Tips for a pre-marathon routine

Ready to race? For the participants in this weekend's RexCorp Long Island Marathon / Festival of Races, what you do and don't do in the five days leading up to the race will make a big difference in how you finish and feel - particularly if you're among those planning to compete in the two marquee events, the full (26.2 miles) and half (13.1) marathons, in East Meadow on Sunday.

Although the training's largely done, the next few days can be critical. "People work themselves into a nervous state, thinking this is like Custer's Last Stand," says Toby Tanser, coach of the New York Flyers running team. "If you relax, you're going to run so much better."

Tanser, a 2:20 marathoner and author of two books on running, including "Train Hard, Win Easy the Kenyan Way" (Track and Field News Press), offers these suggestions to those about to go the distance:

Don't vary your routine. "This sounds obvious, but it's one of the big mistakes people make," Tanser says. "They come to me and say, 'I tried a new stretch the day before the race and got hurt.'" The problem, he believes, is all the nervous energy that usually gets dissipated by running. Since it's wise to cut back on mileage in the days leading up to the race, however, runners don't have their usual outlet. "So you try to think of new things to do. But instead, you should think of all the books you have to read." In other words, relax!

Rewind your training. If you've trained properly, now's the time to go back over it. Reread your training log. Look back on the runs you did during the winter; the hard work you put in. "That gives you great validation to do what you're going to do," Tanser said.

Plan out your race morning in advance. A light pre-race breakfast, a couple of hours before the 8 a.m. start at Eisenhower Park, is important. So is getting there on time. To make sure you're not running helter-skelter before running the race, Tanser recommends writing out everything in advance, and planning a schedule. Pack your race bag, lay out your running clothes and pin on your number the night before. "That way you don't have to stress and worry," he said. "Just go through the routine."

Stay cool on the starting line. Take in some slow, deep breaths, loosen up the shoulders, and don't waste too much nervous energy talking with everyone. Stay in your zone and stick with your own running plan. And above all, he says, enjoy. "Running is a gift, and sometimes we take it for granted. We shouldn't. Make it a positive experience, and just be happy that you're out there."

Runners, watchers like the 'new' course

It's been a long and winding road for the 35-year-old race now known as the Long Island Marathon.

In its earliest incarnations, as the Earth Day and Nassau County marathons in the 1970s, the race involved loops at the old Roosevelt Raceway, and around Eisenhower Park. One year it ran to Long Beach. In 1984, when the half-marathon was first added to the event, runners ran point-to-point from Eisenhower Park down the Wantagh Parkway to the Jones Beach Boardwalk. But logistical problems in getting the runners back to Eisenhower Park from the finish, prompted officials to make it a loop course - meaning that, for most of the 1990s, runners spent much of the race running down, and then back up, the Wantagh Parkway.

Early in this decade, Nassau County Parks, which oversees the event, felt the race ought to better showcase its Museum Row area, and one year the race ran in circles around Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale.

Through all the course changes, one thing seemed constant: Runners complained. The course was too exposed to the elements. The course was too dull. The course had too many turns. Finally, in 2006, a route was mapped out that took runners in a new direction - basically from Mitchel Athletic Complex, northeast through Westbury, before heading south on the Wantagh Parkway, and then back west to Eisenhower Park. It seemed to click, particularly for the half-marathoners, who make up the largest percentage of the field (last year, there were 3,295 finishers in the half and 518 in the full marathon).

Sunday's race will follow this course for the third time - and at least one veteran believes the Long Island

Marathon/Half Marathon has finally found a route it can call its own. "It's definitely the best course we've had," says Alex Cuozzo, the 1986 marathon winner and current coach of the Bellmore Striders racing team. The new route, Cuozzo says, is relatively flat and relatively scenic (including a stretch up Post Avenue in Westbury, where the runners might actually enjoy some crowd support - a rarity in Sunday morning suburbia). But he also cites the quality of the surfaces, some of which have been repaved recently. "There isn't a road on this course that has potholes," Cuozzo says.

If so, that's a claim not even the New York City Marathon can make.

Related topic galleries: New York City Marathon, Tourism and Leisure, Long Island Marathon, Marathon, Long Island, Gardens and Parks, Earth Day