Starter or not, there must have been instances where you wish you should have asked yourself before you even sign up for a run. I’m sure there are moments where you regret or feel disappointed in joining the race because of your own mistake. You felt like you should have prepared better or eat healthier or even not join the race.
Here are the 6 questions to ask yourself before you signed up for the run.
1. Am I healthy and injury free?
You will need to be honest with yourself if you are fit enough or injury free to join any running events, I mean you wouldn’t want to join a running event and then start collapsing, right? Or worsen the injury that you already have. If you are not fit enough or yet to recover from your injury, you should take care of your health first, do or go for recovery sessions before you join a running event.
So the most and ultimately important question that you should ask yourself before signing up for any run is about your health! If you don’t take care of it now, you’ll regret it.
2. Do you have the stamina?
Ever tried running and after running for a short while, you felt like as if you were dying because you were extremely out of breath? Well, that’s mainly because you are lacking stamina but fret not because stamina can be built through training.
Through constant individual training or if you join the shorter distance running events, you’ll be able to build your stamina and you’ll be ready to join the longer distance running events!
3. What kind of race are you running?
This is probably the second most important question after asking yourself about your health. If you plan to run a long distance running event, you should probably think to yourself if you are able to complete the race within the course time limit. If the answer is no, then you should look for a different race that has a longer time limit.
If you are going towards a race that is hilly but you have been training on a flat ground, then I suggest you should reconsider your choice because you wouldn’t want to be suffering running on a hilly terrain when you have been training on flat land.
There are also other things to consider when choosing a race. Like what do reviewers say about the race, how experience is the organisers, how long has the race been around and so on because you do not want to sign up for a race and then end up being disappointed because of an unorganised running event. It’s like the saying, “Better be safe than sorry”.
4. How is your nutrition habits?
For those who are running the long distance event, you will need to evaluate your eating habits because if your body isn’t getting what it needs, then your performance later for the long run will falter and you won’t be able to complete it. If you don’t know much about nutrition, you should read up more on what are the kinds of nutrition that a person needs to be able to withstand long distance running.
5. Do you have the time to train?
If you plan on signing up for a long distance running event, then I hope you’ll have a lot of time to spare to prepare yourself for the run. The physical act of running itself takes quite a lot of time and it’s not just that, one needs to stay hydrated, stretching, fueling up and getting plenty of sleep, especially nights before and after your long run.
Compared to a shorter distance running event, the longer distance has a more demanding training schedule. If you don’t have a training schedule when you are running for a long distance running event, you’ll likely not be able to survive through it.
6. Do you really want to join in the race?
This should be the last question you should ask yourself because you should really want to join the event so that you wouldn’t feel regretful. If you are joining for the sake of joining an event even though you didn’t plan on joining it in the first place, then you wouldn’t be enjoying it.
You should be joining an event that you really want to be a part of then you’ll be able to have the time of your life while running.
Keep these 6 questions in mind and you’ll be able to have the most amazing running experiences.
