Runner's pet peeves Don't you have any too?

Let's be honest: none of us are spared from the manias that all runners have in the days, hours and even minutes before the competition. Manias with clothes, with food, with pre-race routines, with hundreds of things, some really crazy, extravagant and fun, but for each of us are very important and key to the final result. We have for all kinds of competitions and even vary one or the other depending on what the race is: the more important it is for us, the more we accumulate manias and the palm takes, of course, the marathon.

Some people spend the eve of D-day trying not to waste any energy for free, looking for any corner or seat so as not to tire their legs, or spending time in the supermarket checkout line, stretching their cufflinks on the display of alkaline batteries that, in the best of cases, miraculously do not end up scattered on the floor.

There are those who control exactly the grams of macaroni they are going to eat, of course always of the same brand, the exact cooking time (minutes and seconds), the milliliters of water and / or isotonic needed to assimilate them and the precise duration of the nap. The weight should be carefully checked three times a day, so that a few extra grams are not a heavy burden to carry during the race.

Some people start to use the shoes with which they are going to compete a few weeks before so that when they arrive at the marathon they have already done between 105 and 110 kms, not one more and not one less. And the chip always attached on the right (or era it the left?) with the same strange loop that will take days to release.

There are those who keep like gold the socks with which they managed to improve their performance on several occasions and only use them for the important races (despite the occasional hole already); or on the contrary, they use a pair for each important event (after using them once to test them). The same happens with the pants or with the 4, once shiny and golden, but now very rusty safety pins with which to hold the bib: it has to be those and not others, right?

Yes, it seems that we are exaggerating, that nobody in his right mind is capable of having these eccentric habits, but they are neither more nor less than examples of what athletes with name and surname have told me, serious and judicious people in their daily lives (or at least as such I consider them) if we except when it comes time to put on a bib.

And yes, of course, some of those manias have the one who signs this article.

1000 stories to tell

With the clothes, with breakfast, with the songs in the car on the way to the race, ... And so a thousand stories to tell. Yes, taking it as a joke, we almost think that these are crucial aspects to achieve success, or rather the other way around: if we can't follow our rituals we think that this hard enterprise of ours is doomed to failure. Because if not, what's the point of so much training, so much effort and sacrifice if I can't find the flip-flops with which I always take a shower after the 42195 meters or stretch my left quadriceps exactly 23 seconds 4 minutes before the starting gun?

All these things make us feel calmer and don't hurt anyone, so there seems to be no reason to do without them. However, it could become something to worry about when we fail in any of these details and we fall down or blame a bad day on the fact that, for example, we have been attended by someone different from the usual at the toll booth on the highway on our way to the race.

In this way we have runners who despite the passing of the years continue to maintain their particular guidelines, usually referring to the food of the previous days and clothing, but there are also others who are gradually abandoning their rituals staying with a few details, but focusing on the fundamental rule for all the day of the race:

DON'T TRY NEW THINGS

• Do not eat anything different from the usual: no coffee if we are not used to it, nor what we have read that Gebrselassie eats for breakfast before breaking world records if it is not our thing either.
• Do not wear Running shoes or clothes for the first time: there will be time to look good in the tights we got for our birthday.
• Do not take any refreshments, drinks or gels during the race that have not been successfully tested before: how many have had to make a technical stop to go to the bathroom (if you can call it a bathroom to stand behind some bushes) in the middle of the race because of an unexpected reaction.
• Not doing a different warm-up than what we usually do on other occasions for the same race distance.
• And in short, leave the experiments for another day.

As we have mentioned, we all have our own habits, some of them are shocking, bizarre and even unconfessable, but as long as they are harmless, why do without them?

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Photo: Saucony