Being prepared

Race day tomorrow.

I spent a chunk of today making sure everything is in order for tomorrow. A bit of equipment maintenance, making sure the nutrition is sorted, having a stretch, that sort of thing. The race tomorrow is hardly sheep stations, but it doesn't mean I want to go in unprepared.

Whether you are racing a fun little paddle race or an Ironman, one thing I think it critical to success is preparation. Races are often derailed by silly mistakes and these mistakes often have their origin in poor preparation. Gear faults, race equipment being forgotten, nutrition mistakes, race mornings being rushed, turning up late etc. These are all easily avoidable errors, but they are mistakes that you will see made at every event. The main means by which these mistakes can be avoided is by having a bit of forethought, spending a bit of time thinking about your event and making sure things have been prepared appropriately and in good time.

Fair to say that different events require different levels of preparation. My efforts today were really just running through a checklist to make sure I had everything in place for tomorrow, and then getting hold of anything that was lacking. This is obviously on a different scale to the preparation for an Ironman which can take significant time, ensuring every small detail is in place and the i's anre dottend and the t's are crossed. The important key here is that the time was spent to think through the requirements of the event and make sure the appropriate plans were in place to enable a good day.

Whether tomorrow ends up being a good day or not, we will just have to wait and see. But if the day doesn't go well I can't take comfort from the fact that it wasn't a lack of preparation that let me down.

Now time for sleep, racing tomorrow.