Preparation: practice preparing to prepare.

With 10 days to go before the night before the race I've been practising my final moments before I leave the house that morning.

Now, I know I may be leaving myself open to accusations of obsessive compulsive disorder, but when I wake up the morning of a race the last thing I want to be thinking about is anything other than the race.

This last week I've been waking up at 7:30 am every day, the time I will be getting out of bed on April the 25th. I've been making my pre-race breakfast of bananas and porridge with loads of honey and eating it at

the exact time I'll be eating on

race morning. I've been making sure I stretch for at least 20 minutes, paying particular attention to those areas that have caused me problems, calf muscles and piriformis and ITB.

This is a very personal kind of build up, every runner is different. For me, race morning is one of the most exciting moments, it's easy to get carried away and forget something. When I ran the Sheffield half marathon back in 2005, I managed to leave my timing chip behind in Germany. So, over the years I've perfected my pre-race into a kind of ritual, here are some of the things I do in the weeks before a race like the London marathon before I even get out of the front door:

• Wake up at the time I will wake up on race morning.
• Eat my pre-race breakfast. Doing this also means that you not only don't have to worry about what you are going to eat, it also means that there will be no surprises for my digestive system on the day.
• Wear what I will wear on race day. This is probably one of the most important things I could so. I have only just discovered that the shorts I was planning on wearing cause dreadful and uncomfortable chafing. Consequently I will revert to the shorts I have worn for my two previous marathons.
• Have a warm shower and stretch. A warm shower is something I have only recently added to my training and race preparation, it relaxes the muscles after a long night in bed, a nice way to wake up and makes stretching more comfortable.
• Start running at 9:45 AM. That's the time the marathon will start so that's the time I leave the house for my last taper runs.
• Carbo load. Yep, my favourite part of any race preparation, eating. I start carbo loading three days before the race and actually lay off of the carbs a bit the evening before. I stop eating at 8:30 and go to bed at 9 o'clock.

The morning of the race is pure ritual. It's almost like going to church, there are certain things I have to do and I do them in the same order:

• The night before the race I make sure I have pinned my race number to my shirt and laid out my kit and everything I'll need before I leave the house. I fit my timing chip (so I don't leave it behind, doh!) and put everything I need before and after the race in my kit bag.
• Get an early night.
• A new pair of socks. I always start a race in a new pair of socks.
• Plasters on the nipples. Seriously, if this is your first marathon, make sure you have plasters on your nipples.
• Imodium. I take imodium before a race, just in case. The last thing I want is to have to go to the toilet at 19 miles.
• Drink a little but often. Basically hydration is one of the hardest things to get right, particularly pre-race. I keep a small glass of water beside my bed and as soon as I wake up I have a drink. I probably drink about 250ml before I leave the house, sipping a carbohydrate sports drink as I make my way to the start. This just seems to work for me.
• Vasaline or some other lubricant parts of your body you know will chafe.

These are some of the things I do. I usually have a good 20 minute stretch before I leave and then have a gentle warm up and stretch at the start. The last thing I do is have a moment of meditation, visualisation, when I mentally prepare for the points in the race I know I will have to work harder than on other parts of the course.

I'd imagine that there are some aspects to my own build up that many runners will find familiar but as I say, pre-race preparation is a very personal thing my only suggestion would be that you practice your race morning, practice your preparation.