Race Morning

Tomorrow is Kona Eve for the folks over on the Big Island. When they wake up in a 6 or 7 hours time it will be Friday the 13th on Hawaii and people will be on the final count down to their big day.

As part of their final count down people might be giving some thought to some of the things I have written about over the last few days, planning their day around their bike racking, transition bag drop offs etc. They might be trying to keep their nerves under control and they might also be planning their evening to ensure they can get to bed at a good time and then get a great night's sleep. One thing they might also be thinking about is what they are going to do on race morning.

Like a lot of my race routine, my pre-race morning used to follow a fairly set process.

First step of my process is that I would figure out what time I needed to be at transition. Most transitions will open for at least an hour, sometimes more, however, I knew that I rarely needed that long. In the end, the number I ended up landing on for transition preparation was 45 minutes. With 45 minutes I had enough time to set up the bike, pump the tyres, set up the bike shoes, set up the bike computer, walk transition one last time etc. If everything went to plan then I would be done in transition in about 20 minutes and have plenty of time to spare. If something went wrong then 45 minutes gave me enough time to sort it out. The amount of time people need in transition to feel comfortable before a race is personal, but my main point is that I would figure how much time I needed well in advance.

Once I knew what time I needed to be in transition I would work backwards to figure out the rest of my morning.

How long would I need to get to transition? Okay, add on a bit of contingency.

How long do I want to be awake before leaving for the race? Normally I would give myself an hour. An hour was enough time to comfortably get everything done, but not enough time that I end up sitting around over thinking things.

It is probably no surprise to people that between waking up and heading off for the race I once again had a fairly set process that I worked through.

First up it would be about nutrition. Before most races I would eat some form of energy bar as soon as I woke up. This would give the bar a good few hours to digest. From there it would be time for breakfast and coffee.

After breakfast and coffee I would spend some time sitting on the toilet. Sounds a bit disgusting I know, but trying to queue for a portaloo on race morning is neither a fun or a time efficient experience. For me, spending some time on the toilet in the comfort of my own accommodation is a much nicer option. Usually I would give myself plenty of time so that I could sit and relax for as long as I needed.

Once it was done with that, I would usually have a shower and finish off the rest of my ablutions. I would usually try and fit in a shower on race morning to really make sure I was awake, focused and ready for what was coming.

Once I was showered I put on any race numbers (if not done the night before), put on my race kit, put on my timing chip, carried out any little superstitious processes I had, checked my bags one last time and headed out the door. Why put on my race kit and timing chip before leaving, well it was just my way of making sure I had them, rather than getting to transition and realising I had forgotten something important.

That was it really. My morning process was deliberately simple. Normally I would do as much as possible the day before to ensure I could keep my morning simple. Mix nutrition, pack bags, put on numbers, lay out clothes, if it could be done the day before, I did it. Basically my entire morning plan was around ensuring I had plenty of time and I didn't have to do anything in a rush. From my experience rushing is usually what led to silly mistakes like forgetting important equipment etc, so I tried to ensure I had plenty of time.

Like all the posts I have done about race preparation the real crux is planning, planning, planning. Reducing stress and mistakes by leaving nothing to chance.