You have got to believe in yourself every time you go out there and race. If you have no faith in your ability all that training has been a waste of time.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I'm disappointed that I really haven't been able to race in a way that is reflective of the amount of work that I have done and how I have trained. But I don't regret giving this a go.
Life doesn't give you all the practice races you need.
There's always a lot of talk about motivation to race, but nobody really knows what I do or what I think apart from myself, so I don't really care what people think.
I'm a very goal-oriented person, so I look at the specific demands of a certain race and tailor my training towards that.
Try not to turn your life into a race, least of all an obstacle race.
If you're of multiple races, you have a different challenge, a unique challenge of embracing all of who you are but still finding a way to identify yourself and I think that's often hard for us to do.
I sort of set myself really high standards which is good and bad. If I know that I've done all I can to prepare, that's when I race the best and in '09 I was going through a lot of emotional ups and downs and I was never as fit as I would have liked to have been. So I never felt comfortable.
I feel that there has been progress made since I was a boy on matters of race, but we have a long way to go.
More than the time, it's about how you feel - you want to be strong throughout the race.
Mentally, my key is just focusing on the little things I need to do in a race, whether that's tempo, turn entry, start speed, things like that. I'm not thinking about that much before or during a race. I just trust in my ability and all the hard work I put in and let the race come to me.