The Similarities of a Runner and a Pianist

I am now an avid fan of Indoor Track.  My 5K on Friday went very well.  I ran a P.R. of 16:16 and took 2nd in my heat.  It was just a great weekend to be an Illinois Wesleyan Athlete.  Our Girls team took 1st in conference, and we Men (us Guys?) took 4th.  All the while, tons of P.R.'s were set, and many school records were demolished.  Most notably was our schools Mile record, which now belongs to Wally Farris with a time of 4:16!

However, I write tonight, because, after just getting back from Presser Hall, where I was practicing the piano, I realized how similar my roles of Pianist and Distance Runner are.  Here are a few thoughts that came to my mind as I was supposedly concentrating on conquering a Chopin Waltz...

• In both piano and running, an amazing performance can simply not happen without weeks and months of laborious preparation.  Nobody just sits down and plays Liszt's "La Campenella" without first practicing for months and months.  Likewise, nobody can go out and run a 15:00 3-mile without training for several weeks/months prior to the performance.
• In a difficult piano piece, certain measures are isolated and practiced first slower, and then progressively faster until you have reached your desired tempo.  In running, runners will train in intervals of distance shorter than their desired race amount.  For example, to prepare for the 5K this Friday, I did mile repeats on Tuesday.  I desired to hit 5:20 mile pace in my 5K, but for the mile repeats, I ran them at 5:35 average pace.  While I was plugging away at a Bach fugue (under tempo), I realized this fact.
• I touched on this in an earlier post, but right before I perform on the piano, I get a sense of excited nervousness.  Coincidentally, I get the exact same feeling right before I race.  I think this stems from the sense that weeks of preparation are now being put into a 5 (or 10, or 15, etc..) minute performance.  The feeling is, "Do not blow this!"  To balance that negative emotion, the IWU Track Coach, Chris Shumacher, always reminds us that "the hey is in the barn."  Basically, that means that the work has already been done and we are fully capable of performing at our best.
• Another point is....um...well, I'm sure there's more, but right now I'm tired and I can't think of any more at the moment.  Maybe I'll post more later.

Quick funny story to end...On Friday night, after running 5K, I went to a concert at Presser.  It was a pianist and cellist from Truman St. (faculty members) performing Cello Sonatas by Beethoven and Rachmaninoff.  After the Beethoven, there was an intermission.  As I went to get a drink, I was suddenly stopped by Dr. Gordon, the Wesleyan cello professor, who asked me if I could turn the pianist's pages in the second half.  I was still decked out in my track sweats cause I was coming form the meet, and I tried to explain this, but five minutes later, I was sitting on the stage right next to the piano turning the pages for the Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata.  I felt very out of place, but nobody seemed to mind.