Embrace Failure,
One of my favorite stories comes from one of Lance Armstrong's books which I believe was “It’s Not About The Bike." He had just won the 1999 Tour De France and then months later he had a disappointing finish in the 2000 Olympics. His wife at the time told him out of all his races the Olympics is the story she will be sure to tell their son. He asked her why and her reply was something along the lines of, "He needs to know that even Lance Armstrong fails."
I love this story because it is so true. No matter how great we are in running or everyday life, at some point we will bonk, fail, and just stink it up. Been there, done that. You may have one great race or run and then the next you wonder what in the world happened? Was it diet, lack of sleep, bad training, weather, who knows? What I think we should do is embrace failure. First realize you are human and learn from it. It's ok if our egos take a hit. It will humble you. Take the experience and become stronger from it. In my opinion we must lose or perform less than expected in order to become better. It might be the reality check you needed to work a little harder.
My running tip/advice for you is the same as what I gave my 4 year old competitive twin son. I told him you can jump up and down, cry, quit and never try again or when you fail you can figure out why you failed, work on it, fix it and get stronger. Which do you choose?
Conquering any difficulty always gives one a secret joy, for it means pushing back a boundary line and adding to one's liberty.
Henri Frederic Amiel, Swiss philosopher, poet and critic
Enjoy Every Run,