Race Day!
It’s time to get excited, it’s time to celebrate all you’ve achieved in your training, it’s time to start thinking about the PARTY!!!
Yes that’s right, race day is nearly here so take a breath and acknowledge all your hard work and commemorate the times that you thought your long training runs would never end, honour the belief that Sunday morning lie ins will feature in your future and are not just a figment of your imagination and revel that feeling completing exhausted is not your new norm!
Can you almost see the finish line and the possibility of a social life post-race upon the horizon?
The race is the culmination of all your hard work, all your training; you are almost ready to party with the lively atmosphere of the crowds cheering you on, strangers shouting your name with an unfamiliar familiarity as they root for you to succeed, their belief in you is tangible, human kindness at it’s best.
Because that works!
But as the anticipation of the event gets closer, there’s a few things to remember;
No training cycle is perfect – and it shouldn’t be, your training plan should have a similar balance of the following types of runs;
30% of your runs should be “Good Runs.”
If all your runs were good, then where would the progress be? And if all your runs were too easy, are you really challenging yourself?
30% of your runs should be “Bad Runs.”
If all your runs were bad then something is wrong with your training, you might have pushed yourself too hard, overtrained or not realised that your life stressors could be having an impact on your training.
30% of your runs should be “OK Runs.”
If all your runs were ok, where is the fun in that? We don’t want them to be just ok, you need to have a balance of amazing runs and some absolute shockers! Sometimes the thrill of the training cycle is experiencing the highs and the lows. Who wants to post “another ok run” on Strava!
Training for an event is not all sunshine and rainbows, sometimes it’s hard work, hard work that isn’t too often shared on social media or Strava. Getting up early when you’ve had a tough week, or fitting in your long solo run when you just want to curl up on the sofa with your family is tough. Sometimes it’s looking at the snot, the tears, the blisters, and the gut-wrenching exhaustion square in the eye and owning it.
Knowing that you’ve shown up and owned the bad runs should give you the strength to stand proud at the start line on race day.
And whilst the party atmosphere will give you a huge buzz, at times the race will be hard, but the hard miles will pass, and other miles might surprise you, but you will learn who you are and what you are made of and this is what should be celebrated, not many people put themselves out there on the line, literally, in lycra for all to see, and once that is put into perspective, then the nerves will turn into excitement for the day itself.
Yep!
The race itself
When things go wrong (and they will) a great skill to have is a sense of humour and the ability to be resilient to comments or other people’s quirks.
Other runners will;
Have loud music playing from their phone for all to hear because headphones have been banned!
Have distracting conversations: Some runners talk loudly with their running buddies, discussing anything ranging from sex positions, politics, transgender issues, neuro diversity, the latest app/hack/ or race strategy - let them, as tempting as it might be to engage, they are not interested in your point of view.
Jeff on single file pavements/paths - yes, they will suddenly stop, without warning or acknowledgment that you are behind them (they can’t hear you; they’ve got illegal headphones in telling them when to walk and when to run). It is annoying but let them, you will pass them eventually and leave them for dust.
Run on your shoulder, refusing to pass even when you move to one side. No, they don’t want your phone number, they are oblivious to you even being there; they are in their zone. You could ask them if they’d like to pass your or just look at them, but it’s all part of running a race with other people.
Stop suddenly in front of you.
Spit and snot in front of you.
Cut in front of you and then slow down which can disrupt the flow of your pace. Let them, move to one side, and continue running your race with your strategy and let them run theirs.
Discard their water cups or gel packets onto the road instead of the bin, just be aware of these as a potential slip hazard.