One Day to Go

• Now’s the time to really drink lots of water. You want to have clear or pale yellow urine all day long.
  
  
• Try not to spend too much time on your feet at the marathon expo, even if it’s a good one. If you’re in a new city for the weekend, sightsee after the race, not before. Ideally, you’ll pick up your race packet, spend a short amount of time at the expo, then relax in your hotel room or at home the rest of the day.
  
  
• Eat your evening meal on the early side (say, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.) so you don’t go to bed stuffed. This will hamper your sleep, and you’ll probably already be a bit nervous. If you’re having a pasta dinner, don’t equate carbo-loading with gorging yourself. Eat a normal portion, or slightly more than you normally would.
  
  
• Lay out your clothes tonight. Pin on your race number and lace your timing chip in one shoe, if the race is using chip timing. (Timing chips are small, plastic transponders that you generally lace into one shoe, although sometimes they’re on ankle bracelets. They’re activated when you cross the starting line, which has an antenna underneath, and stop when you cross the finish, recording your “real” race time. If chips aren’t used, any minutes or seconds that pass while you’re waiting for the crowd to move enough so you can cross the starting line are added to your total race time.) Put your dry clothes and any gels, petroleum jelly, sunglasses, etc. that you want to take with you in your drop bag.
  
  
• Set an alarm to get up in enough time so that you can eat two or three hours before the marathon starts. If you’re paranoid about missing the race, set two alarms or, if you’re at a hotel, ask the staff for a wake-up call.