It's all about attitude during the race. If you look at the "race" as an opportunity to go faster, harder, more competitive than ever; then it's probably true. Especially if your head is all wrapped up around record times so much that you hurt yourself.

But you CAN look at the race as another training run where they have tables set out every mile or 2 with water & Gatorade, and they give you food & a finisher's medal at the end. And they publish your time which you can compare with YOUR OWN previous times (don't compare against the Kenyans at the front). There's something about the crowds cheering at the bigger races & that's pretty cool.

Or maybe she's just excited about spending my money on entry fees, hotels, running-clothes...?

 

I rather doubt I'll be able to change my mindset and run any race as a training run; I've been racing off and on since the early 1970s, and whenever I line up for a race I'm like a nervous Thoroughbred horse lined up in the staring box at the Kentucky Derby. When the gun (or horn or whistle) goes off, my body/mindset pushes from start to finish.