With many mini marathons coming up in the next couple of months, there’s ample opportunity to screw the pooch ( who came up with that term, anyway?), blow a ton of hard work, and have your race suck. It’s easy to do. Waking up on race morning, and have everything go “wrong”, despite training harder than Rocky in Rocky IV can happen ( the best of the Rocky films, even though cheesy). Don’t let all of the training go to waste by making, or re-making some easy to avoid mistakes.
You may be asking yourself, what does this guy know about running? What authority does he have to make recommendations about running? I have zero authority. None. No power vested in me. However, over the years of running many races, and screwing up a bunch.. and knowing plenty of other runners that have screwed up too, it’s nice pay it forward to our running sisters and brothers, so they don’t make the same mistakes.
Make sure you do at least a minimum of an 11 mile run before the race. This will give your body a good idea of what it means to be on your feet, pounding for that long, and condition your brain to what that distance might feel like. Most people will do this, and a more experienced runner may be able to get away with not doing at least an 11 mile training run, but to be “safe”, go at least 11. A 12, and of course, a 13 miler make sense as well, but aren’t 100% necessary. On race day, you should be able to eek out a couple of extra miles on adrenaline and guts.
You don’t need to taper at the end of your training. IF you really,.. and I mean really… feel like you need to cut back, you could do it the weekend before, by going shorter. However, this isn’t necessary. I agree, that with a marathon or longer, that you should be tapering. For a Half Marathon, this isn’t necessary. In fact, I think you should be “peaking” on your distance the weekend of the race, and you should be plenty rested and recovered from the longer run, ( again, 11 miles or more) from the weekend before the race. Go in there guns blazing on race day, not trying to kick it back in after a taper week.
Make sure you run outside during your training. Now, this seems pretty obvious, but there are plenty of folks that log far too many miles on the rat wheel for their training. Don’t be one of them. The fact of the matter, is that you don’t know what the weather is going to be on race day, do you? DO YOU?! So, why would you only train in “perfect” conditions, of an indoor facility? No, go out there and train in crappy conditions. Wind, Rain, all of it. Super humid when you went outside to do your long training run? Good! That means you’ll be prepared and your body will have an idea how to push through if it’s that way on race day.
(Sub point) I understand the invention of the treadmill… and its purpose. It still sucks, and isn’t fun. Ever. Use only when conditions are horrendous, like Antarctica.
Test the system- try and recreate some of the conditions that you’ll likely be up against the day of your race, and test it. Is your race really early on a Saturday morning? If so, make sure that you’re doing your long training runs on a Saturday morning, early. If your body is used to only running at 5pm, or some other time, it’s not going to know what to do at 7am on a Saturday morning. Thought about going to the bathroom before a race? Know what your body is going to do at that time of day… it’s important. Sacrificing time to use the porta john isn’t a good time for anyone. It happens, and nervous energy can get to anyone, so don’t feel bad about it,… but have an idea as to what your body typically does at that time of day.
Test the system- again. If your race is early on a Saturday morning, do you eat first, or run fasted? Well, that’s a personal preference question, and I can’t answer that for you. However, whatever you choose to do, test it. If you like to eat before going for a long run, then make sure you recreate that same condition on an early Saturday morning run.
Test the system- yet again. Planning on taking gels, or Gatorade during your Half Marathon? Make sure you’re testing that on your longer runs. Don’t let your race day be the 1st day that a Power/Hammer/…Whatever Gel makes it down your pie hole during a race. For a lot of folks, the gels aren’t worth it, because it causes blood to be shunted to the gut for digestion, making it harder for the brain, legs, and arms to move due to less blood flow. I am in this category- gels typically make me feel worse, but they’re a great boost for others. Test a harder/longer run with gels first. Find out before bonking at mile 11, and puking at mile 12…. and doing an ugly cry at mile 13.1.
Don’t outsmart yourself. Running magazines have to justify their subscription price, so they come up with an ever changing array of articles about “What to Eat to Have Your Best Race Ever.” It’s BS. Eat what you normally would eat the week of your half marathon. Too many people choose to use the week leading up to their race to make a bunch of changes, and implement new diet strategies. Don’t. It’s counterproductive. If the same diet worked well for your 10 and 11 miler, it’s going to work for a 13.1 mile race as well. I’ve seen, and experienced a changed diet the week leading up to a Half. It usually comes in the form of a carb-load. This isn’t smart. First, eating the extra carbs causes your body to retain water ( carboHYDRATE). This can cause sodium, potassium changes in your body, but even worse, due to the extra water, your heart has to work harder to circulate your blood, causing you to sweat more, and expend more energy…leading to… you guessed it… bonking hard. Don’t use the week before to experiment.
Nervous energy needs to be harnessed for good. It’s race day, you’re nervous as hell. You slept like crap the night before. Congratulations. You’re in the majority of nearly everyone else at the start line. Don’t worry about it so damn much. It’s a race. Try and have fun. You’ve done the work. Just let the race happen, and stick to the plan you made. Expending nervous energy just depletes what you’ll need to have your best Half.
I’m sure there’s a ton I’m leaving out here, like ( don’t run on brand new shoes on race day, leave in plenty of time….blah blah blah)… some things you’ll just have to figure out on your own ;). I hope you have a fantastic race, and destroy any goal that you’ve set for yourself. Go and get after it.
Andrew L Hamilton 