So, pre-race routines are critical to all of us; right? It
gets us ready to run, stretches us, calms us, and gives us a game face. I
certainly have my routine and it is mine. Oh, I tweak it and evolve it, but it
is necessary for my race. When I am in those pre-race minutes on the anxious
side of the starting line; it is the execution of my routine that makes me feel
ready to run the best race I can for that particular race. Although I might not be 100%; my routine is. That
makes me somewhat calmer knowing that I have prepared as I always want to do. Then I tell myself that I
will run the race and accept my time and place.
Whomever will pass and beat me will deserve it. I am ready to run.
This pre-race routine is reserved for only pre-race. It is
sacred to my competitive spirit and recorded performance compared to other
prepared runners; the ones that are looking around to see who is in their age
group. Those runners that are in competition with themselves as well as the
other runners in the pack. Those of my
kind and mind set.
The night before I have a light, early dinner normally carb
enhanced. This is a long time tradition
that comes from those pre-race spaghetti dinners that seem to have faded in
glory due to more efficient ways to get those carbs. Dinner is nothing heavy or
spicy that must be carried around with me the next day. No reminders.
Once, the night before a race, my wife and I went out for
some pizza. It was some killer pizza and
I thought what the hell. You know, just
another race. Well, during the race I
did decide it mattered and the pizza, with that tomato sauce kept reminding me
about my dinner choice. At least I seem
to learn from some of my mistakes.
Race day morning I get up early, back timed from the race
start time. A big factor in the wake up time is how long it will take me to
drive to the race. A 7:30 start time
would usually mean a 5:00 get my butt out of bed alarm. Get dressed in clothes laid out the night
before and grab the bag of clothes and accessories also packed the night
before. Grab my energy snack and get out the door and into my truck (I always
drive my truck to races).
In route, I stop just down the road at a McDonald’s for a
small cup of black coffee. I can sip the
coffee and eat my energy bar on the way because I need to eat my snack two hours before the race start. The energy bars is now an almond butter bar,
with other healthy goodies, that my wife makes and stores in the freezer.
I like to get arrive at the race site early and get a good
parking spot. Then I can veg out for a while. Finally, I get out and stretch
slowly. This is followed by a warm up run
of a half to one mile. Then I am ready to go to the start line and hopefully
have a conversation or two while awaiting the “go.”
Pre-race for this one was all messed up. Do you remember the 30? Well, on Sunday (the race was on Monday –Labor
Day) I found myself needing 6 miles to reach my 30. Bad weather and work had put me in a bad
situation and the hours of rain on Sunday would not let me out on the road
until about 5pm; not leaving much recovery time before a 7:30am race time. A compromise
was in order; so I did 4.5 miles settling on 28.5 instead of the 30 that I was
desperately wanting. This I knew would
still cost me something in the race.
Next, I slept late.
Tough week at work with a crazy scheduled that changed every day and I
just could not get up when I needed to.
Not 5am, but 6am. I dressed quickly and grabbed my snack which I had to eat
immediately right out of the freezer. Stopped and got the much needed coffee
and sipped at it as I drove, but my intake was minimal. At the race site my stretches
were cut short to accommodate a necessary warm up run of about ¾ mile.
Waiting at the starting line I did not have that comfort. I
had not done all I should have done. I was
going to run and run the best race I could that morning and take my results and
settle with that. It turned out OK. I ran a good race and my time was
acceptable. But, what if?
What do you think?
Zippy
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