Race day: the morning checklist

Race Day By Matthew Duck

What to eat, when to leave, what to pin where. A checklist honed over a lot of race mornings so yours starts calm.

Everything you can do before the gun goes is done the night before. This is the list we hand new members at the RV10 - every formatting case a story can carry is in here so the styling can be checked in one place.

The night before

Lay it all out. Bib pinned, chip laced, gels counted, and a plan you have read twice. Then:

  • Shoes by the door - the pair you have run in, not the pair you bought on Thursday
  • Kit for the forecast, plus one warm layer for the start pen
    • Long sleeve you can hand to a friend
    • Gloves - Melbourne in April is not a summer race
  • Breakfast bought: something you have eaten before a long run

The morning, in order

  1. Alarm three hours before the start
  2. Breakfast within the first thirty minutes
  3. Leave with an hour in hand
    1. Bag drop closes twenty minutes before the gun
    2. The toilet queue is longest at exactly that moment
  4. Ten minutes of easy jogging, four strides, then stand still

"The race is the easy bit. Getting to the line rested, fed and calm is the work." - a club captain who has done forty of these

A smaller heading for the small print

Pace bands are on the RV desk; if you lose one, the 1 km markers are every kilometre and the maths is not hard. This line has bold, italic and a link out to check the link colour on a dark ground.

One last paragraph after a rule, to check the rule's spacing.

The start pen at City 2 Sea, ten minutes out.

After the line

Walk for five minutes before you sit. Eat within the hour. Find the club tent - the debrief is the best part.

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