Fuelling, Clothing and Strategy

Running Beside Me share their pre-race tips on fuelling, clothing and strategy before taking their places on the start line.

Try your kit!

Wear the race kit you are planning to wear on the day a couple of times before you stand on the start line. Don’t try anything new on the day, you don’t want to find that the new pair of socks you pulled on are now giving you blisters!

Fuelling up before the race

Ahead of the day, practise your pre-race feeding strategy. What I mean by this is, get up at the time you plan to get up on race day, have the breakfast you are planning on having on race day and go out for your long run at the same time as the race starts. This will give you an idea as to whether you have given yourself enough time to digest your breakfast before the race.

If you plan to take gels during the half marathon, try a couple of different brands out on some of your long training runs. What one person loves you might really dislike.

The big day

Don’t worry if you have missed a couple of training runs over the past couple of weeks. The weather has been pretty grim but as long as you have had a consistent build up over the past couple of months, you’re not going to lose fitness by missing a couple of runs.

Whether you are running the 5k or half marathon, be honest with yourself. If you think you’re going to run the 5k in 40 minutes or 2.5 hours for the half marathon, don’t go right to the front of the runners. It’s too easy to get carried away with the pace if you are within a faster crowd. You’re better starting too slow and feeling fresh towards the end of the race than blowing up too early!

Enjoy your training and the race. If you run relaxed and you’re enjoying yourself, you will find everything much easier!