Agonotheta

Pre-Race Mode

May 14, 2004

Today, I'm in pre-race mode. Which means I've pretty much got a water bottle permanently attached to my mouth. I try to drink at least my weight in ounces the day before a race. Trying especially hard to take in 64 ounces the evening before. Tomorrow morning I'll get up a couple of hours before I leave and make myself some breakfast, which will include some eggs, and a couple of bananas. Then about half an hour before the race, I'll eat as much of a bagel as I can so I'm hit about halfway through the race with some nourishment and energy.

I just realized I haven't told you yet, but I'm running a 10k. About three weeks ago, I ran my first race, a 5k. This week, I'm stepping it up to a 10k. I have another 10k in a couple of weeks, so this will be a good warm-up, especially since its downhill and has less racers.

Now, I've ran 6.2 miles before, but the funny thing about a race, is that it probably feels twice as long emotionally as your training runs. One thing that I think will be better about this race is that I will have a lot more time to execute my gameplan. The last race was so short and there was so much peer/mental pressure to run faster right out of the gate. This time though, I plan on sticking pretty strictly to my gameplan.

Wish me luck for tomorrow.