Race Day Running
I am going to show you how to get the most out of your event by preparing properly. The single biggest factor that affects people’s performance is in their preparation.
The week before:
The week before your event you should be tapering down your training. There is very little improvements made in the last few weeks before your event, most of the gains will be made well before that. In your final week, you should be reducing your training to small distances. You should increase your water intake and carbohydrate intake too.
What’s all this carbo loading?? Carbo loading is simply stocking up on fuel for your race. There are many different ways to do this, for short races a high intake of carbohydrates 2 to 3 nights before the race is normally sufficient.
Quick but essential Race day tips:
- Eat a good carb based breakfast such as porridge
- Eat at least 2 hours before the race
- Try to go to the toilet BEFORE you get to the race
- Get there early, the less stress before a race the better
- Bring an old top with you that you can throw away once you have started
- Vaseline the feet and any other areas that may chaff
- Never run in new runners/clothing, always race in gear that you have trained in
- Have a pre race plan and stick to it.
- If you are a walker DON’T start at the front
- Start slow and build up your speed as you find your rhythm
- If you are beginning to lose focus on the run, a wise man once gave me a great tip: find a nice bum and sit behind it! This tip has been essential in my marathons
- Or give yourself mini goals for each kilometre, I use people as mine. Pick someone that you want to be in front of by the next kilometre
- Use the crowd to spur you on, shout and cheer!!
- Always aim to finish strong, hence the reason why I recommend starting slow
- When you finish, get some sugar /milk based drinks into you to replenish the body
- REWARD yourself!! It is essential to have a reward after all your hard work, mine is garlic chips and a veggie burger as I am a vegetarian. Your reward will taste all the better after you have worked so hard!
These tips, silly as some of them may seem, will help you get the best out of your race. I have found them through experience, 10 marathons and a lot of races later; I have made the mistakes so you don’t have to, now go do your best!
