Pre-race Prep

Today is the Funlavin 10k! I'm up bright and early because a) I'm always up bright and early cos I'm one of those super-morning-people that irritates everyone and b) I wanted to jump-start my hydration for what looks like being a fairly hot day.

I woke up to this beautiful morning at 6.30am...

(Yep, my window is tiny. I have an attic room and this one is on the wall just below the slanted roof so there's not much space.)

This cutie spent last night on my bed.

So I thought I'd share my Race Morning Prep with you guys. This is generally what I do on race morning - not too complicated since I usually don't need to travel for races, I'm either at my house in the city or at my parents' house, which makes it much easier.

1. Up early and start hydrating - I try to drink at least half a litre of water between waking up and an hour before the race.
2. Eat a carby, very simple breakfast (today will be a wholemeal bagel with a little bit of cream cheese) about 90 minutes before. I'm pretty strict on time - I've got no qualms about wrapping my bagel/toast in some tinfoil and eating it on the bus / in the car / while walking down the street.
3. Put on my race kit, which usually consists of Nike tempo shorts, Penneys sports bra (they fit me really nicely), some sort of loose cotton t-shirt, socks, Mizuno Wave Inspire 9s, iPod armband and my Garmin. Tie up my hair into something resembling a neat ponytail.
4. Prep my race day bag - usually contains the water bottle I'll run with, a recovery drink for afterwards (today I'm bringing some flavoured coconut water), post-race snack, a hoodie in case I get chilly afterwards, blister plasters, regular plasters, hayfever meds just in case, purse, phone, and any registration stuff I need.

When I get to the race I usually don't do a big warmup, I'll just jog on the spot a little bit to get warm and then do a couple of stretches. Then hit the bathrooms and we're good to go!

That's the plan for today too. Hopefully everything goes well and I have good things to report!