Very first competitive 5K walk--any tips?

[Chris415]

I'm doing my first competitive 5K walk on Sept. 18 (have another one scheduled for a month later). This is all new to me. Does anyone have any tips as to what to eat the morning of (have to leave at 6, race is at 9), any prep the night before, and basically any other helpful hints to get the most out of this experience?

Many thanks in advance!
Chris

[SusanMac]

When you say competitive walk, do you mean race walking? I've never been to one of those, but have done lots & lots of 5Ks. Are you trying to win? Or just want to be prepared and do your best? You should pop over to the Virtual Running Buddies thread & post your question there. Then you'll have about a dozen voices sharing pre-race tips. In fact, I think it was only 1 or 2 weeks ago that one person there (Les Ferguson) posted a list of about 20 things to remember for race day.