The hard work has been done. The miles have started to reduce, the intensity has dropped, and now you are only a few more days away until your race. We totally understand that the nerves might be starting to kick in, so we wanted to share our top tips and hopefully it will help you to put those worries aside and get excited for your race.

Race Week

Keep it easy!

Now is not the time to be cramming in last minute long runs or hard speed workouts, anything you do now will not have a positive impact on race day, so instead just focus on short, easy runs and stretching and mobility. 

Get race day ready

You have been training hard for weeks, and invested a lot of time into this day, so it is important that you don’t leave anything to last minute which could potentially ruin it. Hopefully by this point you have arranged your travel and maybe even accommodation. But here some other things you can do on the days leading up to the race to ensure it runs smoothly.

• Read through all of the pre-race info and make sure you know what time you are starting, what time you need to arrive and where the bag drop is
• If you are driving make sure you know if there are any road closures and where you can park your car. If you are travelling by train/underground make sure you know what station you need to get to and how to get to the start zone from there.
• If you are staying in a new area before the race, it may be worth doing a ‘recce’ to the start area the day before, that way you can work out timings and make a back up plan.
• If you have friends or family coming to watch, make a plan of where they are going to spectate, and also where you are going to meet after the race. Then just let them deal with the logistics, you don’t need that added stress!

Race Day

Do not try anything new

This may seem obvious, but now is not the time to be testing out the new trainers you got that week, or the new gels you never got round to trying… save that for your next race!

Don’t change your goal on the start line

It can be really easy to get carried away at the start of the race, but its so important to remember what you trained for and your original goal. Don’t be tempted to go out a lot quicker than you planned, it may feel okay for the first few miles but chances are you will pay for it in the second half of the race. Run the race you trained for, and save that new goal for another race.

Soak it all up!

You have been preparing for this day for a long time, so remember to enjoy it. As you head to the start line you will be surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands, of other runners who are all there for the same reason - to run! Everyone will have different reasons to run and have different goals, and thinking like that can really help to put it in perspective. It is totally normal to feel nervous, and try to remember that nerves are not a bad thing, it just means you care. And we promise, once you cross that start line all of your nerves will disappear.

Good luck, you’ve got this!