Once upon a future, ah I’m just kidding. Once upon a time, in the Fall of 2014, I was in my last year of high school and I was preparing myself for one of my final races with the Cross Country team. To this day, I still remember my dream and my reality, not knowing which was which.
One exercise that our Coach had us do before the school year started was to set goals. Of course there were the usual 5 mile runs that we trained 5 days a week, and the occasional 12 mile long runs that we did on Saturdays, but it was this small task that made the biggest impact on my mindset the most.
He had this form printed out for each of us to fill out a few days before races. It asked us to comment on our previous race, like our finishing time, finishing place, and our rank within our team. It then asked how we felt during our recent workouts and practices. It asked what teammate we would like to run beside during the race, and our finishing time and place goal. Not only was that on the document, but it also made us describe how we will race. It was basically a small strategy planning that we did; how conservative or aggressive we want to start, how many people we should pass at a certain point in the race, and what phrase we will tell ourselves when we start feeling exhausted or in pain to help us keep going to the very end.
So, one of the things that I want to share is a moment that I used foresight without realizing it was foresight or futures thinking. I think this kind of goal setting is recognizable and widely used by many people in the sport industry. It’s some type of visioning training that you do the day before the actual game, or in this case, a race.
With this particular race, it was the one before State Championships, and I already knew of the many competitors that were racing from other schools. I was also coming in from a race I had a few weeks ago that landed me my fastest time in my high school career- 16:15 for 5k. So, I already know how fast I am capable, and who I am going up against. I also know their personal records because it gets documented in an online database.
What I used to do was rank people from all the schools to see who would hypothetical win a virtual race with their fastest time. When I was doing this, I noticed that I was in the Top 10 spots! With this in mind, I wrote down a group of 5 top runners that I think will break away from everyone else after the start of the race, and that I should tag along for as long as I can. I know they are faster than me, but if I am able to last long with them, then I have a high chance of ranking high in this race, maybe even get a new personal record!
I wrote down that I am fast enough to keep with these runners, and that I belong with these guys. It was my motivating message that I wanted to remind myself with. Even my previous race performance was signaling me that I should rank high in this race. So, when I was filling out the form, I felt really good about my plan!
So, the day became night and I needed to sleep well in order to be energized for the next day.
Here is where it became interesting. I dreamed about the race, and it went exactly how I wrote it down on my goal sheet. I saw these 5 runners breaking away from the rest of the runners, and I saw myself breaking away from the crowd as well and going with them. I don’t remember much, but I felt really good when I was racing with this group, but I have no recall of how it ended.
I didn’t think much about it until during the race.
After warming up, and rolling out my legs a bit, I circled up with my other teammates to do our usual energetic chant. We then lined up, with me at the front with my right leg in front and leaning forward. Soon, the noise of chatter quieted down, and it was silent. We were waiting for a few second, and then we heard a gun shot.
Everyone, to my left and right, surged forward. Some people were sprinting, but we were all in this stampede that was shaking to my core. As the route was narrowing, so was the crowd of runners, I slowly made my way up, and I found myself in a familiar situation.
I saw the SAME 5 runners that I wrote down, and in my dream, that would separate from the rest and start running faster. In that moment, I knew what I needed to do, and my body felt like it knew what it should do.
So, I pushed passed some runners in front of me, and I situated myself right behind this pack of runners. I didn’t care much of what was happening around me, I just knew that I had to keep myself right behind them for as long as I could. I think I was able to hear my coach saying that I am doing great, to keep it up. After 8 minutes or so, I noticed everyone in this pack was thinning out. They were all running faster, and were forming a line. I started to get tired and was struggling a bit to stay with the runner that was right in front of me. The pain and exhaustion was already settling in, but I kept going.
Then I heard some cheering, and some spectators telling us to kick it (one final push), so I dug into the ground and sprinted as fast as I could, with the small energy that I had left, to the finish line with the fear of having people passing me at the last second. I made my way past the finishing line, and slowing down. I was gasping for air, and my whole body was shining with sweat. I was a bit confused about what I needed to do next, but I really just wanted water. I saw a group of runners around a table with cups of water, so I grabbed a water cup and chugged it. Then I walked over to where my team had set up camp.
I really can’t remember what happened after. I don’t remember who told me my time or what place I got. Other races continued to go on, and next thing you know, we were at the ceremony to award the runners that placed Top 15 for each of the races that happened that day. A fellow teammate got 14th place, and I cheered. I knew I placed because he finished behind me, and when they were going down from 10th place to 8th place, my heart was racing another race. It got to 7th, and it wasn’t me. It got to the next one, and they said my school name, and everyone around me was starting to cheer.
6th place with 16 minutes and 15 seconds. This is probably my proudest race of my entire high school cross country career. However, I didn’t think much about its impact until much later in life when I found out about the foresight/futures field.
I just couldn’t comprehend what just happened. I wrote it down, dreamt what was going to happen, and for it to appear right in front of my eyes in real life was extraordinary to live through.
Visioning is one method in the futures/foresight field that helps individuals to create different scenarios, create a backcasting plan, or to project themselves into their preferable future. I would like to think that I had an incredible experience without realizing how powerful visioning can become. Understanding how you feel, think, and act during a certain situation ahead of time can definitely prepare you for when it comes. It may not turn exactly how you plan, but you need to be ready to make a choice when it does. The future comes and goes real fast, so you need to take that opportunity when if feels right.