RUNNING IN THE ZONE: MENTAL TOUGHNESS, IMAGERY, AND FLOW IN FIRST TIME MARATHON RUNNERS

Abstract

Participants were 20 (14 females and 6 males) first-time marathon runners registered for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in Chicago, IL on October 7th, 2013. Participants were recruited for the purpose of exploring the effects of a 4-week individualized imagery training program on mental toughness and flow and asked to complete a demographics survey, the Movement Imagery Questionnaire (MIQ), the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ), Short Flow States Scale-2 (Short FSS-2), Sport Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ), and a Pre-Imagery Training Interview and then be divided into an experimental and control group (prior to running the marathon). Participants in the experimental group received a modified copy of a Chicago marathon training video and a tailored 10-15 minute imagery training session while participants in the control group received only the Chicago marathon training video. Next, participants ran in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and, after the race, met with the researcher to complete the SIQ, Short FSS-2, SMTQ, and a post-imagery interview. Several themes emerged concerning the runners' understanding of the marathon course, race concerns, race goals, and race strategies at pretest as well as both positive and negative experiences during the marathon and their methods for coping and using the imagery during the marathon (reported at posttest). The experimental group had a moderate positive correlation between the imagery subscales of cognitive general (CG) and motivational-general mastery (MG-M) and mental toughness (MT) (r(6) = .761 and r(6)= .685, p < .05 respectively). There was a moderate positive correlation between the imagery subscales of CG and MG-M and flow (r(6) = .719 and r(6) = .783, p < .05 respectively). This would indicate that individuals high in using imagery as a means to goal set as well as master the course tended to have high flow scores. Cognitive specific (CS), motivational specific (MS), and motivational-general arousal (MG-A) had a small, non-significant correlation with MT (r(6) = .492, r(6) = .321, r(6) = .341, p < .05) and a moderate relationship with flow (r(6) = .522, r(6) = .593, r(6) = .529, p < .05). There is a high positive relationship between flow and MT (r(6) = .906, p < .05), indicating that individuals who experienced high levels of flow also experienced high levels of MT. Control group participants had a moderate inverse relationship between CG and MT (r(4) = -.659, p < .05) and moderate positive relationships between CG, MS, and MG-A and flow (r(4) = .662, r(4) = .710, and r(4) = .552, p < .05 respectively) within control participants. For the control participants, flow and MT were not found to have a significant relationship (r(4) = .310, p < .05); these results are consistent with the control participants' imagery, flow, and MT scores suggesting that flow did not have any effect on MT. Overall, the tailored imagery script training was found to be helpful for both flow and mental toughness. Recommendations for future research should focus on developing a 6-week psychological skills training program for first time marathon runners and developing research that focuses on periodizing imagery to coincide with runners' marathon training programs.