Embracing Pain in Competition: Cognitive Reframing Techniques for Tolerating Discomfort

Introduction

Kilometer 38 of a marathon. Your thighs feel like they’re filled with concrete, every step like driving nails into the soles of your running shoes. A voice in your head screams: “Stop now, that’s enough.”

This moment tests not just your physical fitness, but your relationship with “pain.”

Most runners have two instinctive reactions: suppression (“Don’t think about it, just push through”) or amplification (“I’m in so much pain, I can’t keep this up”). Sports psychology research shows both strategies have clear drawbacks. A truly effective third path comes from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which has gained significant attention in clinical psychology in recent years.

The Three Layers of Pain

Understanding pain requires first distinguishing its sources:

Research shows that performance differences among long-distance runners are largely determined not by “physiological pain,” but by how “added suffering” is processed. Highly efficient runners don’t feel less pain than average runners; they simply react to pain differently.

Applying Three Core ACT Techniques in Running

1. Defusion: Treating Thoughts as Just Thoughts

Defusion is a core ACT technique, meaning separating “my thoughts” from “who I am.”

When you think “I can’t go on” at kilometer 35, you can:

Fused state (problem): “I can’t go on → I’m really about to break down → I should stop”

Defused state (solution): “I notice my brain just said, ‘I can’t go on.’ Interesting, that’s a habit of the brain. Thanks for the reminder, but I choose to keep observing.”

Defusion doesn’t deny the thought’s existence; it changes your relationship with it: from “I am this thought” to “I am having this thought.”

2. Acceptance: Allowing Sensations to Exist Without Struggle

Many runners misunderstand “pain acceptance” as meaning enjoying the pain or giving up the struggle. ACT’s acceptance means: being willing to let uncomfortable feelings exist without trying to eliminate them, escape them, or fight against them.

Specific steps:

1. Notice the uncomfortable sensation
2. Name it: “This is fatigue, this is the feeling of lactate burning”
3. Let it exist: “I don’t need it to disappear, it just exists in my legs”
4. Continue the action: Maintain running

This technique seems simple, but it requires extensive practice. Deliberately create discomfort during training (like the final sets of interval training) and practice “acceptance” in that moment, so you can apply it naturally during a race.

3. Values-Based Action: What the Pain Is For

This is ACT’s most powerful tool for running. When you ask yourself in pain, “Why should I continue?”, the answer must be deeper than “not wanting to lose face” or “running a sub-4.”

Ask yourself: “What does this run mean to me?”

• “This is my gift to myself for turning fifty”
• “I want my children to see what perseverance looks like”
• “This is the only time that is completely my own”
• “I am rebuilding trust in my body after an injury”

When pain is linked to a larger personal meaning, your tolerance increases significantly. This isn’t self-motivational cheerleading, but genuine values clarification.

Practical Application: The “RAIN” Technique

Integrating the concepts above, here is a procedure you can practically apply during a run:

• R (Recognize): “I am feeling a lot of pain right now.”
• A (Allow): “I allow this pain to exist, without trying to push it away.”
• I (Investigate): “Where is this pain? Thighs? Hamstrings? What is its texture?”
• N (Non-identification): “This pain is a sensation I feel, but it is not who I am.”

This RAIN process takes about 30–60 seconds to complete and is particularly useful on difficult downhill sections or after aid stations.

Common Misuse Warning

Acceptance techniques are not meant for you to ignore genuine injury signals. Stop immediately and assess in the following situations:

• Sharp, stabbing pain in a joint (rather than muscle burning)
• Numbness or weakness in one limb
• Heart palpitations or abnormal breathing
• Dizziness or blurred vision

Cognitive reframing targets “fatigue perception,” not “injury warning signals.”

Practical Advice

• Practice RAIN during tough moments in training; don’t wait until race day to try it for the first time.
• Keep a journal: “What pain did I encounter today? How did I respond? What was the effect?”
• Find a personalized “acceptance phrase,” such as “This is a marathon; pain is part of the manual.”
• Read ACT-related books to deepen your understanding.

Conclusion

Your relationship with pain is the most fundamental psychological lesson for a long-distance runner. It’s not about making you unafraid of pain, but about changing the distance between the pain and you.

When you hear your brain say “I can’t go on” at kilometer 38, try responding with curiosity: “Interesting, you’re saying that again. Okay, let’s keep watching and see what happens next.” This tiny shift is often the difference of those final few kilometers between finishing and giving up.

Related Reading

• Pain Tolerance Training: Cognitive Reframing of Late-Race Discomfort
• Embracing the Pain: The Philosophy of Suffering in Endurance Sports
• Pain Management in Road Racing: Applying Dissociation vs. Association Strategies During Competition
• Pain Tolerance Training: Pain Management Strategies for Running