Didn’t have any pins in the starting bag and had to put the number on gum scotch tape? Did your watch run out of power in the middle of the course? Felt sick from the Izotonik you drank at the feeding point? Chafed, froze, burned, starved, forgot something you needed?
To avoid this kind of thing, nerds like me use lists. At the same time, this approach allows not to clutter the short maiden memory and not to panic about the forgotten items.
I’m sharing my most comprehensive list, designed for the format of a marathon trip to another city/country.
Documents and printouts
passport (required for the start package)
confirmation of registration and payment
medical certificate. Compulsory in some countries, e.g. Italy and France; valid for up to a year; the form can be found on marathon websites, e.g. here.
printout with the route map (to orientate yourself on the terrain in advance, to agree on the meeting points with the support group), information about the expo, the start-finish town, etc.
Footwear and clothing
Must be tested on long training sessions, preferably in different weather conditions. By experience, most bugs with shoes appear on distances more than a half marathon, in the heat and rain. Thus, the intimate knowledge that sneakers for hot weather should be another half size larger than the standard ones cost me, pardon my naturalism, a fingernail.
On a flight, this invaluable piece of closet is best taken as carry-on luggage or worn on your feet, if it doesn’t conflict with your idea of beauty.
At temperatures above +5 +7 and no wind, my kit consists of shorts, a T-shirt or T-shirt and a sports bra. If it’s colder or the wind is strong, I wear shorts and a T-shirt with sleeves. Of course, it’s individual and it’s chosen by experience.
Handy thing – arm warmers, which you can put on your wrists or take off as you warm up after the start. An alternative in the “cheap and easy to throw away” series is to put regular cut socks on your arms.
If you have to run in the sun – a cap or visor. It is important to remember that there is active heat loss through the head, so it is better to choose a cap made of thin or mesh fabric.
You should not wear a marathon T-shirt received in the starting package. First, untested clothing can chafe, and second, it’s considered bad luck and even bad form among runners. Here are tested trophy T-shirts from past races – always welcome.
And again: all the clothes you plan to run in should be tested in long workouts. Sometimes it starts chafing in the most unexpected places, and it happens most often at 20+ miles.
To keep warm while waiting in the starting area, you can wear old pants and a sweater over your running outfit, which are removed and discarded just before the start. Then they will be collected by volunteers and given to charitable organizations.