Race Day Anxiety

   For any runner or triathlete there is a certain amount of anxiety, nervousness, stress and excitement that comes with Race Day!  Some people have it more tame than others, but I find it truly amazing how it can affect your race results.  You know the feeling, butterflies in your stomach, queasy with moments of shear excitement.  We even all know the negative side affects of this nervousness, we can loose sleep resulting in a lack of energy or we can even make ourselves sick.  None of which is good for race day and meeting our goals!  So what can we do?
   Now I've certainly not mastered these tips but have found that they help!
      1. DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT go into race day blind! Now what does that mean?  It means do a practice race day, down to the time you wake up in the morning, to what you are going to eat, to the exact time you are going to start to run.  When you train occasionally like this, race day doesn't feel as daunting!
      2.  Make sure you get lots of sleep the week before your race.  For some people no matter what you do, the excitement and nervousness make it impossible to get a "Perfect" night's sleep, so as long as you are "storing" up sleep and getting a few extra hours the week before and the week of the race you should be fine!
     3.  If you are prone to getting a queasy stomach because of nerves, eat items that are easier on the stomach to digest, this way your stomach won't feel so helter-skelter!
    4. Most importantly: REMEMBER IT IS ABOUT HAVING FUN!  For us "amateur" athletes, we aren't training for the Olympics, we aren't training for nationals or some other big sporting event where it can make or break our career.  Ultimately it is about us having fun and meeting a personal goal that we have set for ourselves!  There is nothing easy about running a marathon and maybe even while you are running you are questioning your sanity, but all in all it is about you finishing and being proud of yourself for what you have achieved! 

Today's Lesson: Nerves are OK, just make sure that they don't negatively impact your race day results!  There are so many outside factors that we can't control, so let's control what we can!

Rocking Out to: Senor by Dierks Bentley