Chrissie Wellington

I don't go into a race not expecting everything to go perfectly.

Because then you don't panic.

You're not anxious when it doesn't go according to some kind of utopian plan that you have.

So if I go into a race thinking it's going to go like this, this, this, and this, and this, and then I'll cross the finish line victorious, it's just not going to happen.

because that's not racing.

Racing, the beauty of racing is precisely because it doesn't go according to plan.

It's because you have to hurt.

It's because you have to suffer.

And I see that as part of racing.

That's what I loved about racing.

The unexpected, the discomfort, the self-doubt.

It's the challenge of having to deal with that that I loved.

So I expected it and I embraced it, first of all.

I found it in the final race that I did.

And it taught me that I could achieve more than I ever thought possible.

And it taught me that my perfect race was when I overcame imperfections perfectly.

And so that race was certainly not perfect in the way I was able to prepare or the way I prepared.

And it was certainly not perfect in quotation marks in terms of it wasn't without pain and discomfort.

But for me, it was my perfect race because it was the battle within myself that I had craved.

It was a battle with my competitors that I'd wanted.