Using Sports Psychology to train for distance running

I think this can be done. I ran the AT&T Austin Marathon a couple years ago and I had been having trouble with my right upper calf muscle. I thought the pain had gone away, but it showed up during the marathon. Had to stop several times at the first few miles of the marathon due to the pain. I had just read an article somewhere (Don't remember where) about focusing your mind/energy on increasing blood flow to a particular problem area to make pain go away. I'm not exactly sure if this actually did the trick or not, but the pain seemed to be bearable enough to run a sub 3 hour marathon. I know it's not the smart thing to do - run with pain - this could possible make an injury more severe. But I have this personal thing/commitment that I like to finish every race that I register for.

The body's natural compensatory mechanisms shunt blood to where it is needed most, I don't believe it's an action voluntarily controlled by the brain. Anyway, pain is in the mind and the voluntary response to it is controlled by the brain. Through training one learns to determine, or decide, if a pain is a dangerous one that is a warning sign of severe injury or a lesser pain when the body has just had enough. My first marathons were completed with my having too comfortable a feeling at the end. I've since learned my key to a successful marathon performance is to find my correct level of tolerable discomfort. Discomforts set in for me at about 30km but it then becomes a mind game which, after 32 marathons, I've learnt to play. Unfortunately, I'm still looking for the sub 2:50; been sub 3:00 too many times but not yet a 2:49. I'm 45 and still in the sub 3 range and hoping to find the key before I succumb to age. My recently adding weight work to my routine will hopefully be the key.