Some of the participants at this month’s Malta Marathon and Half Marathon will be vying for personal best times and a few others will set their sights on the top spots.

For these athletes, anxiety may very well kick in prior to or during the race. While tense moments before the race are expected, anxiety during the race certainly is not.

Anxiety may come along in two forms.

Somatic anxiety is when the body shows you are anxious such as feeling sick before the start and an increased heart-rate due to nerves among other symptoms.

This is fine up to a certain point but it could be detrimental if it drags too long.

On the other hand, there is also what is called cognitive anxiety – the thoughts going on in our mind.

For some these thoughts could be positive, ‘Come on, let’s do this, I’ve trained so hard, things will go well’. However, for others the thoughts could trigger a negative effect... ‘it’s so cold, I don’t feel trained enough’.

It is the negative thoughts that we must be wary of as these feelings could hinder our performances.

There are several theories on how anxiety works with one of the most popular being the Inverted-U Hypothesis.

This states that anxiety is good up to a certain point, after that it is detrimental to performance.

Thus each athlete needs to find that point where best performance takes place for them.

How do you like to feel before a race – excited, relaxed or aggressive?

Are you able to create these feelings? From 1 to 10 (10 being the most nervous), where do you like to be on the continuum and how are you going to get to that?

There are several relaxation strategies one can engage in if tension is too high.

The most basic is deep breathing. At times, we do this automatically when we feel nervous but it may be a good idea to be more aware of how it can help you.

Take deep breaths prior to your race to lower down the pulse if you feel that the heart-rate is already way too high.

Another technique is known as Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR).

This can really help especially if you feel your legs are heavy prior to the start. Find a quiet place and tense the different muscle groups of your body from head to toe or vice versa. Tense for a few seconds and then relax.

A technique which should help you feel better prepared and less anxious is visualisation.

Spend some time prior to the marathon imagining the start and certain points of the race which may create some anxiety, imagine the tension you may have but deal with it, talk yourself through it in your mind.

What is important is that the picture in your mind is a positive one... one where you see yourself coping.

There are other techniques you may find useful. Some like listening to music but you have to be wary and not become too relaxed.

Once again, this year there will be the Zumba warm-up sessions before each start. If you think this will help you feel less nervous then join in.

Also, with just two weeks to race day you should now start to think of tapering down.

In fact, this weekend’s training should be your last long run. Don’t try to get in as much training as you can to make up for any lost workouts. It won’t work, you are as best prepared for your race according to the training that you have done so far.

Remember that you need to attend registration to collect your race pack.

This year, registration will be held at the new Vodafone store on the Birkirkara by-pass.

Registration will be held next Saturday and Sunday from 16.00 to 19.30 and the following Tuesday and Wednesday from 19.00 to 21.30.