14 - Night Before and Morning of Race Routines

It’s race day! It’s 3:54 AM. I woke at 3, and I’ll be out the door at 5 to get shuttled to the start line for a 7 AM race start.

I feel incredibly smooth this morning. I think that’s largely due to the routines I’ve made for the night before race day and the morning of. It’s a list of things to help me materially prep and also to mentally prep. I’ve found that this list helps ensure that I get all the things done that I need to do, and it helps to anchor my actions for when I start to feel antsy. Several of the items are aimed at easing my mind, hushing the chatter in my head.

For last week’s race and for this one, I’ve been liking using the hotel scratchpads to note my checklist of things I want to do in prep for the race. You can see that list above, which I’ll detail a little below.

Night

• Kit - Laying out my race kit and taking a pretty picture of everything laid out. This is my last check of all the clothing, accessories, and nutrition I’ll use in the morning. Laying it all out helps me feel secure that I have everything and that it’s in reach in a logical flow so that in the morning it’s not a scramble to find my left sock or forget to apply my anti-chafe stuff.

• Maurten Drink - On the morning of the race, I’ll eat just a banana and Maurten Drink Mix 320. The drink mix comes as a powder in a satchet, so I’ll mix the powder with the right amount of water the night before so that it’s all ready to drink in the AM.
• Watch - Making sure my running watch is fully charged and has the workout and notifications set that I want for the race.
• Meditate - I use the Calm App and its Daily Calm meditation to wind down and do some breath work. This helps stave off some of those pre-race jitters that could interfere with getting a good night’s sleep!
• Journal - Getting thoughts out of my mind and on paper. Journaling gives me the space to process and work through any lingering thoughts. Also a good space to affirm what I’m here for.
• Read - light leisurely reading before bed. Also functions as a sleep aid.
• Zyrtec - it’s allergy season! A friend recommend I take this at night because there’s like a 30 minute drowsiness symptom that I don’t want to deal with on race morning.

Morning

(I like to wake 2 hours before I expect to be out the door. This gives me time to get through all these things, but primarily it’s driven by wanting to eat and drink enough and also poop before getting to the start line)

• Water - hydration! Also chugging some water placed at my bedside helps me wake up.
• Banana - when a banana hits my stomach, my body just knows it’s time to poop.
• Peter Bromka's "The Marathon doesn’t owe you anything" - an essential read. not listed, but I often return to this blogpost to remind myself of what I'm getting into. It's written beautifully and captures and affirms a lot of what happens mentally on race day.
• Stretch - starting to get some blood flowing and the work out the morning creakiness in my joints. There’s a 5 minute morning stretch routine I found on YouTube that I really like. I’ll link it later :)
• Flonase - I wanna run easy with no sneezies. Or congestion.
• Meditate - similar to meditating the night before! A good mental check and body scan. Also gets me to slow an anxious heart and start listening to my breathing, which I’ll be doing for some 3-4 hours during the race.
• Maurten - part 2 of my pre-race fuel! This is the drink mix I made last night. Easy digestible carbs.
• Journal - dumping those last thoughts out.
• Myrtl Routine - hip strength and mobility work! I don’t expect space in the starting area to lay down, so I’ll do this as a warm-up in my hotel room.

Ok, that’s all for now! OFF TO THE RACES