. And her
expression seemed equal parts “I’m so glad that’s over!” and “Is this really
happening?” Hollywood couldn’t have scripted it better. Our country’s proverbial
running drought had finally ended, amid an outpouring of Mother Nature’s worst: Des Linden had just become the first American woman to win the famed Boston Marathon in 33 years. This was the same woman who had crossed the finish line here five times before, losing by just two seconds in 2011; who had raced 15 marathons in 11 years—but never broken the tape. The same woman who didn’t think it was her day, but ended up having the biggest day of her life.
April 16, 2018, was one of the most memorable races in Boston’s history—but the thunderous applause for Linden’s victory felt, in a way, even bigger than that moment.
For those who don’t follow professional marathoning closely, here’s a quick recap: In 1984, American Joan Benoit Samuelsen took gold at the inaugural women’s Olympic marathon; after her, only four other U.S. women had cracked the top 10, and only one of them ever brought home a medal (bronze for Deena Kastor in 2004). As for other major world marathon wins, well, you could count what we’ve collected in the past 20 years on one hand… and still have some fingers left over.
Then recently—and seemingly out of nowhere—a cascade of groundbreaking finishes: All three U.S. women placed in the top 10 at the 2016 Rio Olympics (a first-ever); Amy Cragg took bronze at the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London (the first U.S. woman to medal on that stage in 34 years); and three months later, Shalane
Flanagan triumphantly, fistpumpingly clinched the 2017 New York City Marathon title (the first American female to win the race in 40 years).
A New Strategy
Linden’s race in Boston was inspiring not just because she won, but because of how she won.
Struggling from the start of the race, she was sure she’d
eventually drop out. So Linden decided to shift her attention and energy to the Americans running alongside her: first, by hanging back to help Flanagan catch up to the group after an untraditional bathroom break about halfway through; then by setting her sights on helping powerhouse American runner Molly Huddle—who was making her Boston Marathon debut—rally against the brutal headwinds to get
closer to the leaders.
There was a similar public display of “I’ve got your back” camaraderie at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. In beautiful stride-for-stride rhythm, Cragg and Flanagan led the pack until the last few miles. With only three Olympic spots and two other contenders chasing them down, Cragg refused to drop her training partner, who was struggling with the record-high temps; she stayed by Flanagan’s side, talking her through it and even going out of her way to grab her water. Cragg went on to win, then promptly turned to wait. Linden came next.
And then a severely dehydrated, completely exhausted Flanagan— who collapsed into her teammate’s arms at the finish line.
Such blatant acts of benevolence are not something you see every day in competitive sports focused on individual performances. And not all that long ago, you wouldn’t have seen it in this one either.
Two elite women training for the same race with the same goal—to win!— rarely did so as teammates.
That is, until the highest-profile female distance runners in the country—archrivals Flanagan and Kara Goucher—rolled the dice and gave it a shot in 2011. “We were nervous! Would we be able to put ego aside and train together?” says Goucher. “We both wanted to be the best, but we truly believed we had a better chance of getting
there together.”
Their experiment was a game changer, marking a new era of symbiotic success within the sport.
It opened the floodgates to more women getting ahead by getting together. “The legacy impact of that teamwork continues,” says Mary Wittenberg, former CEO of New York Road Runners and the first female race director of the New York City Marathon. “If runners were granted ‘assists’ like basketball players, Shalane Flanagan would be top of the leader board.” Goucher, Cragg, Lisa Uhl, Emily Infeld, Courtney Frerichs, Colleen Quigley—they’re all women Wittenberg says have experienced at least one instance of finding their edge thanks to working alongside one of the country’s all-time best. Even Linden has felt it, saying after Boston: “Shalane helped me as much
as I helped her.
Shifting Focus
While men finish faster, there’s been plenty of talk among researchers, coaches, and athletes about any number of biological advantages that may help women excel at endurance events—body fat composition, decision-making tendencies, pain tolerance (just to name a few). But why our country’s top marathoners are dominating right now is shining a light on another, less obvious asset:
emotional connectivity. During tough times (or really tough miles), women are more likely than men to reach out to the people around them and offer, or seek, support. And experts say these compassionate exchanges can have a powerful impact on a person’s mind and body—not just the receiver’s, but the giver’s as well. Think of it as a benevolence boomerang effect: “It’s not like Des was helping [Shalane and Molly] because she thought it was going to help her, but there was a positive by-product,” says Stephen Post, PhD, director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics at Stony Brook University and coauthor of Why Good Things Happen to Good People Transferring your focus from yourself to another can help mitigate distress about your own situation, in the same way meditation is known to help quiet the “me centers” in your brain. “In that moment, Des felt fatigued and a little pessimistic, but in the specific act of looking after her peers, her mind was refocused in a seriously hopeful way,” says Post. “For her, the side effect of helping someone else was her own ability to pull it together and free herself of a mindset that was not going to let her win anything that day.” Decades of research confirm the impact of altruistic tendencies: People who volunteer report feeling happier, more energetic, less stressed, and better able to deal with loss and disappointment. (In fact, even just thinking What can I do to help others? without taking any action helped people turn off destructive emotional circuits like hostility and frustration.) One landmark study found that roughly two-thirds of people who help others report a distinct physical
sensation. Researchers coined the phrase “helper’s high” to describe
the immediate surge of physiological changes that stem from genuine oodwill. The physical symptoms— which can range from feeling exhilarated and euphoric to stronger and calmer, as well as noticing fewer or less intense aches and pains—are all associated with increased levels of your body’s feel-good happiness hormones. The hormones have also been linked to improved health markers like lower blood pressure and And then there’s this: Regular altruistic behaviors promote a deeper feeling of trust and cooperation that strengthens our ties to others, especially ones who share our values, says Post. “Before the start line [at U.S. Trials], I said to Shalane, ‘I’ve got your back out there.’ She said, ‘I know. I’ve gotyours too.’ And we meant it,” saysCragg. “When you train for months weight loss.
While men finish faster, there’s been plenty of talk among researchers, coaches, and athletes about any number of biological advantages that may help women excel at endurance events—body fat composition, decision-making tendencies, pain tolerance (just to name a few). But why our country’s top marathoners are dominating right now is shining a light on another, less obvious asset:
emotional connectivity. During tough times (or really tough miles), women are more likely than men to reach out to the people around them and offer, or seek, support. And experts say these compassionate exchanges can have a powerful impact on a person’s mind and body—not just the receiver’s, but the giver’s as well. Think of it as a benevolence boomerang effect: “It’s not like Des was helping [Shalane and Molly] because she thought it was going to help her, but there was a positive by-product,” says Stephen Post, PhD, director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics at Stony Brook University and coauthor of Why Good Things Happen to Good People Transferring your focus from yourself to another can help mitigate distress about your own situation, in the same way meditation is known to help quiet the “me centers” in your brain. “In that moment, Des felt fatigued and a little pessimistic, but in the specific act of looking after her peers, her mind was refocused in a seriously hopeful way,” says Post. “For her, the side effect of helping someone else was her own ability to pull it together and free herself of a mindset that was not going to let her win anything that day.” Decades of research confirm the impact of altruistic tendencies: People who volunteer report feeling happier, more energetic, less stressed, and better able to deal with loss and disappointment. (In fact, even just thinking What can I do to help others? without taking any action helped people turn off destructive emotional circuits like hostility and frustration.) One landmark study found that roughly two-thirds of people who help others report a distinct physical
sensation. Researchers coined the phrase “helper’s high” to describe
the immediate surge of physiological changes that stem from genuine oodwill. The physical symptoms— which can range from feeling exhilarated and euphoric to stronger and calmer, as well as noticing fewer or less intense aches and pains—are all associated with increased levels of your body’s feel-good happiness hormones. The hormones have also been linked to improved health markers like lower blood pressure and And then there’s this: Regular altruistic behaviors promote a deeper feeling of trust and cooperation that strengthens our ties to others, especially ones who share our values, says Post. “Before the start line [at U.S. Trials], I said to Shalane, ‘I’ve got your back out there.’ She said, ‘I know. I’ve gotyours too.’ And we meant it,” saysCragg. “When you train for months weight loss.
on end, side by side, with someone, when you work and suffer and
get excited together, you become just as invested in their race as your own.
You know what they went through to get there, and you know how
much it means to them. We were there for each other every day in practice when things got tough, so this was no different.”
much it means to them. We were there for each other every day in practice when things got tough, so this was no different.”
Pass It On
Culturally, our relationship with female ambition and womanversus-woman competition has probably always been best described as “it’s complicated,”
so if this is feeling a little too Hallmark Channel–perfect, we
get it. No women who actually want to win are really that nice to each other, right? Sure, it’s human nature to instinctively feel competitive,
even at times threatened, by someone you perceive as a rival. That doesn’t make you a bad teammate or a bad feminist. But that’s exactly why the example being set by the American women
distance runners matters so much: They aren’t just fueling the growth of the sport, they’re changing the collective
mindset on how women support each other. “You can have medical school professors like me doling out little fragments of fact, but the bottom line is that helping others is a behavior that’s transmitted from person to person,” says Post. “People seeing it in action, that’s what truly passes the torch.”
mindset on how women support each other. “You can have medical school professors like me doling out little fragments of fact, but the bottom line is that helping others is a behavior that’s transmitted from person to person,” says Post. “People seeing it in action, that’s what truly passes the torch.”
Research bears this out: When one person behaves generously, it inspires observers to do the same, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. The authors found that the empowering ripple effect could spread by three degrees, meaning each person in a network can potentially influence dozens or even hundreds of people, even ones they’ve never met. Hello, anyone who witnessed that
Boston Marathon magic! None of this just randomly happened: It started with a gamble. Two fierce competitors took a calculated risk to trust each other. And it paid off big. But the resulting victory-after-victory domino effect we’re witnessing today? That’s being fueled by collective and conscious choice. “The current crop of marathoners have been in the game a long time,” says Linden. “I think there’s a maturity among us and a recognition that someone else’s success doesn’t take away from your own accomplishments.
We’re competitive, we all want to win, but it’s become apparent
that if an American wins and gets the spotlight on the sport, we all
reap the benefits.” This isn’t a fluke; this is the future: relentlessly ambitious women chasing down aggressive goals and major dreams while supporting, encouraging, and celebrating the women around them who are doing the same. They’ve already blazed the trail. All we have to do is lace up and follow their lead.
By Jen Ator
Source:
Women's health
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