ORANGE PARK - For most of her professional career as a psychotherapist first then a sports hypnotherapist for a handful of world class athletes, including Olympic swim champions and, at one point, her two Olympic Trials level swimming daughters, Orange Park road runner Joni Neidigh has, for the past few years, been able to turn her thoughts and processes of sports mental strength to herself as she has progressed in her own running endeavors to be among a team of 10 athletes nationwide to be on the Humana Game Changers sports team that is now tasked to compete in the USA National Senior Games in Des Moines, IA July 24-Aug.4.
"I qualified at the Jacksonville Senior Games event; the Evergreen 5Km run by Jacksonville's 1st Place Sports," said Neidigh, 66. "Then, we did the Florida Senior Games in Zephyrhills and now we go to the Nationals in Iowa."
Neidigh, a recent athlete on the local running scene in north Florida, will compete in the National Senior Games for the first time this year in the road running event; a 5Km (3.1 mile race). Neidigh's running journey began in 1983 when she joined coworkers in Jacksonville’s Gate River Run 15Km (9.3 miles) race that had her in a field of nearly 20,000 runners, training alongside her older brother, Tom Johnston.
His untimely passing later that year transformed running into a way to process grief and celebrate his memory. After a long pause due to injury, Neidigh returned to running in 2011 with a mission: to reclaim her health. She has since lost 27 pounds, improved her heart health, and gained more strength, both physically and mentally, than she had in her younger years.
"I really want to make a top eight finish in Iowa, but I've seen the times of some of the ladies in my 60-over age group and I have to have a great race to do that," said Neidigh, who runs with a stellar group from the Florida Striders running club of Orange Park including her two running partners; Ceci Dunham and Becky Wood. "I started to run just to get in better shape as I got older and just loved the camaraderie of the group runs. They say you enjoy the grind better with friends."
A psychotherapist and sports hypnotherapist by profession, Neidigh is a passionate advocate for healthy aging and the power of mental and physical resilience.
"Another masters running friend, Shelly Allen, a nationally ranked track and road runner from Fleming Island, got me to go to the Indoor Master's Track Championships in Gainesville last spring," said Neidigh, who shares her training with husband, Larry, of 33 years. "I had never run on an indoor track so I made myself some tapes of the things that I would be concerned about, listened to the audio tapes, and mentally prepared myself to compete in the events I was in kind of walking myself through tough parts of the race."
Neidigh expertise as a sports psychologist has gotten her to U.S. Olympics level athletes, plus coaches and her own inclusion into the realm of competing athletes has kind of turned the mirror on herself with positive results thus far.
"As a mom of two very elite swimming daughters, I was more mom than therapist because their school; Bolles, had their own very smart coaches that understood the value of mental preparation for elite events," said Neidigh. "In all of my clients up to this point, I would have never fathomed that I would employ my own techniques and applications to myself. The one thing it has opened my eyes to is the tremendous pressures that athletes at that level; not at my level, go through on a daily basis."
Now, as herself being one of those competing athletes with a shot at a national title, Neidigh has learned to take on the day-to-day roller coaster of being a competitive athlete being prepared for an upcoming championship event.
"I never realized how many things you have to say no to be very good in a sports," said Neidigh. "Sleeping, eating, training is a tough schedule, but I love it."
Neidigh's increase in her own self-evaluation of her realm of local road races included, recently, the inclusion of a personal coach to get her a few extra seconds prior to her trip to Iowa.
"One thing that I learned a lot about myself is that what holds most athletes back is their own mental apprehension when their mind questions their own preparation," said Neidigh, who noted a drop of four minutes in her road 10Km (6.2 miles) times with a coach. "I've been at events at high levels where athletes question their readiness despite immense training and preparation and I have to talk them through those thoughts. The biggest part of the mental, physical and technical sides of competition is to work on the mental side of the sport on the day of the event. Athletes that are very relaxed on game day and connected to their inner strength is when great things happen. "