RACING FOR THE FIRST TIME
First race brings many questions and uncertainties, lots
of expectations and worries about your skills and an ability
to be where you would like to be, concerns about which shoes
you need to wear and the weather.
Only one thing is certain - that everything is uncertain
and the nagging question inside: What to do and what to remember?
doesnt let you find peace.
Well, you should know you are not alone experiencing this
hectic condition, but knowing that wont make you feel better.
Youre still starving for knowledge and a desire to reduce
unknown factors.
First of all, during any preparation you have to remember
what is under your control and what is not, so you wont worry
about things you cant change, but you can still be prepared.
Such factors as weather conditions, your competitor/ s (they
shouldnt be in your mind at all for the first race) are not
under your control.
Your main focus should be on yourself and your actions related
with your racing performance. It starts way before the race
from a simple listing of things you need to do and prepare
such as racing shoes, your racing uniform, food and drink
before, during and after the race. This to do list is the
subject of constant development related to your experience
and it will get more extensive, and youll get settled into
the sequence of events, which is called pre-racing procedure,
but for now keep it simple.
You have to know the races starting hour and give yourself
plenty of time for registration and warm up, you should also
check out (at the very least) races starting and finishing
areas. Also count the time required for traveling from your
place of staying to the race sight. Before you leave your
house you should look at your list of things to do and be
sure that everything is in place so far.
During training you should get some idea of what kind of
racing performance you are looking for. With the help of your
coach, teacher, your more experienced friend, info from the
books and different internet sources you can get some approximate
idea of what would be a reasonable racing result at the present
time. Then racing pace would be maintained around this expectation
with consideration given to weather, terrain, and your current
condition.
It is good to remember that your first race is your discovery
of your abilities and it is better to under perform and feel
that there is plenty of room for improvement, than get into
the miserable condition of loosing ability to continue the
race and be on a boundary of getting off the race or finishing
with embarrassing feeling of weakness, horrible running form
and etc.
So to avoid this you need to go into the race with a sober
mind (excitement will be there no matter what) of what you
want to do. You can control your cadence, pace and RPE (rate
of perceived exertion). This is what you have to plan and
execute during race, where the main action will be your cadence
all the way through the race. Basically you need to concentrate
on your technique. Pace and RPE will be additional factors
you need to keep to be sure that you are still in your planned
racing frame. Please dont pay attention to anyone who is running
faster than you (there will be lots of runners ahead of you
and passing you), your business is to run your race and do
your action no matter whats going around you.
This mind set will help you go through your many races ahead
and one thing that will always be consistent is a necessity
to maintain your running technique at any weather, terrain,
racing length and speed, your condition, the rest will be
just facilitating factors.
Dr. Romanov
Pose
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