
If there is a story for a sportsperson, then athlete would be on the top of the list and more or less every runner has a story. From being confident to overconfident, messing up on start line or finish line with premature celebration, making that one simple mistake that turned the entire experience into a bad race day.
After months of training, nobody wants a bad race day. Not only it can be extremely disappointing but also perhaps dashing your dreams of a new PR.
This article is about the awareness of the common failures that happen on pre-race day, race day and after that. I hope most of us have heard about Murphy law “whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.” . We need to avoid that as much as we can to have a nice race day and achieve our PR
Also Read : Running and Rest Day
Failure | How To Avoid |
Logistics issues like misplaced bibs, timing chips, Not aware of parking areas, Miscalculation of time to reach start line from parking area, missing out race station for hydration etc | Plan everything a day in advance from clothes to transportation etc. Do not leave any small or big decision for race day. Be aware of your running route and planned breaks |
Trying new foods on race day like a gel shared by a friend or pre-race breakfast by organizers. May lead to stomach upsets during race | Stick to pre-planned race day breakfast or mid run snacks tried and tested during practice runs |
Going empty stomach to race. This is the other extreme and by the time you eat, drink from race stations, its too late and too little | Eat pre-planned race day breakfast 90 mins before. Try to avoid high fat, high fibre foods |
Too Fast too soon. You start the race with full pace in excitement and gets caught with fellow runners momentum and then you hit a wall | Set a pace for your first 2 km of the race and then ease into race pace. Speed up as race progresses and finish with negative splits |
Drinking too much water before race will lead to side stitches or bloated feeling. You might need a loo break in between | Start hydrating yourself 3 days in advance and increase the water intake on pre-race day |
Arriving at a race Too Exhausted. You kept on training till last day to cover up missing days | Always follow a taper plan of 1-3 weeks depending on race distance and catch up on sleep. Generally we can’t sleep fully on pre-race night due to anticipation, excitement etc |
You start the race without a proper warm up and then you finish with injured ankle or calf spoiling everything for next few days | Plan for 10 min time before race to do dynamic stretches, short strides or a easy jog to avoid injuries |
You sign up for race in a different city and planned to roam around to see tourist places with your friends | You should plan to rest on pre-race day and avoid exhaustion. You can always roam around after achieving PR. |
You are a social person and keep partying till late night before race day | Just hold your party for a day and see the enjoyment of a party with new PR in hand |
Stopping immediately after the race and missing cool down. May lead to cramps, soreness, body pain | Walk for a while after the race to allow your heart rate to come down gradually and do some static stretches before heading for food corner. Your body will thank you for that |
Last but not the least, you forget lubrication and struggle in the race with chafing, itching. Body chafing is most under known among new runners | Identify problem areas beforehand and lube up with Vaseline. Avoid wearing new clothes, shoes on race day to avoid chafing, blisters |
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