Friday Five - race day activities

Happy Friday everyone!  I am extra excited for this Friday since we're planning to go see Avengers, the Age of Ultron tonight.  I'm a geek and love the Marvel movies so this is a big thing for me :) But in the meantime, it's time for the Friday Five link up with Cynthia, Courtney and Mar.  The theme for today's link up is Race Day so I'm going to talk about 5 things I do for every race day.

1.  Lay out all my gear - Since most races are early in the morning and I am not a morning person, I try to lay out everything I need the night before.  I learned the hard way that I'm going to forget things otherwise.  I lay out my attire in one place and all my gear in another so that the morning before the race is as easy as possible.

My attire laid out and ready for the Rock and Roll Half

2.  Peanut butter toast for a pre-race meal - I've experimented with various things but have figured out that I run best with a light meal before heading out for the race.  My standard is 2 slices of toast with PB2 (not as fatty as normal peanut butter).  I've even taken some along with me for races where I'm staying in a hotel so that I can have my usual pre-race meal on the road.

I shook things up this day with chocolate PB2 and strawberries :)

3.  Photos - I run with my phone for music and communication purposes.  But a nice fringe benefit is using it to take photos.  I generally don't take photos while in the middle of a race since I'm not talented enough to run and take photos at the same time but I do try to remember to take pre and post race photos.

My Disney race was my one exception to not taking mid-race photos :)

4. Post-race recovery - I have a couple things I do after races in order to try to make sure I have a quick recovery.  I do these things whether it's a 5k or half marathon.  I'm not usually hungry immediately after a race but I do eat some of the post-race food usually a banana or orange or whatever bar they have available.  Then I stretch my legs, ice my foot and knee when I get home, and do some foam rolling later in the day. 

5.  Brunch or other treat- My favorite race day tradition!  I generally like to have some sort of post race treat.  It can be something that Mike and I make at home or delicious brunch out.  Mike made me great chipotle-sour cream scrambled eggs once with delicious hash browns.  For the Rockville Twilight 8k, which was a night race, we had tapas and sangria at a local restaurant.  Also delicious :)

Brunch after the Lawyer's Have Heart 10k

I hope everyone had a great weekend!