Race Day Planning

Everything you need for a great race day

Months of preparation and you're on the start line feeling 100%. or are you? Did you get up too late, arrive too late, go to the wrong start wave? There are so many things to think about and if you get one of them wrong it can cause chaos. Planning for your big day is crucial. It's not hard, you just need to devote time to it.

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After months of training this is what it's all about. The big day has arrived and today is the day you will be physically challenged, possibly as never before. If you've trained well you will have nothing to worry about. Yes it will hurt, but if you've followed your training plan it will be one of the most memorable days of your life. If you haven't trained well, it will also be a very memorable day, but for all the wrong reasons. Race day planning is crucial.

What you get out of your day very much depends on what you put into it. This also applies to the last few hours before the event and the race itself. You can spend months preparing and then ruin it with 24 hours of bad decision making, turning a potentially great day, into a bad one. Don't lose focus and make sure you stick to your game plan. Nerves can get the better of you at this point, but don't let them ruin your day.

Choosing your hotel

If you have to stay away from home the night before your race make sure you choose your accommodation carefully. Don't jump at the first place that becomes available, even if you're booking late. Comparison sites make this so much easier, so it needn't take too long, even with some good planning. If it's a loop course, where the start and finish are next to each other, it's a lot easier to make a decision on where to stay, but if it's a point to point it's a more difficult decision. Would you prefer to have less travel at the start or to travel back after the run? This often depends on how early the race starts and what the transport options are like early in the morning.

When you've made your choice, make sure you tell them you've got a big running event the next day and request a quiet room if they have them. You may find a good hotel only to find that some of the room overlooks a public space or a bank of air conditioning units, or that some of the rooms have paper thin walls. Get it right and you'll benefit, get it wrong and you'll get no sleep, which is most definitely not a good thing.

The night before

Sleep is really important to the success of your day and you must get plenty of it in race week. Chances are you won't get a huge amount the night before, as your head will be full of race day thoughts. You might have dreams or nightmares, but whatever aspect of the race you're thinking of it will more than likely affect your sleep pattern! Bearing this in mind it is essential that you sleep well on Thursday and Friday if you have a Sunday event. You'll feel much better if you do.

Get the timing of your meal right that night and make sure you get your choice right. Eat earlier rather than later so you have chance to digest it. Only eat what you're used to. If you only eat pasta with a tomato sauce, don't have pasta with a creamy, white sauce. If you don't normally have a curry the night before a long run, then don't have one now. This might sound obvious but it's very common for this to happen, especially if you're with friends and family or if you haven't planned in advance and found out where the restaurants are in relation to your accommodations.

Make sure you set two alarms before you go to bed and get a wake call from reception as well if possible. Never leave this to chance. It is likely to be an early start so give yourself plenty of time. And then there's your kit.

You can't have too many alarms!

Kit preparation

Don't leave kit preparation until the morning of the event. Do it the night before. Lay out your kit, attach your race number to your shirt and attach the timing chip to your shoe if that's required (sometimes they are built into the race number). Read the instructions carefully before you do this. Put your shirt on and make sure the number is in the right place and that the safety pins don't rub your nipples. If they do then that will definitely ruin your day. Lay out all your other clothes in your room, ready to wear in the morning. In many parts of the world it will be cold on race morning so you'll need some extra gear to wear to the start. Normally there are large baggage buses where you leave your kit bag with the gear you want at the finish. These will close an hour or so before the event starts, so the gear you then use to keep warm will be left behind. Make sure you take an old top rather than a new piece of kit as you're not going to see it again! These trucks will then stay where they are if it's a loop course like Chicago or drive to the finish if it's a point to point, like London or New York. There will be specific kit bags provided at the expo. Use anything else and the volunteers at the kit trucks won't take it.

Sorting your kit out is not the kind of thing you should be doing on race morning. Do it the night before. You must have everything ready for when you wake up. Panic about a missing piece of gear is the last thing you need in the hours before you start running.

Race morning nutrition

Remember to give yourself plenty of time before the race to have something to eat and drink. It shouldn't be much and you must give yourself time to digest it fully before you start your run. Again you should not eat or drink anything that you're not used to. Tea and toast is ok as is a banana or muesli bar, but only a brand that you're used to; they are all different. If you don't want a hot drink then stick to water. Don't be tempted to eat too much. A full cooked breakfast is not a good idea. however tempting a hotel breakfast might look, don't be tempted. Keep it light and remember that the energy stores you're going to use during the race will come from the food you've eaten during the preceding few days. If you've got that intake right your performance will be much better for it.

Your best breakfast option

Not something like this...

Getting to the start

Long before the evening of the event you must work out exactly how you are going to get to the start. All of the big races will send you extensive guidance on how to get there but it is only of use if you read the detail. You must absorb everything that they send you. Getting to the start of a major event can be difficult given the sheer volume of people and some are much more challenging than others. In Chicago the start is right outside some of the main city centre hotels whereas in New York 50,000 runners have to be transported by ferry and bus to Staten Island, a major logistical exercise. In London it's all about runners using public transport to get to Greenwich Park. There are extra trains but you still need to plan ahead. Ideally you need to be at the start of your event 60 to 90 minutes before the start, especially for a major event. For some it will be much earlier. In New York it could be 5 hours earlier!

It is always far better to have time on your hands at the start than to arrive late. Work on the assumption that you'll be delayed somewhere and build in an extra bit of time. If there isn't any delay you're there a bit early and you can soak in the atmosphere. It's part of the experience taking in the excitement of the start.

The final hour

This is probably the most stressful hour of your entire event preparation. You're so close to getting started but still a very long way from the finish. Most people around you will be nervous and you will just want to get going. You mustn't let your nerves get the better of you at this point. Ensure you've emptied your bowels and bladder, even if it means queuing. This is really important. It's a good idea to take toilet paper with you to the start in case there is none in the toilet you use. Everyone will doing this so don't leave it too late or you could be in the queue when the gun goes off for the start. Make sure you're well hydrated but don't drink too much or you'll be looking for another toilet within a mile of the start.

Take your kit bag to the baggage truck and then do some gentle warming up. Some runners do this to excess and expend way too much energy in the process. It's good to be loose but don't go too far. If you're in a major event you'll need to make your way to your allocated start corral and then you just wait. If it's cold make sure you have your old hoodie or jacket on. Don't dispose of this until you actually start running. Lots of runners throw it away as soon as the gun goes off, but this is a mistake as you might not start running for 10 minutes or more and that's a lot of time to be standing around freezing. There's nothing much more you can do now but wait.

Ready for action!

So what about the actual run itself? Check out our guide to race strategy here.

And here's our guide to race day nutrition