BMC NEWS - British Milers Club

A Checklist To Racing
by Will Cockerell
What are the ingredients to running a
great race What does it take to win
Well, as the famous running
expression goes: "The will to win means
nothing without the will to prepare."
So - if it’s the best prepared who win, what
does it mean to be prepared
Here is a checklist of 26 questions which
need to be answered before setting out for a
race. A tick against all these queries, and you
might just be ready to pop a good one!
Are you fit
If you’re entered for a race you’re one of five
categories: a formula one job, a company car, a
family saloon, a noisy soft-top or a smoky
banger. Which one are you
Are you appropriately trained for the distance
to be covered
Somewhat of a more subtle question this.
You can be fit for sure…but that doesn’t mean
that you will race well. The distance might be
inappropriate to your type of fitness. American
track star Steve Prefontaine realized before an
Oregon track meet in April 1974 that he hadn’t
got the quality work behind him to run a worldclass
mile which is what the race organizers and
spectators would be after. But he did have an
excellent base, and asked instead for a 10,000m
to be added to the programme. His request was
granted and he duly recorded an American
record of 27:43 - the sixth fastest of all time up
till then. But would he have run such a good
mile He believed not.
Are you healthy
The fitter you are the more vulnerable you
are, since one’s cells are at their most permeable
at peak fitness. Seb Coe knows all about this.
In his 12 years of top flight competition with a
possible 12 major championships to compete at,
he was able to attend just 7 - of which four then
threw up abnormally cold weather, two of with
then striking him down with flu.
ARE YOU TAPERED
The mystical magic taper. Racing with tired
legs is no fun. So, how should you feel when
you’re tapering down for a race Sticking with
Coe, sports physiologist David Martin recalls:
"Cutting back to 60 miles a week and then to 30
miles a week, Seb would get so fresh he didn’t
know what to do with himself when he got on
the track to run. You run like a feather, and
that’s fun. You get a thrill, and think, this is nice.
Run and win, and get the rush. Nothing ever
beats the rush of victory."
Are you well-rested sleep-wise
It’s rare to race well on a sleep deficit. There
are three great rules regarding sleep:
• The night before before the race is of far
greater importance than the night before.
• An hour’s sleep before midnight is worth two
after it.
• If you want to fly with the eagles by day, you
can’t flop with the turkeys by night.
Are you fed Just the right amount And
content
Some runners go for the big fry up before a
big race - others for a solitary boiled egg and no
more. Very much a personal thing, whatever
works for the individual athlete. A typical day’s
diet for four-time Olympic medallist Mohamed
Gammoudi consisted of five yogurts, ten pieces
of fruit, four cups of tea, two coffees, two
pastries, large quantities of meat, fish, milk, and
cheese, and as much parsley as he could eat. He
weighed 135 pounds.
It’s probably correct to say Gammoudi ate
somewhat less on race days, but one key rule is:
stick with what you know! Author Tom
Derderian tells a tale that many runners will
empathize with - the sort of nightmare that noone
wants to go through, about a certain
youngster in the 1967 Boston Marathon:
It seems that the night before the youngster
had eaten some apple butter that during the race
desperately wanted to escape from his body. He
had to stop at a service station. The restroom
was locked. Time ticked away. He had to ask
an attendant for the keys. He took the keys in
his drizzle-numbed hand and fumbled at the
locks. Time ticked. At last he slipped in, and
then quickly he was out and running down the
road. He passed runners he had passed earlier.
Five miles later it happened again. Again the
same frozen-fingered fumbling. Again he
passed the runners he had passed twice before.
All in all he lost 5 minutes to the apple butter.
The runner was Ambrose Joel Burfoot. And he
would be back.
He would indeed: Burfoot, now one of the
world’s leading running authors, returned to win
the Boston Marathon the following year -
minus, one assumes, the exotic apple butter.
Has this food had time to digest
Two hours is the general rule. One can thus
take pity with Frenchman Joseph Guillemot at
the Antwerp Olympics of 1920. On the day of
the 10,000m Guillemot had just finished a large
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BMC News : Spring 2001