Ah race week.  That special time of the season when marathoners sit around waiting, overthinking, checking the weather forecast, taking vitamins, and generally stressing.

I must admit, I’m starting to get slightly nervous, but mostly I just want Sunday to get here already.  I hope the forecast gets better and that the weird tightness in my glute goes away, but honestly I’m not that stressed out.

So what’s my secret?  Well, I was really stressed out before my first marathon.  I strained a quad the week before, so there was that whole ordeal and it wasn’t completely healed by race day, so I didn’t feel 100%.  And guess what?  I ran a great time and had lots of fun and while my quad hurt, I was able to run again a week later.

The week before my second marathon I came down with a mysterious virus and was sicker than I think I’ve ever been in my life.  Seriously.  This is indelicate, but I had severe diarrhea, lost over 5 pounds, and went to the doctor 3 times.  I couldn’t sleep or eat normally.  The symptoms finally resolved the day before the marathon, I hydrated like a madwoman, and ran anyway.  And guess what?  I won my race. 

I’m probably a bad example and I am not telling you that you should run if you are sick, but what I’ve learned is that everything does not have to be perfect before a race.  The upside to being so sick last time is that it makes my slightly tight muscles seem like absolutely nothing this time around.   

Anyway, this comment by Lauren appropriately describes those first marathon fears:

I’M SO NERVOUS! I am questioning how well prepared I am, if I will be able to finish, what (and how much) to eat this week. I don’t want to be tight, so I want to run, but I want to be rested, so I’m compromising with walking? And should I stretch or even go so far as some yoga? But I don’t want to do anything out of the norm! And also, I’m still so hungry but only running twelve miles this week, normally I live by the “if you’re hungry, EAT” perspective butttt I don’t want to gain weight, not for superficial reasons but because I don’t want to be SLOW. Which is arguably superficial, but whatever. But at the same time I want to be well fueled. AGH.Clearly, tips are being eagerly anticipated BLEH FIRST MARATHON NERVOUSNESS.

ps all of this is apart from the race day logistics nightmares i have been having. awesome.

Lauren, have you had the nightmare where you’re running the marathon around a track yet?  That was a bad one.  Or the one where you’re wearing flip-flops at the start line? 

A few tips:

Do:

• Eat normally.  If you are hungry, eat.  Think of the extra glycogen as energy to be released from your body in a storm of awesome on race day.
• Sleep.  With no workout and no clients until noon today, I had the luxury of going without an alarm clock.  It was great.
• Stick to your training plan.
• Get all the details of the weekend ironed out as early as possible so that you can stop worrying.  Get directions to the depot, hotel, start line, etc. 
• Make a list of everything you need: Gu, shoes, bananas, whatever.
• Hydrate.
• Be prepared for rain.  (Ugggg)
• Stretch

Don’t:

• Use “carbo-loading” as an excuse to overeat.  Just eat normally, as I said above.
• Weigh yourself.  Remember, glycogen storage!
• Do anything new or extra.  No cross-training.  No extra walking.  You cannot do too little, you can only do too much.  Remember, that energy will be released later.  In a storm of fury all over San Antonio.
• Wear new shoes or heels. 
• Eat broccoli, beans, or Fiber One cereal the day before.
• Restrict sodium intake.

Got more tips to add?  I might do another post about nutrition later this week.

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