RaceMob Rewind: 21 Race Day Hacks - Tips and Advice to Crush on Race Day

#82 - We have one of our most popular episodes as part of our RaceMob rewind series: 21 race day hacks, tips, and advice to crush your race day With live racing in full swing, there are lots of helpful time-tested tips and takeaways.

There's so much of our audience that is getting back into live racing, and this may be their first-ever live race, while there's a lot of our audience that have been doing races for years. 

And yet there are still a couple of these nuggets that we've learned over the decades of running that we'd love to share with you. 

Coach B has run over 300 races now, so he has a wealth of experience, and we can all tap into that to give you some practical advice, some things that you can use going forward.

Transcript

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You can inspire other people just by sharing your race experience. Certainly the race organizers are going to appreciate it. Those local operators that are just still trying to get back on their feet by you promoting their event and sharing the positivity it's contagious and will help us sustain events into the future. The crazy thing is you probably won't realize how much support there is for you until you share it, right? Like when you share those images, the pre-race the starting line image, that finish line image, you get so much love from your family, from your friends, from people that know how much work that you've put into that race, into that experience. Hello and welcome to the RaceMob podcast. This is episode number 82. I'm Bertrand, head coach of RaceMob and founder of two legit fitness, and I'm joined by Kevin Chang, entrepreneur technology and fitness nerd, and founder of RaceMob. We have one of our most popular episodes as part of

our RaceMob Rewind Series: 1:01

21 Race Day Hacks Tips, and Advice to Crush Your Race Day. With live racing and full swing. There are lots of helpful time-tested tips and takeaways without further ado. We hope you enjoyed this episode as much as we did. Hey Coach. We wanted talk to our audience about race day hacks. know that there's so much of our audience that is getting back into live racing, and this may be their first ever live race. And we want to draw on a lot of your experience . And there's a lot of our audience that have been doing races for years. And yet there's still a couple of these nuggets, that we would love to share with them that we've learned over the decades of running. And I know you've run almost 300 races now. So you have a wealth of experience. I want to tap into that. Give people some practical advice, some things that they can use going forward. And to our audience. If you guys have any tips, any piece of advice that we've missed, we'd love for you to email us, let us know we're going to have an article, a blog posts online for everybody to share, and we're going to continue to add with that post over time as people share their advice with us. So thank you Coach for being with me again today and let's get right into it. We have 21 tips here for our running audience on race day hacks. So what is your tip? Number one for our audience. Great question, KC. And first and foremost, savor the taper. Yes. I said it's savor the taper because what we have to assume is that all of the runners you have put in the work, you are ready for that race day. You are ready for the 5k 10 K half marathon, marathon, triathlon, whatever it may be that you have. Put in the work leading up to race day. So tapering, meaning looking maybe a week, week and a half at some cases, two weeks out, depending on the distance and depending on your training buildup and reducing the mileage, and allowing the body to recover and letting the legs recover and the legs get hungry for race day. So sometimes we get it backwards. Sometimes there can be addition by subtraction SoFi, pull back a little bit, rest up. You are that much more ready for race day. So it's something that for any race. Any distance, yes, 5Ks, 10Ks up to marathon. We recommend you pulling back on the effort. Yeah. So I love this. I'm pulling back tapering, making sure that that is part of your training plan. You know, we talked to Jason Fitzgerald a little bit about periodization. And so, you know, all of that work, all that aerobic work that you do early in your training cycle, that's for your muscles, your body to get ready for race day. What he's talked about a little bit is you may want to increase your intensity those two weeks prior because that may help your anaerobic development. So your lungs, some of these things take a little bit less time, to have your body see the physiological benefits. So you may want to increase intensity just slightly in those last couple of weeks while you're decreasing your overall mileage. But again, those last couple of days before race day, they're not going to help you at all right. Your body is at his physiological peak. So really saver the rest., so that you're ready for race day. And I love that. The saying that you said, what, what was that saying that you said, you're getting your legs hungry. You can eat, you can eat, you can carbo, you can carbo, we'll talk a little bit more about that as well. But diet plays a role. Hydration plays a role leading up to race day, and we can talk about this before we get off this particular topic. Should you, or shouldn't you run the day before the race, a little shakeout, you know, two miles to 5k, different thoughts. I am not opposed to getting out of easy conversation, pace shakeout run, just to shake the legs out, not running for intensity at that point early in the week. Yes. So very good point, Kevin, also to Jason Fitzgerald's point, but an easy shakeout run, you know, 24 hours, even 48 hours before your race is not a bad thing. But highly suggest pulling back the volume, increasing the intensity on the shorter distance runs. Awesome. So tip number two. Is the packet pickup and basically what we want to get into is, a lot of these bigger events, they have big expos. They have a lot of people at those events and a mistake that a lot of rookies make is being on their feet for too long. On that day before the race. I mean, this is getting right into it. What, what are we trying to do? We're trying to save your legs. We're trying to save your body. We're trying to save time on feet, whether that's, getting in the packet pickup early that day before or early the couple of days before, but just saving your time on feet. And this sometimes goes down to, you know, again, your physiology, how much have you trained time on feet? And are you at your physical limit for that race? Have you trained your endurance to just help you get to that finish line, ? So tip number two is really save your time on your feet. Um, especially the day before that a couple of days before, make sure that you're not on your feet for too long. In, in the age of, you know, navigating the pandemic. Granted, we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. If the race organizers offering your swag pack had to be mailed to you, yeah, if it's a little nominal fee, pay the postage, not a bad idea as well. You save yourself the time and going to the expo, being around extra people, et cetera, et cetera. If you can have the bib mailed to you in advance, maybe not a bad thing. Yeah. And something else to consider for live races is maybe staying close to the starting line. Um, so. You know, sometimes, especially out here in the Bay area, you might have to drive all the way up to San Francisco for package pickup drive all the way back down to San Jose drive all the way back up. Maybe it's just worth the extra couple of bucks to stay up in the city. Um, enjoy it a little bit more, but remember, stay off your feet. Don't go walking all around the city. Um, we've seen a lot of, A lot of problems when people stay on their feet a little bit too long, um, and that will impact your race day. All right. Tip number three, Coach. Step number three. Study the course! Study the course. That's the great thing about technology. We have the ability to look at a course preview. And what are we looking at? We're looking at, um, if it's an out and back, if it's a loop course, we're looking at locations of bathrooms. We're looking at the elevation profile and when those Hills, the inclines. And declines are going to take place on a course. Having a good idea on what the course profile in priority, really what the net elevation gain is going to be we did, uh, breakdown of Seth James Demora when he did the Naples half marathon, and he actually drove that course. So he actually went out on the course. He drove it. He tried to understand, um, you know, where their loops are, where there are insight turns where those aid stations are all of that along the way. You don't have to go all the way down that road, but at least taking a look at the course map online, trying to get , a good understanding of. What you're going to see. And that also for me helps with some of the visualization and the other stuff, but it just helps you really enjoy your experience on race day., so that you're not so nervous or not so worried about, you know, where the course is going to take you and the whole course layout and everything. So. I love that tip. I love that tip. Tip number four is around gear. So I know that, , people have their traditional gear and what they're gonna wear on race day. So Coach, tell us a little bit about the gear that you like to pack and what you like to use on race day. Based on weather conditions. So. If it's going to warm up potentially, or be not too hot, I'd like to be in a tank top or have the flexibility. If I'm wearing arm sleeves, where I can peel off that out that layer and kind of auto air conditioned as you're making your way through the course. So, or have a throwaway layer, but typically it's a light top shorts. If there is going to be some elevation, the course, I may consider compression sleeves on the calves. And if it's a race for time, maybe the type of shoe, it's more nimble performance shoe. Um, if it's something I'm going to be on my feet for a while, maybe half marathon or marathon, something a little bit more cushion, those are some of the core items in relation to gear. You know, something that says just. Note for our audience. You never want to just have brand new shoes the day of the race. You at least want to break them in a little bit., you know, she's always take a little bit of time to break in. You may want to consider some anti shaping products, whether that be the stick or, or other stuff, especially if you're going on longer races. So making sure that that is available to you, uh, depending on where the aid stations are, what types of aid stations are there and what they have there, you may want to consider taking along your own gels, your own, uh, electrolytes electrolyte solutions. Sometimes those are some things that you may want to consider, especially if you've been training with specific gels or specific electrolytes, just making sure that everything for you on race day is line up with how you've been training., that is. Extremely important. So, , having those things ready for you, sometimes you may need your own belt or other stuff to carry around those solutions, those gels, those liquids, if you're running with them. All of that and making sure that it's kind of laid out. I like to lay stuff out the night before, make sure I'm not forgetting anything. That's also a great picture for Instagram, right? Sometimes you need that extra motivation. You need those people cheering for you on race day. So laying it out, getting it all set up and set up in advance. You know that bib, like setting up the bib on, on top of the shirt, having all of that pinned up. So, um, I think that's a really good tip is have your gear ready in advance, know what you're going to use on race day and then lay it out ahead of time so that you're not scrambling the race day morning. The best thing that you said that really stuck with me. Especially as racing as we see moving forward is going to change is don't always assume, even though you, you may read on a race course website, that X amount of items are going to be provided. Because of the pandemic you want to be comfortable in being able to carry your own hydration and how you're doing that and your energy gels things along those lines, because we're going to see that change, you know, race to race for the most part and test all of that out. During your training specifically on your long runs. So as much as you're training for endurance on your long runs, you're also equally paying attention to the nutrition that works for you and the hydration. It works for you as well. And we can talk a little bit more about that as we get further down the list. Awesome. Tip number five is around sleep and your sleep schedule. So, you know, a lot of these races have really early starts. I remember, I think San Francisco marathon was like five 45 or something. So super, super early starts. You know, sometimes w what has worked for me in the past is very natural sleep aids. So melatonin, I think, is a natural sleep aid that maybe if you take it a couple of days in advance, you know, when you need to sleep, that will help your sleep cycle gradually change. You do want to stay away from any chemical sleepers. So you just, I mean, it's just not worth the risk. You won't wake up in time. I mean, there's a lot of things that. That happened with those chemicals sleep aids, but trying to look at some of the more natural sleep aids may help you. And especially at like lower doses, the other things to think about sleep, you know, obviously there are like breathing techniques or other techniques if you're having a hard time falling asleep. But the other thing to think about is sleep actually won't affect your performance that much on race day. So if you end up not getting as much sleep because you are anxious, it actually won't impact your run that much. It's just a mental barrier so, you know, we recommend obviously like getting your sleep down your sleep patterns, it'll help some, but if you don't get enough sleep or you... just don't worry, don't stress out too much about that. That's really good feedback. And I've heard from some very experienced runners that. It's not necessarily as you referenced Casey the night before the race, but it's two days before that the most important night of sleep is. If you, you know, that's the races on Sunday, not necessarily Saturday night, because it is tough to get in, you know, depending on the race and the anxiety and all of that gets up, you're traveling. But it's that Friday night, you know, can you get in six to eight plus hours? That's usually what is going to help carry you versus the night before. So, yeah. Great advice. All right. Tip number six. And this has to do with bathroom habits. You know, we, we talked to Becky about, you know, some unfortunate stories that can happen on race day, especially if you're traveling and you're eating some food that you're not used to so different time zones at different times zones, other things. So I think one tip that I've learned over time is. Waking up early. Um, so an hour or two before the starting line or starting gun starts, and I think hot water, coffee, those are things that will usually help you loosen your bowel movements. Um, a little bit. You do want to stay away from laxatives. You want to stay away from anything that is, is going to, again, dry out your system or do anything of that sort. It's just not worth it. So if you can drink hot water, if you can drink coffee or tea, if those are things that agree with you, um, try them early on in the morning. And if it, if it doesn't work out, it just doesn't work out. It's not worth stressing over again. Um, you know, but these are some of the tips that I've learned overtime. Tip number seven has to do with nutrition. And I know that people have their pre-race nutrition rituals or their on-course nutrition ritual. So Coach tell us what, what works for you nutrition wise? Uh, so I'd look at nutrition leading up to race generally the night before, the morning of and during the race. So night before, for me typically pasta, not with a creamy, rich sauce, mainly tomato base. Um, maybe like a, a pretty neutral protein. It's not too heavy that Turkey or chicken or fish, you know, salmon is usually a go-to for me the morning before the race, probably up two and a half to three hours beforehand. And that might be oatmeal. It might be a bagel with peanut butter banana. Those jus usually my morning of pre-race. Go to items. And then on race day, my preferred gels at this stage are probably Martin spring, energy and Eagles have had all positive experience, sustained energy and with no GI distress, which by trial and error. And how do you find out about that? Certainly on race day but more importantly on your long runs. Again, as much as you're training for the race, from a running and cardio standpoint, you are also test driving your nutrition cause that can be a make or break for you on race day. Yeah. I love it. And you know, I've also talked to a number of people about just salt intake and making sure, I guess that you're taking in enough salt sometimes the day before, you know. Because oftentimes, when you're sweating, your electrolytes are, are out of balance out of whack a little bit. So making sure that you have enough salt in your system, like, I like to bring salt caps with me, , because I tend to cramp later in races. So salt capsules I think have helped me, , over time. And then making sure again, the gels that you're using that you're used to using those gels. The GI distress I think, is, is a major problem that people have. Sometimes people are more fat adapted, so they are on a more ketogenic diet . But oftentimes when you're fat adapted, you can also still use carbohydrates and carbo load either the day of, or making sure that you're having gels that day as well. So just some things to be aware of. I think I've used some ketogenic aids in the past, some keto salts and those sorts of things to help just kind of fuel the longer term,, endurance energy usage and energy utilization over time. So, yeah, I think it's mainly around nutrition. Get what works for you, tests, what works for you. Don't do anything to race day that you haven't already tried out before, you know, different things work for different people, but test it, test it, test it beforehand. I love the fact that you brought up, um, that you tend to cramp. Cause that's common for some people that you know right now as a runner, if you're a heavy sweater and if you happen to trend on that side, You're sweating out electrolytes. So some people don't realize, Oh, you know, I'm just going to stay hydrated by drinking. A lot of water. Water is good for you. Absolutely. But if you have a propensity to sweat out sodium, you want to replace that with sodium. Um, and if you further will replace with water, you're just further diluting your system and it gets going to make you more prone to on a warmer day to cramp. Great point. Great point. All right. Tip number eight is around tying your shoes. And if you don't know about the runners, not, I really recommend that you go search it now on YouTube. In fact, we probably should make some videos on the runners, knots. They're one of like the highest viewed videos that most channels have. I think it like blew up on Tik TOK. It's like the most viewed take talk or YouTube shorts video is the runners not, but you know, one of the things that you don't want to do, if you can avoid it is. Having to bend over and retire shoes, time and time again. So the is not what it actually does is it helps your feet because your feet expands over time when you're running. So the runners not makes it a little bit looser, your shoes a little bit looser. Did they help allow your feet to expand. And honestly, you don't need your shoes tied all that tight when you're running a long distance. I think this is a mistake that some people have in that actually cuts off some of the blood circulation to your feet. So actually tying your shoes, looser and the runners not kind of helps that helps your feet expand and, and helps you, um, kind of run a little bit looser. So quick tip for you guys out there. Great advice. Great advice. Starting line. Yeah. Starting line, right? Tip number nine, the starting last tip number nine. So of course we're going to be there, maybe some jitters. Okay. And what's one way to kind of shake off those pre-race tutors is to get out and warm the body up. And sometimes we're warm the body up, either doing strides or a nice and easy shakeout run, it might also loosen up the body, so, that anxiety, which will sometimes tighten up the gut and make it tough to go to the bathroom. It may allow you to go to the bathroom before the race as well. So getting out, you know, that's a half mile shakeout run, um, doing some strides, starting off a little bit slower and gradually picking up the pace is a good way to loosen up those big muscle groups, the quads, hamstrings glutes. So highly recommend that again, when you're in a start starting line and getting to the race in enough time to be able to do that. Versus trying to scramble and find parking and mad dash to the starting area. If you haven't already picked up your bid and then more anxiety, I haven't used the bathroom, you know, we may have all been there at some point, but the thing is you want to avoid that just with a little planning. So starting line area, warm the body up, and it takes care of a lot of things in the process. Unless you're Verity Brene, and she can just jump out of the car with five minutes to the starting line and go win the Nike women's half marathon, right. Or Nike women's full marathon actually., so unless you're that proficient and a well-oiled machine , we recommend you get to the starting line a little bit early. I think the dynamic warmups, again, we really preach dynamic warmups. Anytime you go out on a run, but especially on race day, you know, getting in those dynamic warmups, helping make your muscles pliable throughout the race. I think that they're super crucial, super important. And you'll just, if you've never done a race before it, you have to know that the lines for the port-a-potties are just... they're long. Those lines are just, they're going to be long. You just have to be prepared for that. It's totally fine. Don't freak out. Don't rush, um, to, to make your starting line or your wave. Most of these things are done by chip timing anyway. So, you know, whenever you start, yes, you've got your own time. So just chill out a little bit. I think it's a great story. So, um, quick, I'll be quick. Let's see, two weeks ago, Sacramento, California ran a live race, a half marathon. There was a staggered start because, you know, pandemic protocols and there was a buffer of people in the port-a-potty line, three port-a-potties and word got out, no toilet paper in the port-a-potties. So fortunately there was two runners who had brought their own TP, which was great. So. Maybe not a bad idea just in case to, uh, bring some portable wipes or toilet paper just in case, because the last thing you want to do after waiting in a line for X amount of time and there to be no TP, that's tough call, you know, I'm going to come with that stuff. Right. We can move on to that. Yeah. Love it. Alright! Tip number 10 is around gum and mint. And this is a really interesting one because there have been a number of studies. I don't know if you, if you run with any gum or, or any mint, but there's been a number of studies. Around the use of menthol and especially in hot weather, the use of menthol in cooling the athlete's perception of the heat and actually that leading to endurance performance improvements. So something interesting to note, especially if it's a hot day, sometimes having mints on you to pop into your mouth during eight stations along the way they may actually help improve your performance in the long run. And we do know that there are a number of. You know, gums run gum, I think is out there, which has caffeine in it. So there may be some caffeine boosts and caffeine performance and that sort of thing, which is one of those supplements that may help you on race day itself as well. So just something, to be aware of that, you know, sometimes the mints, sometimes the gums, sometimes those are some, you know, hacks that you can actually have with you on race day that may help you, um, in your next race. And not in the same cooling sensation, but ginger chews are good to help. Cause ginger is at a natural, a way to kind of ease stomach discomfort. So if you have ginger chews kind of on you, um, and you feel after having a couple of gurus or something, you may have ingested the night before, that's not sitting well on your stomach, they're portable. They can be a time savers and lifesavers in the midst of a run. If you like our podcast and sign up for our newsletter, where we give you weekly tips on how to run your best race and have fun in the process, just go to RaceMob dot com and sign up today. All right. Tip number 11. And this is around the playlist and making sure some of us like to listen to music. So I know, I know sometimes Coach, you, you are earbuds free. I know sometimes I'm a podcast when I'm out on a run, but race day, I like having my playlist down. I like having some music in my ear. I think it pumps me up a little bit. It gets me going so. I think you had a tip here on playlist as well. For those who love your music, I think it's,, Patrick, Laura, who he had to modify his playlist. Cause he's like, you know what, Coach, I just get into the zone. And I find myself running faster than I want to you're prescribing some workouts that conversation pace, but I'm feeling the music, I'm feeling the beat and I'm on it. So, and to help you stay in rhythm to help you stay on point from a cadence perspective. There are some songs that if you were to go and look on Google and internet and search by, you know, beats per minute, you can find some songs that can help you stay in rhythm. And it's just a way to help pass the miles. Get lost in. In in just moving forward, versus overthinking as you're running as well. So just get lost in the effort and being in rhythm with your mind, body and soul with music is a great way to do it. Love it. Yeah. I mean, in great tip, it kind of leads us into our next tip, which is around having a strategy for your pace on race day and making sure that you don't go out too fast, which is probably our number one tip for new runners. You know, the adrenaline is pumping. You're going to have the crowd around you. All of that is going to happen on race day. And you will probably go out too fast unless you're very, very mindful about it. And unless you're really thinking about it, and sometimes the music will contribute to that a little bit. You know, you're going to have music that pumps you up. That's going to make you ready to go. And so sometimes taking a look at your playlist, making sure that you have some of the, maybe a little bit slower songs towards the beginning, making sure that again, you've planned out the course, you kind of know how long the songs are going to take, where you're going to hit certain milestones around the course. You know, so you don't have to look down at your watch all the time and really think about things all the time. Right? You're going to have some of these mental cues, some of these musical cues, but let's talk a little bit about strategy on race day and especially this idea of negative split. I love this point. I love it. I love it. I love it. I mean, you know, this KC and with all of our athletes, we really do work to almost like drill it in because. This is what everybody has in common at the start of a race. We all feel good. We all feel invincible. We have the most energy in the beginning, so the majority of runners are going to get out the gates a little too fast. It happens inevitably, and we find ourselves. As you referenced earlier, energy taken us to the point where we may overextend ourselves early and find ourselves as kind of hanging on. Well, the wills are getting a little wobbly and we're like, you know what? I thought I was ready and you're still going to get to the finish line. But if you would've just slowed down just a bit and thought it out in advance by looking at the course where the Hills are studying that and knowing what am I training? One's been like if you've had some days where you've had some time trials, so you can really kind of assess what your potential is. And working at when I get to the halfway point, how do I want to feel?. Having a strategy where you're winning with money in the bank, almost like running downhill and being able to catch your competition past your competition, because you had strategy just slowing down a bit on the front end. And we say, , do you want to dash and crash or conserve and crush? You want to conserve it crush. So if it's, you know, and some people say maybe even, even split is the best way to go. Meaning that even split from the start to finish being nice and balanced. But certainly most runners will have a positive split, meaning you are still faster than you are finishing, and we want to work to avoid that. And you can practice negative split training during your day practice runs. It's a great way to learn how to do that, how you feel. Let's see if you're on a, a half marathon training run, maybe. How do you feel that last. 5k in, on a full marathon. How do you feel that last 10 K it's really? We have training marathons, but just in principle the last mile or two, can those be the strongest miles in your splits during your training runs? That's going to translate to race day. Negative split is a perfect way to go. And again, it's putting you in a position where you're going to have more energy when you needed the most. And you're, you're not going to feel as beat up. You're not going to be as taxed and fighting in that grittiness, that onset of lactic acid, if you have just been a little bit more conservative and you're going to find yourself reeling people in who burst out the Gates early, and that's a pretty good feeling when you're, you're closing in on people, um, as they're starting to unravel. Yeah, well, we drill it, we drill it. We're going to , continue to drill it and drill it again because. Especially in those first races that you run, you're going to feel good. Like coming out the gate, you're going to feel hot. Like, Oh man, I can't believe I'm running. You know, this time I feel great. I feel really good. And there's no worse feeling in the world than paying for it. Later on down the road. We've all been there before you are sucking air, every muscle is hurting. Um, we've talked about this time and time again with our guests. About, you know, their first marathon. And so many of them just the, the wheels fall off at mile 21. I remember my first 10 K wheels falling off at the 5k Mark, you know, it just felt so good up until that point. And man, there's no worse feeling than struggling and struggling and struggling. So, uh, we drill this time and time again, be conservative out of the Gates. You're going to thank yourself when you're reeling people in towards that finish line. So love that. Love that. All right. Number 13. And this is around managing Hills. This is such an interesting concept because during training, we often tell people to push your effort up the Hill and ease up on the downhill. And the reason for that is because there's a lot of physiological benefits. Again, for pushing effort up the Hill, you know, you're building strength, you're building your anaerobic capacity. You're building a lot of things if you're pushing your effort uphill. And we want to ease you down the Hill, because you're going to be less prone to injury, it's going to be easier on your body, a lot of that stuff. But during races, if you're really, really pushing for time, you actually want to do the opposite of that. You want to ease up on the uphills slightly, right? You want to slightly ease up because again, you want to be in that racing zone, you want to be in that racing pace. You want your body to be , ready for peak performance throughout the whole run, and that'll actually conserve your time,, towards the end of the race. And you want to attack those downhills. You want to attack the downhills as much as possible. You're going to gain speed. You're going to gain time if you attack the downhill. So really interesting, kind of flip-flop from your training runs. But something for you to be aware of during race day. That is great piece of advice. I'm going to say that I loved it. That piece when I saw that on our list, like yeah. That's that's great advice. Fantastic. All right, Coach number 14, give it to our audience. All right. Number 14. This is all about strategy again and running the most efficient route. So do not take wide turns. So you look at race cars. Okay. Um, you're taking that insight lane. When you're running, doing track workouts, you want to take the most efficient route running the tangents. Very, very important. If you want to run for time, why run an extra quarter mile? In some cases, a half mile, if you're running a half marathon, if you're taking the widest turn, look at those turns and run the most inside lane is possible. That's going to save you time and it's just the most efficient way to run. In some cases, you're going to run some courses where the road is a little crowned, you know, that's going to eventually take its toll. So you want to run the flattest surface and the most, if it's a left-hand turn, take that, that left turn, um, right there on the curb, as best as possible. You don't always want to run in the, in the gutter, so to speak because that's slanted as well. But taking a good effect of smart line is going to get you to the finish line quicker. And as a yeah, and this is something that gets drilled in time and time again, when we talked to Verity Breen, when we talk to Seth James, Demour you can tell that they are always thinking about the tangents they are studying the course, they're figuring out the course. And tangent means kind of the inside corners And again, you could be running up to half a mile, sometimes I've heard up to a mile, less in some of those marathons, if you run the enter tangent. So just something to be aware of, study of the course, figure out where the entertainments are. And if you run them, you're going to run a shorter course, which means a faster time. All right. Tip number 15 is around posture and. You know, obviously race day is not the time to be tweaking. Running form is not the time to be testing out something new. You're you're going to end up hurting yourself if you try tweak your running form on race day. But the things that time and time again, that we hear from physical therapists and we hear from running coaches and we know from our own experience, it's sometimes these mental cues. That will help you regain your posture, regained your running form to some degree on race day. So some of the running cues we want you to be aware of one is upright, right? So not being hunched over, making sure that you're not, um, you know, folding over. If you have that forward, lean that slight forward lean. If you've been practicing that as a really good time to just be thinking about, you know, using that string from the top of your head and pulling yourself upright and being taller, being the slightly, a little bit taller. So making sure that you have the right posture on race day. Um, also we tend to as humans, especially if you're working at a desk, we tend to carry a lot of tension in our shoulders, especially in our upper back. So every once in a while, shaking away your upper shoulders. Making sure that you're doing a couple of arm shakes, that sort of thing, kind of loosening that tension in your upper back that will help you on race day with some of that posture. And again, we've talked about this a little bit before, quick feet, , quick feet drilling that in. So the quicker the feet, you know, again, if we can keep that, that'll help you a little bit on race day, as well as keeping your eye level, um, not down at your feet. Not all the way up at the sky or whatever, but, you know, towards the horizon or towards, you know, a little bit out in front of you, a hundred meters or so out in front of you. Those are the couple of cues that we want you to keep in mind during race day. Again, don't tweak your running form on the race day event, but have a couple of these cues in mind so that it'll help you on race itself. Great stuff, visualization, right? See it, believe it achieve it, you know, and before the race, you can do all of that. Sometimes. It's great. Just to calm the noise, close your eyes, taking a deep breath, blow it out and see yourself crossing the finish line, fill that metal being put around your neck. And then it makes all those moments in between the start line and the finish line worth it. Nobody can take that metal away from you. Nobody can take that sense of accomplishment away from you and let go back to strategy, negative, split, and visualizing. When you're going to drink your hydration, when you going to take your new, your nutrition, your gels, and things along those lines, but also giving out love to your fellow runners, high five dApps, verbal, however it may be because that comes back to you as well. So, uh, thinking about that finishing experience, thinking about the race experience in advance. Thinking about the course in advance all will pay off on race day. Yeah. And I think one tip I took, I forget which guests told us, maybe it was Joyce learned on a conference call. They were talking a little bit about visualization in the fact that if you visualize the finish line or afterwards, that actually releases some of the dopamines of you actually crossing the finish line because we can actually visualize ourselves crossing it and then that kind of pushes you towards that. So it may actually help if you're really looking for time. And again, sometimes we're looking at finished time versus finished line, right? So yeah, definitely visualizing the finish line. We'll hope you with the finish line, because sometimes you need that pick me up. Sometimes you need to be able to get your, your butt up off the ground, right? But if you're looking for finished time, you may want to visualize the feeling at the halfway Mark or the feeling at the three quarter Mark, you may want to visualize yourself and you know, the effort that you're putting into it, the work that you're putting into it, um, all along that way, that may actually push you a little bit further mentally. To get you towards those steps. So things that I haven't tried before, things I may try in the future. Um, but these are some of the tips. And again, yeah, if you are down, if you need that boost, that, that, you know, that mental boost picturing that finished line picturing, you know, post finish line, all of that, that will get you the dopamine that will get you some of the things to get you back up and ready to keep going. So I love that. Implemented visualization. Two weeks ago in Sacramento, first half of that race, it was a little cool. It was a day and a half after my second vaccination shot. And the second half of that race warmed up, I was already coming off of a fever from the, you know, the second day of the vaccination. And I just envisioned cold beer. I'm one step, one step closer to a cold beer. Um, and whatever works for you. So you're not thinking about how much you're laboring or how far you have to go, but something out there that can help you get to the finish line in a positive mindset, it's all about mindset as well. So good stuff. Absolutely. All right. Tip number 17 is to socialize. So, you know, if you want to have a good race day experience, if you want to. Make it more than just, you know, about yourself, go reach out, meet a couple of people on that starting line, you know, and I know the pandemic is almost over here. Well, I foresee that it will almost be over here and just having a couple of those people, they're going to push you along the way. And it's just been an incredible experience. It's one of the reasons why we put RaceMob together it's so that you can meet other people, other like-minded individuals find out about their journey, the struggles that they've been through to get to that starting line. You know, it's, it's one of those just amazing things about race day is, is just the bonds that you can create . So really our advice you to make race day more fun, more enjoyable, and yes, sometimes to push you to that finish line. It's to just say hi to the people around you at the starting line, even along the way, giving people pats on the back, um, you know, giving them prompts because later on, they may be the ones giving you props and pass on the back throughout that race. So socialize. Socialize is number 17, That's a great one, especially those people who started out real fast. Cause you have been there and they are going to be in that boat. So again as KC said, give them some love, you know, Kind word, fist bump. I know we're all talking, you know, social distancing, all that good stuff. Uh, in the days of pats on the back may come back. But something in those later stages of the race, especially in the half marathons and marathons, when people are in the pancake can go a long way. I cannot tell you how many times when I've done that or people within our fitness family have done that for other people. And those people will find them after the race and look them eyeball to eyeball and say, you know what? You saved me and you're like, what did I do? But you're, you know, your kind words are your Pat on the back. It just kept me going your positive energy. So you can help somebody. You can help make somebody's race day by giving out some love out there. I love that. And tip number 18 is to smile. And I don't know if you've known this, but, um, there are many, many, many studies, that the physical act of smiling actually improves your mood. Actually makes you happier actually makes you enjoy an experience. So even if you're having a really bad day, if you're having a terrible day, just force yourself to smile a little bit, and your whole spirit, everything will improve even you out there right now. If you're out on a run, if you're in the car wherever you are just to smile right now, just give us a big, big smile and see how your mood improves. And so we, we encourage you to do this on race day, periodically throughout the race. You know, you may be having a hard time. You may be struggling a little bit, just smile, just enjoy the moment, enjoy the fact that you're there. You're going to both enjoy the race a lot more and it'll help improve your finish time too, because you're just going to boost your own mood. So. Tip number 18 for you. Smile. All right, Coach tip number 19. Let's see. Um, there's going to be a point in most, every race when, especially when you're pushing for time, get comfortable being uncomfortable. And again, it is about mindset because they're going to be points where you do feel some aches and pains. Um, when you may be laboring a little bit from a cardio standpoint. So getting in rhythm, slowing down a bit, in some cases, taking control of your breathing, those are things that we are in control of our effort, but you know, having some calmness in the storm and navigating through it adversity because. Pain is temporary. Pride is forever. We've seen that. So again, being calm in the midst of the storm, knowing that you're one step closer to the finish line. And again, just look to your left, look to your right. There are other people you're running brothers and sisters that are out there putting stride for stride. And they're going through it as well. So you will get through it, but some cases suck it up. We signed up for it and, um, you know, you're going to be all right. You're you're going to be okay. Absolutely. Number 20 is to savor that post race experience and plan for it in advance. You know, we got this tip from Jason PV house who says he always has a post-race meal. Ready and waiting for him at home. But sometimes when you're traveling for a race, knowing where you're going to go afterwards, knowing where you're going to get that beer afterwards, or that food afterwards, sometimes that will push you on race day. And it's always nice to have things a little bit planned out in advance. So this is one of those tips. To really just plan out that post race celebration before that race day. And oftentimes if you're traveling with RaceMob, if you're traveling with Too Legit, sometimes there's a team lunch, something that's going to happen afterwards. It's already planned out. So we'll have your back, we'll have you covered, but just have those things in mind, um, going into the race, they will help you. So that whole post race. All right, our last and final tip tip number 21 Coach. You want to give it to our audience? Share the love, let people know, you know, share your passion for being active, your love of getting outdoors, your love of moving forward. You can inspire other people just by sharing your race experience. Certainly the race organizers are going to appreciate it. Those local operators that are just still trying to get back on their feet by you promoting their event and sharing the positivity it's contagious and will help us sustain events into the future. So social media, Instagram, Facebook. The more you can do that, the better it is for all of us, so we can continue being happier and healthier versions of ourselves. Yeah. I love it. And the crazy thing is you probably won't realize how much support there is for you until you share it, right? Like when you share those images, the pre-race the starting line image, that finish line image, you get so much love from your family, from your friends, from people that know how much work that you've put into that race, into that experience. And you start inspiring other people as Coach "B" said, you know, it really creates this positive feedback loop, you know, both for yourself and the support and everything, all those people who have supported you over the years, but then also you start inspiring other people. Just like you did Coach, you know, inspiring your sisters. Inspiring your brother by being out in Atlanta and, and just sharing those moments and those experiences with other people. And now look at how they are creating moments of their own right now. So yeah, we just want you guys out there to share it. And that is tip number 21 for us. Great stuff. Fantastic list. And as you mentioned on the front end, if you have more tips, more suggestions, let us know, let us know. We will share we'll post, join us in a future RaceMob happy hour, sign up for newsletter, et cetera, et cetera. We'd love to hear it from you. And. Thank you for your support Yeah and good luck on your next race. Uh, we thank you guys so much for listening and hopefully you learned a finger too. And like we said earlier, if you've got tips of your own, please let us know in the comments , let our community know we're going to have an article for this online as well. We'll have links. In the show notes. So let us know your tips so that we can continue to add to this list and help others in their first race or their hundredth race or their 300 race or so on and so forth. So with that, just want to say, thank you guys so much, and we will catch you guys on the next episode. Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the RaceMob podcast. Check out all of the show notes or find a running buddy online at RaceMob dot com. Please subscribe to us on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcasts and leave us a review. Until next time, keep on moving.