Happy Friday! As I sit here and write out this post, it’s officially the day before the Soaring Wings 10k! If you were reading the blog before, I was supposed to be running the half marathon and NOT the 10k. I’ve been training for the past 12 weeks or so to run 13.1….not 6.2 BUT, low and behold–life happened and threw me off track. I haven’t had the best training this past month and that even includes being knocked off my feet for an ENTIRE week with a serious cold. I’m thinking it was bronchitis because of how bad my cough got, but I never got an official diagnosis. I did, however, learn to appreciate my healthy days more than ever before after not sleeping through the night for 5 straight days due to said cough and feeling absolutely terrible! Plus, put together an upper respiratory type sickness and running and you’ve got a really bad combo. So, I decided to pull the plug on my half because I knew deep down I wouldn’t be very happy with myself for pushing my body 2+ hours of running and not feeling my best.
So, 10k it is!
I really do love a good 10k! It’s still a super challenging distance and I’m hoping to maybe get in a new PR for it. I ran one other 10k earlier this year and it went great! I loved the course and we had perfect weather. Fingers crossed, tomorrow looks just the same! The Soaring Wings 10k is brand new to the race as they’ve previously done the full marathon and a relay instead. In fact, their full marathon was my first ever last year, remember? Ahhhh…the memories of building up my mileage this time last year and getting ready to run 26.2. Thank goodness I’m NOT in the same boat as I was last year this time around or else I’d be one extra disappointed runner! 26.2 is a beast like no other and while I’m glad I accomplished it—I’m first to say it’s nothing to play around with in your training. Training is a must and dedication is without a doubt key in having a successful race day. It makes 10k’s look like a piece of cake, and I’m always down for cake! 😉
There are always a few things I like to do the day before my races, no matter the distance. So, today I wanted to share what my pre-race day routine looks like!
*First things first: Packet pick-up. Some races are bigger than others so the packet pick-up day is sometimes a little more exciting than others depending on if the race has an expo or not. But, I always look forward to packet pick-up day! The goodie bags are so exciting! (Most of the time!) Plus, I’m ALWAYS excited to add a new t-shirt to my collection. A girl can’t ever have enough, am I right? So, today is packet pick-up day and I’m headed out to Conway to pick up my “swag bag”. This race is a pretty big one in Conway (my old college town) and I love getting to head out that way. I loved living there and I love the old town feel it has to it, even though it’s grown A TON since I last lived there. I have the option to pick up my bag tomorrow morning before the race starts but considering I live about 25 minutes away, I like to get in as much sleep as I can with zero stress of not having to worry to add one other item to my to-do list bright and early tomorrow morning. Especially considering this race starts at 6:55AM tomorrow morning! (Yikes! Early start line!)
*All day today, I’ll be making sure to be plenty hydrated. We’re supposed to have great weather with temperatures in the upper 60’s to start off, so it’ll be a little tiny bit cool, but will not too bad at all which is great news! I still want to make sure I get in plenty of hydration though. I always aim for about 3 of my 25oz water bottles a day to get in half of my body weight in ounces of water each day. But, today, I’ll aim for 4 total which should be about 100 ounces of water total for the day. If you’ve ever gone for a run lacking hydration, you’ll know why this is so vital in feeling your best come race day (or long run day either way!). I can ALWAYS tell when I haven’t had enough water and it’s just an awful feeling all around. Luckily, the heat is behind us which makes Fall racing one of my favorite things ever! I’ll also be adding in my “Nuun” tablets to one of my bottles to get in some extra electrolytes too! It’s always good to have a happy balance there too!
*I like to make sure to get my race day outfit washed and laid out the night before too! That way, come alarm clock time–I have nothing to look for and it’s all right there in one spot. While, I don’t normally have issues waking up being a morning person, I still hate to not be able to find something that I really need for my race OR forget something along the way. The things I like to lay out are:
Shoes (Currently using these!)
Shirt
Shorts
Sports bra
Headband/pony tails
Race bib with safety pins
Headphones
Fuel (
*I also like to get in a little walk the day beforehand too just to make sure to keep my legs moving around. Sometimes, I run a mile or 2 also just to really get the blood flowing. Then, I ALWAYS like to do a pre-race day yoga session. You guys know, my favorite is Yoga with Adriene. This is the one I plan on doing tonight:
*I can’t forget to make sure to charge ALL of the things I need for my race. So, tonight I’ll be charging up my Fitbit, Garmin watch, and phone! There’s nothing worse than getting to the start line and realizing something’s battery died…..BOOO.
*Then, it’s dinner time! With just 6.2 miles to go, carb loading isn’t super major. But, I’ll make sure to get in something a little heavier on the carb side to make sure to fuel up properly. The importance of carb loading varies depending on your distance. My go-to pre-race dinner is usually a bowl of spaghetti or pizza! But, I’ve had Mexican before too which worked as well! Really, it just depends on your digestion to what works for you and what doesn’t. (**Always test this out beforehand if you’re unsure!**)
*Last but not least, it’s early to bed! Tonight, I’ll probably head to bed around 8:30-9:00 to make sure I can get as much rest as possible for that early wake up time bright and early! Sleep is a must for me and I don’t function well AT ALL without it. So, alarms double checked, (Sometimes triple!) and it’s lights out for this girl!
And then FINALLY–it’s time to get going!! Time to put all of those training days to good use and get to racing! I love races and I REALLY love the feeling on race day! It’s so much fun being surrounded by all the other crazy runners just like me that decide to pay money to wake up at the crack of dawn and get running! We sure are a crazy bunch, aren’t we? 🙂
Good luck to everyone who is racing tomorrow!! I hope you have the best day and run strong!!
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