The art and science of race day execution (from the archives)

You’ve done the work, now to do the job.

How do I execute on race day to achieve my goals?

What do you do when you have challenged yourself to meet that specific race goal? I’m not talking about some nebulous “Try hard”, “Do your best”, “Run your race” range of finishing times. I’m talking about the pursuit of a hard goal in a long race. I’m talking about needing a specific number, a specific hour, minute and second goal. Like a 3:10 marathon. This is a goal where there is no wiggle room. It’s binary, black & white and there is no close enough’.

These are the honest goals that require our best efforts. They require all our physical and mental strength. They require our commitment to the goal in mind, body and spirit. They require us not only to successfully navigate the long climbing path of a hard training program, but in addition they need us to execute with strength and without a mistake at the race itself. This is why they are good goals, pure goals and worthy goals.

The pure and stark numeric relief of these goals actually makes training and execution quite simple. There is no mystery. The required pace is known. Any competent coach can do the math and design a training plan that puts you in a position to execute on race day.

But, for the worthy goal, your training alone does not guarantee success. Training is just the required ante to get to the table, to earn the right to step into the arena and face the beast with courage. Training earns you the opportunity. Race day execution gets you the win. Race day execution delivers the goods.

You might think this a bad bargain.  You pay the price, but still may not bring home the prize. Perhaps this is why so few of us set worthy goals and why even fewer can survive the training gauntlet and fewer yet can take the day.

Today I’ll not talk about the taper week or the night before.   I’ll assume you made it to the start ready to go and your logistical skills were up to the task of finding the starting corral.

On race morning I am typically up early and full of adrenaline.  I take time before I leave to rub warm-up into my legs and get a first stretch in. This gives the warm-up time to work and allows me to wash the warm-up off my hands before I head to the race. Think of it as putting the casserole in the oven.

I’ll make a quick assessment of the starting area and then I’ll find a quiet corner to stretch.  This is my quite time before the race. Here is where I put my legs and body through long stretches, I massage my muscles, and I might even do some light exercise. But, more than that, I review my training, I review my goals, and I review my race strategy.

This is my gathering of strength.  This is my marshalling of resources.  This is the moment where I can fit all the puzzle pieces together. This is where I find peace. I will go and jog, either before or after I stretch, for 8 – 10 minutes and may do some pick-ups of 10 – 20 seconds at tempo pace just to burn some adrenaline and get the muscles firing. But, this warm up is not so much exercise as a way to feel the training strength in your legs, to remind yourself that you have done the work and that you are ready.

When I’m standing in the corral at the start of the race I am free.  I have an inner strength of physical and mental preparation to execute my race.

My preferred racing strategy for the worthy goal race is “steady state with a buffer”.  This means I know what pace per mile I have to run each, and every mile in to meet my goal and that is what I plan to do. The buffer, depending on the length of the race, is how much I will allow myself to get ahead of my goal pace per mile and net. I don’t set a buffer for how much I’ll let myself get behind. I don’t plan to get behind.

You would think this strategy would be simple and easy to execute, but it is not.  The worthy goal can only be achieved when you execute at the edge of your abilities. It takes great effort and discipline to execute at the edge of your abilities over the course of a long race. The edge is a narrow and scary place with fire swamps on both sides. You can’t take your eye off the edge for a second while you’re racing. There is no daydreaming allowed, no mindlessness is possible until you see the finish line and hear the roar of the finish line crowd.

In the first miles of the race your race day execution requires you to quickly find that pace within your buffer zone and stay in it. This will take mental strength. You’re body, exuberant with adrenaline and the fruits of hard training will want to run. You will need to corral the wild horses but not fight them. You are the horse whisperer. You calm them.

You need to quickly relax and manage yourself into a focused and efficient pace. With your banked training and excess of energy there is a temptation to spend it loosely. You cannot. You must guard every single footstep and calorie like a miser by relaxing into that race pace and finding your zone.

If you find yourself creeping out of your buffer you must have the strength to say ‘no’ and reel it in.

At some point the effort of the hard race will catch up with the banked enthusiasm.  Because you have trained at the limit of your abilities you have a chance of failure. Even if you execute perfectly you can have a bad day. You do your best to manage the variables but nothing is perfect when humans are involved. Chance is not an absolute that can be programmed into muscles and sinew and brain tissue.

Once the battle is engaged the fog of war, the chaos of chance lurks.  At some point in the race you may find it is not your day and it will get hard. At this point you will have to become directly involved in managing your race machine. You will have to switch off the automatic pilot and take the controls.

As part of your plan you have to expect to make midrace adjustments.  If you slow by 10 seconds a mile and spend some of your buffer now will you be able to bounce back later? Where does that hill end? Can you hold to the top and cruise after? Should you take some nutrition? How much effort to spend now knowing what is to come? Perhaps it’s ok to loosen the reins a little and test a faster pace?

Then, in the final third of the race your plan should anticipate a time when your courage will be called upon. You will need to ignore the creeping fatigue and pain – and transcend. Your training should allow you to push through. Time to get mad and whip the horses.

Time to spur and cajole and throw sensitivities out the window.  Nauseous?   Throw up while you run and get on with it. Bathroom break? Hold it or let it go – that’s what champions do. Your worthy goal expects nothing less than 100 % from you and it’s time to pay.

It may not turn out that way.  Your training and your discipline may make courage unnecessary and the finish may approach with disarming ease. It’s a worrying time and a waiting game. You run in your pace zone expectant of something bad that never comes. As you get within the last few miles you can open it up – and finish with a big smile for the cameras. These are the best.

The better you can manage your resources and make good choices during the race the greater the chance of this smiling finish photo. The worthy goal requires you to show up ready to work. As much as the poets would like us to believe that to run a race is a great glorious act of self-immolation, it is not so. The worthy goal requires self-management and prudent application of courage.

And that, my friends is how I execute on race day. We’ll see you out there,

Chris,