FOMO, or the Fear of Missing Out, is a term regularly thrown around in society and I think it has definitely driven further by social media.
You see all the cool things and places your friends are sharing online. It makes you think i would love to visit that place or go and do that activity and definitely evident in the trail running community too. You’ve probably felt it before. You might have not known it… We’ve all done a run or race you were on the fence about because it you knew the race was going to sell out fast or the run was in a place you had not seen before.
I encountered this recently when I was looking at choosing a lead up race in preparation for the Ultra Trail Australia run in May this year.
I texted a mate who is also preparing the 100km ultra-marathon and mentioned I was thinking of doing a lead up race and found a 30km event I was interested in running. My mate also noticed they offered a 50km and said why don’t you do the 50km instead of the 30km?
It got me thinking, that would be good to do another ultra prior to the 100km. However, it generated quite a number of questions. Would it the longer run ideal for my run preparation? However, the 50km is only 3 weeks prior to the Ultra Trail Australia race, is this a good idea? Is there enough recovery time? Which is better to test my nutrition plan? Would a shorter race be better to run and then follow up with another run the next day to test running with leg fatigue in preparation for a longer 100km coming up?
There is definitely peer pressure to do everything but FOMO can lead to strain whether it is physical, emotional or financial on an athlete if they let their fear of missing out get out of control.
Have you experienced the Fear of Missing Out?
Related Reading