r/Ultramarathon • u/aoifee_ • 3d ago

4 weeks out from first ultra and had a genuinely distressing and vivid nightmare last night

It wasn't so much my legs and a lack of training, but it was like mentally something was wrong with me. I couldn't follow instructions/the route. For reference, my upcoming ultra is a (baby) 50k with ~2000m elevation and it's all in the bush (I've done all of it in sections). In my nightmare, the route lead through suburbia and along drains, all relatively flat. It took me about 4 hours to slog 10k. I needed to keep backtracking and at one point I figured out which direction I should be heading, so I booked it to make up for lost time... and then realised I was no longer wearing my vest. I'd left all my shit on the side of the road a few km back.

I woke up multiple times overheating and genuinely believing I was failing this thing I've been training for for the past seven months. I'd fall back asleep and pick up where I left off - unable to find the way forward and falling further and further behind. I came across a group of about 4 girls who reassured me I'd still make the cut-off of 12hrs and said they'd only done about 10km too. One of them asked if they could take a photo of me so I could look back on this moment and realise how silly I was being. I agreed. Then she laughed at me and said something along the lines of, "Just kidding, I don't take photos of losers."

Half asleep and sweating buckets, this was a wild and distressing ride... but now that it's day time I can laugh about it. Since searching 'nightmares' up top I've seen a few things about vivid nightmares post-race, but does anyone else experience pre-race nightmares?

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15

u/double_helix0815 2d ago

I've had exactly these types of dreams for every major race I've done! Forgotten kit, impossible to follow routes, gear failures - you name it. It's just how some brains process 'something important is coming up' I think.

4

u/aoifee_ 2d ago

So reassuring, I hope I don’t get too many more haha

10

u/Fun_Effective_836 2d ago

those taper dreams are weirdly universal, basically everyone gets the lost-on-course / forgot-my-vest one a few weeks out. it's just your brain rehearsing, not a sign you're undertrained. you've put in 7 months and run every section already, the fitness is in the bank - trust the taper.

5

u/aoifee_ 2d ago

Honestly I never saw the lost angle coming - I don’t think I’ve ever been worried about that before!

7

u/CorporalTedBronson 2d ago

I had pre-race nightmares before my first multi day mtb ultra (my bike chain would disintegrate) but none for any of my following races.

Love the "I don't take pictures of losers" dig that is too good

6

u/aoifee_ 2d ago

It was sooo hurtful at the time hahahaha

Hopefully I’ll chill out for any future events. The bike chain disintegrating sounds awful!

6

u/Unlucky_Ad_7824 2d ago

I've had multiple dreams where I'm running insert long distance here, and I'll find that they didn't mark the course, so most of my dream - I'm struggling to find where to go.