We investigated how runners’ trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) influences their performance. Participants, recruited the day before a half marathon competition, were asked to report their experience and performance in previous races and to complete a trait EI questionnaire. Through a structural equation modeling approach, we demonstrated that runners’ trait EI was the main predictor of runners’ finish time. Specifically, trait EI emerged as the variable with the highest power to predict finish time over and above training. Overall, these results are consistent with the explanation that being effective at controlling emotions reduces the impact of fatigue and leads to better performance.
