I’ve discussed before how my brain goes through some pretty funky thought exercises when I’m taking long training runs (as well as long drives by myself).

On Friday I took my last training run before the Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon next weekend.  This last run was somewhat delayed because the week prior I threw out my back somehow and I had to rest it for a week.

For this last run, I had to turn around after about 1/3 of a mile because I had forgotten something. This got me thinking about everything I have to do before taking a long run.*** I tend to get a bit Princess-and-the-Pea-ish about making sure everything is perfect, otherwise I could get miserable in a hurry.

***Much of this doesn’t apply in official races, since water is provided and I’m not by myself for long stretches.

The night before:

• I need to make sure I don’t eat anything the night before that will make me unwell the following morning. I was pretty close this past week, we went out to dinner for Valentine’s Day and I had some of the Asian-fusion salsa which gave me indigestion. I was nervous it would carry overnight, but thankfully it didn’t.
• Charge my music player; charge my headphones. I have Bluetooth headphones now that I absolutely love, it’s important they’re charged enough for 2+ hours of music.

About 30-45 minutes beforehand:

• Eat a high protein, high energy breakfast.  Eggs, a protein shake, a banana.
• Start stretching. I don’t do a ton of stretching, but this week I went through some of the stretches for my back that I had learned in physical therapy.
• Drink a large glass of water.

Just before I go:

• Apply Body Glide. What is Body Glide? It’s a product that minimizes chafing. Good stuff. I apply it in several places, and I’ll spare you the details.

• Fill my Camelbak. I have a fanny-pack style Camelbak FlashFlo 50 oz. pack that I bought in Spring 2000. Yep, it’s pretty old. But I absolutely LOVE IT. It has a small pocket on the outside where I can stash my car key, ID card, energy gels, and some cash if necessary. The exact one I have has been redesigned quite a bit; you can see the current model here.

• Get dressed. Not all of my running clothing will suffice for an extra-long run. Thanks to recent clothing innovations, I now have cooler, seamless options. The less seams the better. Also, I only have a couple pair of socks that are applicable for long runs. They’re both by Smartwool and I NEVER get blisters with them.
• Do my hair. This is another important thing. I don’t want to think about my hair on the run. This means it’s out of my face, and the part in my hair needs to be covered, or else needs sunscreen. I like headbands (such as in the picture above, where I’m wearing a Buff headband with UPF fabric).
• Sunscreen. If the sun is out, I need sunscreen. A 12 mile training run takes 2 hours…on Friday there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
• Get a bandana or other cloth. This is what I had to turn around for on Friday. This is a general purpose cloth for wiping sweat and blowing my nose. I refuse to be one of those runners who holds down one nostril and attempts to shoot snot out of the other. I tuck it into the waistband of my pants…it usually starts out in the back, and I typically don’t need it for the first 3 miles or so. But I’m always so glad I remembered it.

• Go potty. This is the ABSOLUTELY LAST THING I do before I head out the door. It’s dreadful needing a bathroom during the run.

Lucky for me, there happened to be a porta-potty at the boat ramp at the turnaround point on this training run this past Friday. But I didn’t even need it.

With all these ingredients, I can minimize the incredible stress I a long run can cause.**

**“If it’s so stressful, why do you do it?” That’s for another post. 🙂