1. Don't drink wine the night before, this will dehydrate you big time during the race. (I was extremely thirsty before the race even started. I didn't even drink 20oz of water before 8:45am, race time. plus having 2 glasses of wine didn't help my hydration plan.)
2. During training, do some speed work, run at the pace you want to run during the race. (I got in the habit of running a nice easy pace, no faster then 9 minute miles.)
3. Don't run every day at a nice easy pace and expect to be super speedy race day. (I wanted to run 7:30 minute miles or faster race day. It won't happen if you don't practice.)
4. Don't try new fuel before the race. You could have stomach issues, cramping or worse. (I ate my normal whole wheat bread with Pb, but tried a Stinger gel 20 minutes before the race and I think this also caused me to be extra thirsty)
5. Remember to smile at the end.. through the pain.. (I completely forgot to stop my Garmin and just wanted to finish the race I forgot to even open my eyes, let alone remember to smile. I'll have to practice when I do speed work)
6. Tell the person who is taking photos of you to practice with the camera BEFORE you are at the finish line. (Steve said my camera was slow. Might want to change the shutter speed?)
That's all I've got.. maybe I'll listen to some of my own advice on the next race?
I never did finish with the time I was looking to get from this race. I wanted to be able to run a 7:30 minute mile race for 3.2 miles. I averaged 8:14 per mile. This was not a PR race for me but definitely a good learning lesson to do 1-7 above to get a PR next time I do a race.
Even though I ran it faster then 70% of the women my age, placed 3rd in age group, it didn't mean that much to me this race. I just was off on my training and my expectations. Don't get me wrong, I'm still proud of my accomplishments. I haven't been in racing mode at all so this was a huge step out of my comfort zone.
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