Fun Run Beginner’s Guide 2023 (City-Bay and more)

Our fun run beginner guide will tell you how to get ready, how to race, and how to recover.

Fun runs are a great way to get involved with a charity while also getting in a good workout with friends and family. From the School Fun Run to the City-Bay Fun Run, there are numerous opportunities to take part. It can, however, be difficult to get yourself motivated to be fit enough to run a long distance, especially if you lead a very busy life! 

Participating in fun runs promotes great wellbeing, but it is important to gradually build your fitness up to it, as well as making sure you are doing the best you can on the day to prevent injuries. 

Here are some top tips to get you fit and healthy before your next fun run’s race day. 

How to get ready for a fun run

1. Train! 

The biggest mistake when preparing for a fun run is to perform no prior running training. It is important to make a training plan, to ensure you are fit and capable of running a long distance (especially if you haven’t in a long time!).

Let’s say your fun run is 10km, if you have no fitness and train by running 10km multiple times with no lead up, you could end up injuring yourself. Building up your running capacity over a number of weeks before the fun run, building that foundation of fitness, will ensure you have the required fitness for the big race with the least chance of injury.

A plan will help keep you on track and focused, with little milestones throughout your training period that will ensure you progress to the level of fitness required for the upcoming fun run.

2. Find a pair of running shoes that are appropriate and comfortable 

The first step in determining whether a pair of shoes is appropriate for the fun run is to find out if you will be road-running or trail-running. Road-running shoes are designed for pavement and occasional irregularities and trail-running shoes are designed for off-road routes with rocks, mud, roots, or other obstacles. Road-running shoes as opposed to trail-running shoes will have a lower profile, be less rigid, have fewer protective measures, and have flatter, smoother soles.

This may sound obvious, but ensuring you wear good quality comfortable running shoes can make a huge difference on the day. If you find yourself running longer distances, a comfortable cushioned shoe may help you push through those mental barriers. However, comfort is determined primarily by the amount of cushion in a shoe. 

The more cushion and comfort, the less of a natural gait you have, and the less connected you may feel to the ground. Comfort can also come at the expense of stability, as you don’t have a stable base, this can affect your gait, and possibly make you more prone to ankle injuries.

If shoes adversely affect your running technique through altering your gait unnaturally, it could cause overuse injuries. You can decide between comfort or a natural gait at your leisure, as different running shoes are built with different levels of cushion, and therefore comfort.

3. Listen to your body

Listening to your body is important so you do not overexert yourself and get injured. If you feel any niggles in your body as you are training, City Physio can help. Speaking to a qualified sports physiotherapist can help you determine what the issue is, and can provide advice on cardiovascular fitness, recommendation of specific equipment, or exercises to help you improve your running performance and prevent injuries. 

4. Eat a healthy balanced diet (and hydrate!) 

Do not underestimate the importance of eating a healthy balanced diet while training. Your muscles use fuel to produce energy and movement. Carbohydrates are the primary fuel used by the muscles and cells throughout the body. If you don’t eat enough carbohydrates, you won’t have enough fuel. If your body doesn’t have enough fuel, you won’t train effectively, and you may feel fatigued and lethargic.

Muscles are damaged every time you go for a run, so protein is vital throughout the course of your training. The body needs protein and essential amino acids from protein to repair. Protein can be found in a variety of sources, vegan and otherwise, including meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy, nuts, legumes, and soy.

It is important to ensure you get lots of water in your training, as you will be losing a lot of sweat. Furthermore, electrolytes are lost when you sweat. The cramps you get at the end of exercise can be chalked up to electrolytes, mainly magnesium, and the lack of them directly influences whether or not you are hydrated. Ensure you stock up on electrolytes through food or supplementation.

Employing balance and moderation is the key.

5. Don’t forget to warm up 

Warming up eases your cardiovascular system into exercise, promoting gradual blood flow to the muscles. Warming up before the big race will help you prevent injury, as it will ease you into the exercise. Warming up also helps to reduce muscle soreness after the run.

Static stretches are not ideal when warming up, a combination of dynamic stretching and foam rolling are the best ways to prevent injury.

How to run a fun run

1. Hydrate!

You lose 1.5L of water through sweat every hour you run. A fun run is usually around 5 kms, but the City-To-Bay in Adelaide is 12km, or 6km (if running the short course). As a general rule a 5km run would take roughly 30 minutes if you have trained, but roughly 45 minutes or more if not.

Let’s say you’re doing the City-To-Bay, and running 12km. 

You trained for a month leading up to it and are aiming to run it in 1 hour. 

There are roughly four large glasses of water in every L of water. 

This means you would have to drink 6 large glasses of water to rehydrate during the race. This isn’t ideal for a range of reasons. The main one is that while exercising it is ideal to drink small amounts of water with a few moments in between. You all know the experience of drinking too much water during exercise, going back to it and ending up with a massive stitch. 

When running the City-To-Bay however, and fun runs in general, there will be booths interspersed sparsely throughout the track with little cups of water for you to take. These will not get you to that 1.5L or 6 cups of water you need to rehydrate, but if you can sip them for a bit while running you can capitalise on some of the rehydration now that will be happening after the race. More on that later.

2. Never run through an injury

Do we have to say this? Yes. We all know those tough people who would rather die than admit they are in pain or are injured. It’s even worse when you’ve put all this work into it, you want to finish because the fun run is for a good cause, and you don’t want to be embarrassed. 

If you get an injury, don’t keep going. Pull over to the side and call for assistance from the race Marshalls or from a loved one.

3. Pace yourself during the fun run

As much as we know that we must keep to a pace that suits us when running so we don’t get puffed out or get a stitch, but there’s not many of us who can resist bursting out of the gates when the fun run starts or try to hang out with the faster-paced runners and end up suffering for it later. 

A fun run shouldn’t be about overexerting yourself to get a competitive running time. It’s about raising funds for deserving charities, and as the name implies – having fun!    

An ambitious bolt from the start line nearly always results in a slow and painful finish. To avoid the temptation of jetting ahead, start the race in the pack of runners at your ability. Weaving in and out of other runners wastes precious energy, so settle into a rhythm and relax; it’s supposed to be fun!

How to recover from a fun run

Once you’ve crossed the finish line there are a few last steps you should take.

1. Don’t forget to warm down after a fun run

If you want to recover properly after a run, you need to remain in motion. Jumping on the couch, bed, or sitting down does not promote blood flow and recovery, so you need to do some light activity. Low-intensity cardio is also useful, a walk, slow jog or slow cycle can help pump blood and nutrients to the muscle cells, removing waste on its way out.

2. Don’t forget to cool down after a fun run

Make sure to catch some shade and get some rest once you’ve completed your warm down. Stretching and recovery is important before and after a run, or any exercise for that matter, but to improve how you pull up the morning after, City Physio has these recommendations:

• Static stretching hinders not helps before a run, but after a run it is important for muscle recovery. 
• Some important things to stretch are hip flexors, glutes, quads, hamstrings, and calves. 
• Foam rolling can be used on any problem areas, knots, or niggles.
• Save your dynamic stretching for before exercise, you can do some light movements while warming down though.

You’ve found a nice place stretch, now onto the next step:

3. Hydrate! 

As we mentioned earlier, you lose 1.5L of water through sweat every hour you run. This means in most races you would have to drink far more water than you normally would to stay hydrated.

Within 30 minutes of finishing your run, try to drink around 500ml, or two glasses, of water. After that, keep your fluids up by taking a couple sips of water every 5-10 minutes. Depending on the length and intensity of your run this could take anywhere from 2-6 hours, as you should aim to drink one and a half times the amount of fluid lost. 

Note: Avoid ice-cold water! As we exert ourselves, our body temperature increases. After a run your body will struggle to quickly absorb ice-cold water, so it is best to opt for warm water instead.  

4. Eat some good recovery food

Muscles use glycogen as a fuel source to make energy. Carbs are converted to glycogen, but glycogen, in being used to make energy, is depleted after a run. This means your muscles and cells throughout your body don’t have enough fuel.

Muscles are also going to be damaged and will need protein and essential amino acids from protein to repair. Protein can be found in a variety of sources, vegan and otherwise, including meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy, nuts, legumes, and soy.

How can City Physiotherapy Adelaide help with a fun run?

Overall, the most important thing you can do is have fun – it is called a fun run after all! 

One way to ensure you are having fun is to not get injured. While some injuries are not preventable, there is a lot that can be done to minimise the chance of them occurring. Following these tips are a great way to ease yourself back into running long distance. 

The team at City Physio can help you devise a training plan specifically suited to you and your body, with consideration for any musculoskeletal imbalances, pre-existing injuries, or myofascial tightness that you may have. Our qualified physiotherapists will consult with you to ensure your physical health remains in check and provide all the necessary tools to perform at your best. 

Call our friendly reception on 8212 4886 or click the book online button below for a same-day appointment to help you get back into running for a fun run!

Sources 

Fun run training tips, Queensland Government, viewed 1 December 2022. Available at: https://www.healthier.qld.gov.au/guide/fun-run-training-tips/

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