We all need to have some level of organization as athletes. It’s tough to run a marathon if you’ve forgotten your running shoes at home. It’s impossible to complete a triathlon by skipping the bike portion because you misplaced your helmet.

For any given race and any given athlete there are usually at least 50 things to make sure you’ve done, packed, prepped, laid out or made ready for your race day adventure.

Is it on a list? If not, it should be!

As race creators (aka Race Directors) we have hundreds of things to checklist, confirm and manage to pull a race event together. We always do our best to make sure athletes have a great race experience. Take charge of your OWN prep checklist and you’ll have an even better race day. Here are THREE quick tips for an athlete checklist…

ONE – Make three revisions. One about a month out, one about two weeks out and one five days out. This allows you to revise the list as needed or as your training progresses and tapers. There is also enough of a buffer so if you need to grab something quick, most local athletic shops will have it 🙂

TWO – Choose your weapon…DIGITAL or PAPER & Pencil. Sounds silly but some folks love being ‘old school’ with a pen and paper list. It ‘feels more real’, and we get it. All digital? Make sure it’s something you can access on race morning regardless of cell or internet service.

THREE – Pack or prep what you can ahead of time. Don’t wait until the night before race to get all your gear together. Using triathlon as the example if your last swim session is 3 days before race day (as you might have travel time), pack all that gear up 3 days out. This way you KNOW it’s set and ready and one less thing to deal with.

Wanna learn more about the ins and outs of racing? Join our volunteer team and get a BIG behind the scenes look at what goes into race days 🙂