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With input from M Rameshon & G Elangovan
Marathon Pre-Race Checklist
You have prepared long and hard for your marathon, and you do not want anything to go wrong just before or during the race. Do not leave anything to chance. Do not try anything unfamiliar. Go through the checklist below to ensure that ‘unexpected’ mishaps do not occur.
As soon as they are ready, check the race details (from the race website and, once you collect it, the race pack). Key information that you will need include the start time (there may be different start times for different categories), course map and terrain, site maps for the starting and finish areas, intervals between distance markers, brand of sports drink provided, locations of the drink stations, expected weather, how to get there, and traffic information (e.g. road closures, parking).
- Do reconnaissance runs at least a few days before the marathon to familiarize with the course, especially the challenging stretches. Do visualization exercises to mentally prepare for these stretches.
- From the start time, work backwards to decide what time you need to wake up, making allowance for traffic, parking, bag deposit, toilet trips (expect long queues), crowds at the starting corrals, stretching, and warm up. Get accustomed to waking up at this time a day or two before the race.
- Taper five to 14 days before the race.
- Carbo-load and hydrate two to three days before the race.
- Collect your race pack early and check race website for last minute updates.
- Memorize where the drink and gel stations are located. Plan the points at which you will consume your carbohydrate gels.
- Visualize the route.
- Due to pre-race jitters, runners may not sleep well the night before the race. Hence, two nights before the race, ensure that you have adequate sleep.
- The day before the race, pin on your number tag, attach the timing chip, and set aside your running apparel and shoes. Prepare your gel packs and place them in your shorts pockets. Prepare your pacing schedule. Set your alarm clock. Get your friends who are doing the same race (or the hotel if you are overseas) to give you a wake up call as a back up. Check the latest weather updates.
- Sleep early, but not too early or you may have difficulty falling asleep.
- On race day, once you wake up, have a light breakfast and consume fluids. Empty bladder and bowel. Shower if that is your practice, and gear up. Write your pacing schedule on your forearm or put on your pacing band.
- On arrival, apply Vaseline to prevent any chafing, deposit your bag, empty your bladder again, and make your way to the starting corral. Warm up and stretch in or near the corral.
- While waiting for the start, go through your race plan in your mind. Remember not to start out too fast and hydrate and refuel along the way.
Hang In There!
Khoo Swee Chiow, Singapore’s most prominent adventurer, has climbed Mt Everest twice, skied to the South & North Poles, climbed the Seven Summits (the seven highest peaks in the seven continents), and swum across the 39-km Malacca Straits. Swee Chiow also holds two Guinness World Records for the Longest Scuba Submergence of 220 hours and Longest Journey on Skates, 6,088 km from Hanoi to Singapore.
Swee Chiow shares with us what keeps him going, “In endurance events, it’s always mind over matter. When the going gets tough, I look for reasons to justify the pain in order to carry on. I tell myself,
- Pain is temporary — As long I won’t die or suffer serious permanent injury, I can keep going. If I really can’t run, I will walk but I won’t stop. The storm won’t last forever. The wind will stop and the sun will shine again. I just got to hang in there for a while.
- Memory playback — If I can climb Mt Everest, ski to South and North Pole, surely I can do this. I also playback the positive memories from those trips e.g. the fabulous sunrise and sunset at high altitude and the view from the top of the world.
- Hard work endured — The months of preparations will be wasted if I quit now.
- Loved ones waiting — My family is waiting for me at home. Let’s just get on with it and complete the task. The sooner I finish the challenge, the sooner I can be home.
- Leaving a legacy — If I quit, what lesson am I teaching my two kids? What example am I showing them?”
“The most important aspect of race strategy is to have faith in yourself. That is, to trust in the work that you’ve done to build up for the big day, to stick to the pacing that you’ve ground into your legs over all those training miles, to believe that following your own beat will take you to your goal - whether it is to win, to set a personal best,
or just to inish.”
– Jeanette Wang, two-time Sundown Ultramarathon champion
and one of Singapore’s top Ironman
Meet Singapore’s Ultra-Man
When he tried out for the Naval Diving Unit, Kua Harn Wei almost drowned. The neardeath experience spurred him to learn how to swim and now, the Assistant Professor at NUS is an ultra-triathlete with an Ironman personal best of 10 hr 49 min, set in 2003. A single Ironman comprises a 3.8-km swim, 180-km cycling and 42.2-km run.
Harn Wei has progressed to do Deca Ironmans, i.e. he does one Ironman a day for 10 days in a row! As if running one marathon a day for 10 consecutive days is not challenging enough, Harn Wei also swims 3,800 km and cycles 18,000 km during those 10 days. To top it off, in 2008, Harn Wei was ranked world number two in the Ultra Triathlon World Cup!
For marathoners who are struggling in the last 10 km (that’s practically all of us), Harn Wei advises, “In order to participate and complete a race, you need to be sensitive to your body and listen to what it is telling you. With experience, through training and competing, you learn how to accurately interpret what your body is trying to tell you.
Not all unpleasant sensations spell doom. Say, you start to feel an unfamiliar strain 10 km from the finish of a marathon. The natural reaction is to panic and think, ‘This is not my day! Perhaps I should quit.’ Do not panic — do whatever you can to solve the problem. For example, adjust your running gait slightly, or slow the pace down a little.
Don’t expect everything to be smooth sailing — be prepared for the unexpected (such as high temperatures, missing a water station, or even mistaking the sports drink for water and pouring it over your head) and problem-solve along the way.”
TIPS from the top
- Countdown to race day — Pin up a countdown chart from 100 days to Race Day on your fridge door
- Make the necessary sacrifices — Plan your long run sessions early Sunday morning and avoid late Saturday nights
- Motivate yourself — Find that something that will make you tick. For example, whenever you feel de -motivated, go grab a Runners’ World magazine. It will help you refocus and make you want to run the next minute
- Route visualization — Drive through the race route or train on some section of the route. Go through the route in your mind before sleeping
- Prepare for the unexpected — Always have a plan ‘B’. For example, if you fall sick during your preparation phase, take a break and substitute that week with your unloading week
- Break your race into bite sizes — At the start line don’t worry about the finish. Instead, think about reaching the 10 km mark smiling, the 20 km mark waving to your family and friends, the 30 km mark showing thumbs up signs, and finally at the 42 km mark, start laughing through the last 195 m
- What to do after the race — Whatever the result, plan for a short getaway. Appreciate and celebrate the entire process — rather than the result — that you took to get to the finishing line
- G. Elangovan, three-time winner of the Singapore Marathon |
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