Meggie's Marathon Checklist

Meggie Smith is a Oiselle racing team member. When she's not running she's blogging about it (and much more) at her blog, The Thinks I Can Think. Meggie will be running the New York City Marathon tomorrow! She's going to rock it! Here is her checklist for getting race-day-ready. (written by Meggie Smith)

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While a training plan for the 3-4 months leading up to a marathon might be deemed the most important aspect of marathon preparation for some, for me, a “checklist”the most important aspect of marathon preparation for some, for me, a “checklist” of things to do helps for the all-important last week when I start to become emotionally unstable. Here are a few things I’ve done this past week to prep for the NYC Marathon.

Meggie’s Marathon Checklist:

PHYSICAL:
- Sleep: From what I’ve been told, your running the week before a marathon is somewhat superfluous. Seeing as I haven’t been able to run this week because my IT band, I figured the next best thing I could do was to make sure I slept enough. Sleep is restorative; it’s when your body releases growth hormone and is critical for recovery. I like to think that sleep is when my body absorbs all of my training. So, I’ve slept upwards of 8 hours every night.
- Realize your body is most likely lying to you: In this last day before the marathon, my IT band has decided to remind me that it’s not happy. I’m trying my best to ignore as, before other marathons (ok, only 2), my legs have always felt heavy or I may feel like I’m getting sick. I distract myself with mindless TV shows.
- Look over all of the training you did: When nerves start to get the best of you, it’s sometimes easy to forget all the good workouts and long runs you had and, instead, remember the bad ones. I like to look back through my log or my personal blog and read about all of the particularly good training runs or races I’ve had along the way. It calms me down.

MENTAL:
- Write a letter to yourself: I got this idea from World and NCAA Champion gymnast, Anna Li, who wrote a letter to herself before her final NCAA season outlining how she would like to feel at the end of her senior season. I did the same thing a few weeks ago and plan on doing that tonight. I was surprised that when I wrote it, my most recurring thought was that I hoped I had a good experience and was “smiling across the finish line.”
- Draw your marathon mentality as a garden: I somewhat stole this idea from Lauren Fleshman and her Believe I Am training diary. In the training diary, there are cryptic flowers that actually spell out words, such as “joy,” “strong,” and “calm.” Further, in the diary’s “Map to Believe,” Lo and Ro (the co-creators of Believe I Am) instruct to “pull weeds,” meaning negative thoughts and “plant flowers,” meaning positive statements and mantras. I’ve focused on this a good bit in my training, and even drew a garden of flowers and weeds representing my “marathon mentality.” And, trust me, I’m not artist. It’s on the level of a 3rd grader’s drawing.
- Watch “The Rachel Zoe Project”: Watching Rachel freak out over being dress-less for the Golden Globes in Season 2 reminds me that everyone freaks out over something that is important to them. It may be a marathon or it may be styling Cameron Diaz for the Golden Globes. It’s normal to be nervous over something that is important to you.

FASHION:
- Spend several weeks contemplating outfit choices: I like all of Oiselle’s shorts, so this was a dilemma for me. My “good luck” shorts are my black Lori shorts. However, I needed more pockets for all of my gels. So, I’m going with the orange distance shorts. I’m hoping the orange will stand out to all of my “fans.” All of those people watching tomorrow are coming to see me, right?
- Paint Your Nails: For reasons unbeknownst to me, I’m passionate about nail color choices. I spend far too much time debating between which brand of polish is better – Essie or OPI? For the NYC marathon, I went with a deep blue (“Baubing for Baubles” by Essie) on all of my nails except for the ring finger, which is orange (“Vermillionaire” by Essie). I call any blue color for a race, “belief blue,” and consider orange my lucky color. Hence, I went with both for the marathon.
- Wear something sparkly: Personally, I’m going with a sparkly orange headband. There’s something about a sparkly headband that just makes me feel better about life.

Good luck to anyone racing! I’ll see you on the other side of 26.2, most likely after indulging in something terribly unhealthy.