Friday, February 18, 2011

9 Ways To Stay Calm & Composed Before the Big Race

This piece is for Saturday: The day before the Hong Kong Marathon. I decided to squeeze in several days of posts in advance in case I enjoyed my break too much. Stay tuned for our interview with adventure racer, Ironman triathlete, and coach Wilson Low next week!
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You have done the time. Time to deliver the goods. Even with the best-trained and recovered athletes, other factors like concerns, worries and doubt can disrupt optimal performance on race day. If you experience pre-race jitters, how do you manage them? When left uncontrolled, anxiety and nervousness can sap away at our race energies. Emotions can drain your physical energies and put you in a less-than-optimal state. Here are some thoughts on how to exorcise some of these energy parasites.

1)    Listen to your favourite choice of music and songs.
2)    Rest. Take a nap. Keep your feet off the ground.
3)    Enjoy your Social Media (Tweeter, Facebook, blog, etc.).
4)    Avoid strenuous physical activities, like going for a run to burn excess energy off.
5)    Enjoy a good comedy. There are plenty of funny animated films available.
6)    Shoot the breeze with friends, except with those who are highly competitive and talk about racing strategies.
7)    Sit on a bench at a park, and watch the world go by.
8)    Be realistic about your goals. Complete or compete. Avoid giving yourself heightened expectations that are hard to meet.
9)    Stay near the start-point so that you get extra sleep, and not worry about reaching there on-time.

Well, that’s what I’ll be doing from today onwards until Sunday’s race. I will be running at 6:20am with thousands of runners at the Hong Kong Marathon. Then, the real race begins as I grab lunch and head for the airport, to Shanghai for a teaching assignment. It should be a blast!

To those who are racing this Sunday: Have a great day!

1 comment:

Teo Hui Koon said...

Have a GREAT race mate!