Ready for Your Big Race? Tips to FBG-ify Your Experience

There are races, and then there are races. You know what I mean. Some of them, you show up that morning to register, pin on your bib as you sidle over to the starting line and do your thing. No sweat, no big deal. It’s not stressful, but it’s also not necessarily all that memorable.

Others, you plan and train for over the course of weeks or months, maybe just to make sure you can finish, or maybe because you have your eye on a big time goal. Either way, with those bigger races, it can be easy to let your nerves and emotions get the better of you, which can lead not only to a sub-par performance but also to a less-than-stellar experience overall.

My recent half Ironman in Augusta was definitely a race. I’d trained for months to prepare (and took you all along for the journey), and while I felt fairly confident that I’d finish, I also suspected I would suffer quite a bit along the way and be happy to check that distance off my list and move on.

Well, if you caught my race recap last week, you know that wasn’t the case at all. I loved my race experience from start to end — I felt better throughout that 70.3 distance than I’ve felt during other triathlons that were far shorter and considerably less important to me, which, of course, got me thinking a lot about why.

I trained and prepared well, but I’ve done that in the past. The biggest difference with this race was really my mental game — I went into it with a seriously FBG-ified attitude, and it paid off big time.

Click here to see my top race tips.

Did any of these tips hit home for you? Anything you would add? —Kristen