Race Week Preparation

So, you’re running the Austin Half Marathon or Marathon this Sunday. Most likely, you’re going to obsess a little (or a lot) this week, so you might as well make it productive…

Get familiar with the course –Go to the race website and print out several copies of the map. Put one in your car, one on your desk at work, one on the nightstand, or on the fridge. Drive the course, if you haven’t run it much. Familiarity will (help) flatten hills and shorten miles. Stop at the bottom of hills, get out, and walk or run up them, so you know what to expect. When you near the top, remember beating the hill. Read the race plan.

Visualize - After driving the course, pick up one of those maps every now and then, and run the race in your head (at high speed - please don't sit at work staring at a map for three hours). Run chunks of it in your head. Feel the rhythm of the stretches that will require more effort, and the ones where you'll be able to recover. Break the course into manageable chunks of two to three miles each.

Plan Nutrition – Know when you'll take nutrition. Work backwards from when you want your last gel or whatever, look at where the water stops are on the map, and plan accordingly. Buy your somethingcose fuel of choice now – some stores will sell out of everything but "Rancid Horseapple" gel by Friday. This is not time to experiment with new brands or flavors. Don’t rely entirely on someone meeting you with supplies. Going nutritionless through the last 12 miles of a marathon can damage a friendship.

Have your outfit ready.
Check the weather frequently. Then, just accept that the weather will be what it will be. It might be 29, windy and cold (as it was in 2006). Fine - what will you wear? Find those pieces, lay them out now.

It might be 74 and humid (2005?). Fine - what will you wear?

Dress for 20 degrees warmer than the temperature. You should know by now what you like. Now is not the time to try new shorts, socks, jogbras, or shirt. That's a sure entry to that popular game show, “What’s Gonna Chafe?”

It will most likely be just a little cold this weekend. It’s good to have some disposable clothes - go to Goodwill, or dig out that hideous sweatshirt, you know, the Alabama one, and use it. Up to 40% of body heat is lost through your head, most of the rest through your extremities. So, hat and gloves are the most crucial things in cold weather.

When you run, don’t be too quick to discard your clothing. At first, you’re going to heat up as blood flow is someone uniform. But after a while, your body will redirect the flow to keep your core warm, and you’ll end up feeling cold again.

In case of rain, have something disposable, or a trash bag with holes for the arms and head. It's nice to be dry while standing around at the start line, then you can rip it off when you get moving.

The sun often emerges – even if it’s cold, you can get a sunburn, so don’t forget sunblock. Got Bodyglide? Bandaids?

Thursday and Friday:
Hydrate. Get a couple of liters of water in you a day. Use ElectroMix, Nuun, or something similar to get plenty of electrolytes.

Friday night:
Get your race packet and check out the expo, or do it early Saturday. This is actually your best night to get your carbs.

Saturday:
Stay off your feet. This is not the time for a hike, lawn work, walking at the 2006 Chicago Marathon expo for four hours trying to decide if I should buy and wear new clothes for the marathon.

Know where you’re parking Sunday morning, and how you’ll get there. Know the street closures, and have a back-up plan.

Eat early – Unless you already have a consistent routine (that works), eat at 5:30 or 6, be done by 7 or 7:30. You want to be able to sleep, and you want the food to digest, so that it'll be usable in the race, not filling up your lower intestines demanding immediate release at mile five.

Don't drink too late - you want to be able to sleep without getting up constantly through the night.

Get everything together Saturday night:

• Put your D-chip on your shoe!
• Pin your race bib to your shirt or shorts. This could take you half an hour to get it perfectly straight. It has to be straight. It just does.
• Put your gels, electrolyte capsules, whatever you're taking on the course, in whatever you're taking them in.
• Pack your drop bag with your post-race stuff –dry clothes and shoes, and a little cash hidden in those shoes for the finish line food court.
• Make sure you have everything you need for breakfast.

Work out your morning schedule backwards:

• 7am start time.
• You need to be parked and on-site at 6:00am, AT THE LATEST.
• Figure out how long it’ll take to get downtown, conservatively.
• You want to use the restroom (twosies) before you leave. Give yourself time (because you never know) - so, seated 15-20 minutes before you need to leave.
• You need to allow at least an hour for your breakfast to digest, so you need to be eating an hour before that.
• Set your alarm for the time you arrive at (you'll eat first).
• Set multiple alarms. Use your alarm clock, your phone, your running watch. Get a friend to call you. Leave nothing to chance.

Race morning:

• GET THE HELL UP. No snooze button.
• Eat first, and have some water.
• If you've done things right, you have an hour to dress, make sure your bib number really is straight, relax, and check the weather, and hope they don’t open with “Wow, it is really unpleasantly hot and humid out there.” IBM 10K, 2006.
• In case of severe weather, meteor strike, or uprising of giant robot aphids, check KLBJ AM 590 for information.

At the race:

• DO NOT BE LATE. Period. You need to park, drop your bag, and have time to relax, warm-up a little, and hit the porta-potty.
• Get to the start line by 6:50. Then... relax. Soak up this moment. Look around at all the people that are about to do something pretty amazing. You're one of them.