VANCOUVER May 27th 2015. Digital Champion Steph Harrap started running cross country and track in high-school and completed her first half-marathon in 2008. Since then she has run 8 half-marathons and 3 marathons. The half-marathon is her favourite distance to race, but her most memorable running moment was crossing the finish line of her most recent marathon and qualifying for Boston! When she’s not running, Steph works as a physiotherapist and spends her free time planning her next travel adventure and refining her culinary skills. Connect with Steph on Instagram.
Preparing For Race Day: Countdown To The Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon. By Steph Harrap.
We are just over 4 weeks out until the Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon and you’re about to enter into some critical weeks of your training – peak week and the dreaded taper (for me anyways). It’s time to start thinking about your race prep and your plan for race day. Here are a few tips (mostly from lessons I learnt the hard way) to keep you on track in the critical weeks, days and hours before the starting gun fires!
THE TAPER
For me, the last two weeks before the race, aka “taper time”, are the ones where I typically start to stress and ask myself “have I done enough?” In my last few races calming this pre-race anxiety and trusting the taper has been something I’ve really been trying to work on. Whether it’s your first race, longest race or 100th race, it’s always hard mentally to decrease your running and trust that your body will be race day ready.
If you haven’t built a taper into your training don’t worry, it’s not too late! Here are a few tips to help you execute a trustworthy taper:
- Give yourself about 14 days to taper, longer races require longer periods of recovery.
- Decrease your distance but remember to maintain your training intensity. In other words, keep doing those interval workouts and tempo runs to avoid de-conditioning.
- I like to follow a progressive taper where I reduce my weekly mileage by about 25% each week until race day.
- The week of the race I’ll usually do 2 runs at my goal pace (a 6km and a 10km), take 2 days fully off and then do a short shakeout run the day before the race
THE DAYS BEFORE THE RACE
Don’t do anything new. Race week isn’t the time to try new shoes, new food or drinks, new gear, or anything else you haven’t used on several workouts. I made this mistake last year before a marathon, I let myself get talked into trying a workout class I hadn’t done before. It sounds so stupid when I think about it now, but I thought I would just go and watch, take it easy, which I did, but there were some weights and moves I hadn’t done in a while and I definitely felt it going into the marathon. Needless to say, it wasn’t smart and I definitely learnt my lesson…nothing new on or leading up to race day!!!
Get off your feet. In the days before your race, try to stay off your feet as much as possible. Relax, and leave the lawn mowing, shopping or workout classes (still can’t believe I thought that was a good idea) for after the race.
Graze, don’t chow down. Carb loading before a run is one of the many perks of running long distances… I think so anyways 😉 But rather than devouring a gigantic bowl of pasta the night before, which could upset your stomach, try eating carbs in small increments throughout the day before the race.
Drink all the water! Hydrating in the days leading 
up to the race is just as important as what you eat. It could be a hot one on June 28th, so make sure you drink up!!
Get your race pack early and get your gear prepped. The night before the race, lay out your clothes, prep your fuel and pin on your bib….and of course take a pic and tag it #Scotiahalf ! That way you won’t be scrambling in the morning and risk forgetting something critical.
RACE DAY
Arrive early. Get to the race at least one hour before the start so you’ll have time to use the porta potty (those lines can be rough), check your gear and warm up. You don’t want to be rushing to the starting line.
Don’t overdress. It will probably be cooler at the start, but don’t wear more clothing than you need.
Set at least two goals. Set one goal for a perfect race and another as a backup in case it’s hot, it’s windy, or it’s just not your day. If something makes your first goal impossible halfway through the race, you’ll need another goal to motivate you to finish strong.
Have fun and run happy! Remember that races are hugely positive community events. You get to spend a morning running through our awesome city with strangers cheering you on (this is my favourite part), feeding you and offering you water, all while celebrating doing something healthy for yourself and crushing some goals! So remember to smile, read the signs of spectators (some are pretty funny) and be proud of yourself whatever the outcome!
How do you prepare for race day? Do you have some good ways to shake out those pre-race jitters? Share them with me on Instagram @anygivenrunday.
