30 things. None of them is running 📋

Endurance Mindset · 🇺🇸

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👋🏻 Hey Reader!

Friday September 25 · Print this one

Bear with me — I promise we'll be out of Chicago soon and on to the holidays and some nutrition 😄

Every September I get the same question from athletes heading to their first Major: "Henri, am I missing anything?" The answer is almost always yes. And it almost never has anything to do with training.

It's the passport left in the other suitcase. The gel in a flavour they never tested. The anti-chafe cream sitting in the bathroom at home. Today is one to print and keep: thirty things to check before October 11, in order.

Sunday October 11 · 7:20 am · Grant Park

16 DAYS

📋 Downloadable PDF · 2 pages

All 30 items, with a box to tick

Six blocks, two sheets, and a box beside every point. Print it today, stick it where you'll see it, and tick through the week. Works for Chicago and for any Major.

DOWNLOAD THE CHECKLIST →

01 THE SIX BLOCKS

2 min

This isn't a list to memorise the night before. It's one to work through in blocks across the week, so you reach Sunday with one task left: run.

1–5	Documents and logistics If this fails, no amount of training fixes it.
6–11	Equipment One rule only: race day is not the day to debut anything.
12–17	Nutrition and hydration Planned days ahead, not improvised at mile 20.
18–21	Body care What takes the least time and the most people forget.
22–26	Race strategy Decisions made now, so you don't make them with a tired brain.
27–30	Race day and recovery The work doesn't end when you cross the line.

02 THE FIVE THAT FAIL MOST

2 min

Of the thirty, these five are the ones I watch fail year after year. If you only check five things today, make it these.

03	Rehearse the route to the corral. Once, properly. Same hour, same transport you'll use on Sunday. Chicago moves more than 50,000 runners toward Grant Park on the same morning. No mental shortcut replaces having walked it.
06	Shoes with 95–155 mi (150–250 km) on them Neither new nor worn out. Seams and foam behave differently in the first hour than at mile 13, and you only find that out if you've already lived it in training.
17	The list of what you do NOT eat Raw fibre, excess dairy and fried food aren't bad in general, but 48 hours before 26.2 miles they're a risk not worth taking. I've seen marathons ruined by a badly judged Friday salad, not by lack of fitness.
21	No deep massage in the final 48 hours Reactive muscle tone — that controlled stiffness that makes ground contact efficient — is compromised if you manipulate the tissue right before. It isn't the moment to loosen the muscle; it's the moment to leave it ready.
22	The printed pacing band Not a retro accessory. Between miles 12 and 14 the GPS bounces off skyscrapers and the watch lies. Paper doesn't lose signal.

03 WHY A LIST AND NOT A FEELING

1 min

What I like most about working this list with my athletes isn't the list. It's what it produces: perceived control.

A Major has too many variables beyond your reach. The weather. The crowds. GPS between buildings. The more you control what's controllable — documents, tested gear, calculated nutrition, a pace plan with margin — the more mental space is left for the only thing that matters on Sunday.

And this isn't exclusive to running. If yours is open-water swimming, a gran fondo or a tournament in whatever sport, the logic is identical: confidence doesn't come from feeling prepared, it comes from having settled on paper what can be settled in advance.

Don't turn it into a source of anxiety the night before. Work it in blocks, tick off what's done, and reach Sunday with one thing left to do.

📖 The full article · the why behind each block

The physiology behind every decision: why the load is 7–10 g/kg per day, what the cold in the corral does to your glycogen, and why the first 45 minutes past the line matter more than they look.

🇺🇸 Read the article → 🇪🇸 En Español →

What's the item you once forgot?

Reply with yours. If it shows up more than once across the answers, it goes into version 2 of the list.