The 5 things experienced racers do that first-timers skip

Somewhere between registering for a race and actually standing at its start line, most athletes put nearly all their effort into one variable: training. Which makes sense. Training is the biggest lever you have. But it is not the only one, and the gap between "trained well" and "raced well" is usually filled by a handful of specific things that have nothing to do with your fitness and everything to do with what you do in the days and hours immediately around the race itself.

None of the five below require extra training volume. They require deliberate attention in a window most athletes first-timers leave to chance, and the athletes who consistently race close to their training fitness are, almost without exception, the ones who treat this window as seriously as they treat their long runs.

1. Rehearse your race-morning fuelling before race morning

The single most avoidable race-day mistake is trying something new on race morning: a different breakfast, a different gel brand, a different timing than what you have actually practised. Whatever you plan to eat in the 60 minutes before the gun, and whatever you plan to take in during the race itself, should already be familiar to your gut from at least two or three training sessions that closely mimic race intensity and duration.

This matters more the longer the race gets. A shorter race gives you less room for a fuelling mistake to resolve itself before the finish. A longer one gives a fuelling error more time to compound into something that actually costs you the back half of the race. Either way, race morning is not the place to discover how your stomach handles something new.

2. Warm up like the race actually demands it, not like a formality

A rushed, five-minute jog before the start line is not a warm-up, it is a formality that gives you the feeling of having prepared without the physiological benefit. A genuine pre-race warm-up, 20 to 25 minutes for most race distances, raises your core temperature, activates the specific muscle groups the race will demand, and primes your nervous system to fire at the intensity you are about to ask of it.

The specific content of the warm-up matters as much as the duration. Easy aerobic movement to raise temperature, dynamic drills to activate the muscles you will actually use, and a handful of race-pace efforts in the final minutes, so your body has already touched the intensity it is about to sustain for the whole race, rather than meeting it cold at the gun.

3. Build a pacing plan specific to the course, not a generic one

Every course has a specific shape, and a pacing plan built for flat, even effort will fail on a course that is not flat and even. If your next race includes a long technical descent, the way Transvulcania's finish does, or an extended high-altitude climb, the way several of the 2027 European ultra season's early-year races do, your pacing plan needs to account for that specific terrain, not just an average pace across the whole distance.

Study the elevation profile before race week, not the morning of. Identify where the course will realistically slow you down regardless of fitness, and plan your effort distribution around those sections rather than being surprised by them mid-race.

4. Prime your nervous system deliberately in the final 15 minutes

Pre-race nerves are not purely psychological. They come with real physiological effects, elevated heart rate, shallow breathing, tight muscles, that can either work against you or, managed deliberately, sharpen you right before the gun.

A short, structured breathing routine, four seconds in, four seconds hold, four seconds out, four seconds hold, repeated for six to eight cycles, shifts your nervous system out of a purely reactive, anxious state and into a controlled, activated one. Pair this with a few minutes of specific mental rehearsal: not vague positive thinking, but a concrete run-through of your first few kilometres, your pacing plan, and the specific technique cue you want to focus on early.

Athletes who spend their final pre-race minutes doing this arrive at the start line activated rather than merely anxious, a meaningfully different state to race from.

5. Lock your caffeine and supplement timing to the same clock as everything else

The 30 to 60 minute pre-race window is not just for nutrition. It is also when caffeine and any pre-race supplements need to be timed, so that everything: fuelling, activation, and nervous system readiness, arrives together rather than as three separate, uncoordinated decisions made under race-morning pressure.

Deciding this timing in advance, and rehearsing it in training the same way you rehearse fuelling, removes one more variable from a morning that already has enough of them. This is worth planning specifically around your actual wave or start time, not a generic "an hour before," since travel to the start, bag drop, and the logistics of a bigger race, the kind on the 2027 European ultra calendar, can eat into that window faster than expected if it is not deliberately protected.

FAQs

What is the most common way athletes skip these five without realising it?

Not through outright laziness, usually, but through substitution: doing a version of each item that feels close enough without actually delivering the benefit. A five-minute jog stands in for a genuine warm-up. A vague sense of "I'll go out steady" stands in for a real, course-specific pacing plan. A few deep breaths in the corral stand in for deliberate nervous system priming. Each substitute feels like it counts, and each one is missing the specificity that actually makes the real version work.

The fix is not more effort, it is more specificity. A genuine warm-up has a defined structure and duration, not just movement. A real pacing plan references the actual elevation profile, not a general intention to hold back early. Real nervous system priming follows a specific breathing pattern for a specific number of cycles, not an unstructured moment of calm. The difference between the substitute and the real version is usually a few extra minutes of deliberate preparation, not a fundamentally harder task.

What if your race is months away rather than weeks?

These five still apply, but the emphasis shifts earlier. Rehearsing race fuelling means building it into your long training sessions well before race week, not scrambling to test a new gel brand in the final fortnight.

Course-specific pacing planning means studying the elevation profile as soon as it is published, not the week of, particularly for a race with a distinctive profile like a long technical descent or sustained high-altitude climb, where the planning itself takes real time to translate into a workable strategy.

If you are locking in a race a year or more out, several major European ultras publish 2027 dates and open registration well before the current season finishes, which makes early planning genuinely practical rather than just aspirational. Booking early gives you the full runway to build all five of these into your preparation properly, rather than compressing them into a rushed final few weeks.

Should this list change for a first ultra versus a shorter race?

The five items stay the same, but the margin for error narrows considerably at ultra distance. A pacing mistake in a 10K costs you minutes. The same category of mistake in a 100km race, made in the first few hours, can cost you the second half of the day entirely, since the consequences compound over far more time and distance than a shorter race allows for.

This is part of why experienced ultra runners tend to be almost obsessive about these five specifically, not because they enjoy the ritual, but because they have learned firsthand how expensive skipping any one of them becomes once the race gets long enough.

Where does the Pre-Activity Shot fit into this list?

The Pre-Activity Shot is built for exactly the window items four and five describe: taken 30 to 60 minutes before the start, it combines oleuropein, L-citrulline for blood flow, caffeine from guarana, magnesium, and a B-vitamin complex, timed to reach active circulation right as your warm-up ends.

It does not replace a rehearsed fuelling plan, a course-specific pacing strategy, or deliberate nervous system priming. It is the piece that sits alongside them, on the same clock, so the whole pre-race sequence works as one coordinated routine instead of five separate things you are trying to remember at once.

If you are already planning that far ahead, several major European ultras have published official 2027 dates, some with registration already open. See the OLEUS guide to seven European ultra races with 2027 dates confirmed for the current list.

 

Sources

1. McGowan, C.J., Pyne, D.B., Thompson, K.G., Rattray, B. (2015). Warm-up strategies for sport and exercise: mechanisms and applications. Sports Medicine, 45(11), 1523-1546. 

2. Goldstein, E.R., et al. (2010). International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: caffeine and performance. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 7(1), 5. 

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