How to Avoid Getting Sick Before Race Day

You've finished your training. It's gone really well and you're looking forward to race day. You finally make that birthday celebration, head to the pub with friends or get on the plane to your race. The next morning you wake up with a scratchy throat. By lunchtime, you know it's a full-blown cold — or worse.

That's exactly what happened to me on a recent trip to Portugal. It's incredibly frustrating when months of training are threatened in the final few days. The good news is that there are things you can do to reduce the risk.

Why race week is uniquely high risk

During heavy training you're more vulnerable to picking up a cold or other respiratory illness because your body is working hard. High training loads, poor sleep and not eating enough can all suppress immune function, increasing the risk of infection.

Swimmers at triathlon start line. Race day execution starts long before the gun goes off. What you do in the days before the start line has just as much impact on performance as the training behind you.

So why do so many athletes get sick in race week, when training stress has eased?

Because the stress hasn't disappeared — it has simply changed.

There are bags to pack, travel plans to navigate and race logistics to organise. You have more time to think about your goals, which can increase anxiety. Many athletes travel, disrupting sleep, meal routines and sometimes time zones. You're also spending more time around other people on planes, trains, at race expos and shake-out runs, increasing your exposure to viruses.

Individually, these things might seem small. Together, they can make race week surprisingly demanding.

What actually helps: immune nutrition in race week

Building a resilient immune system doesn't start in race week. It starts months before with good training nutrition.

The biggest nutritional priority is making sure you're eating enough. Your immune system needs energy to function well, and if you become ill your body needs even more energy to fight the infection. Taper isn't the time to cut back because training volume has fallen.

Travelling can make eating regularly much harder. Cafés aren't always where you need them, flights are delayed and meal timings change. Planning ahead by carrying snacks means you're much more likely to meet your energy needs throughout the day.

Vitamin D also plays an important role in immune function, as well as bone health. In the UK, supplementation is recommended during the winter months because sunlight isn't strong enough for your body to produce adequate amounts. If you spend most of the summer covered by clothing or sunscreen, it's worth discussing testing your vitamin D status with your GP.

Vitamin C is often promoted as a way to shorten colds, but the evidence isn't particularly convincing. Rather than relying on supplements, focus on regularly including vitamin C-rich foods such as citrus fruit, kiwi fruit, peppers and broccoli as part of your normal diet.

The travel specifics

One study of female triathletes competing at the IRONMAN World Championships found that 84% deliberately tried to increase their carbohydrate intake before racing, yet only 26% actually achieved the recommended targets.

What really stood out wasn't the nutrition advice — it was the gap between the plan and what actually happened.

These weren't inexperienced athletes. They knew exactly what they were trying to do. But race week got in the way. Travel, unfamiliar food, social commitments, pre-race nerves and reduced appetite all made it harder to put the plan into practice.

Race week often looks like this—travel, queues and disruption to normal routines. It’s where good plans get tested in the real world.

The same barriers can affect every aspect of race week, including the habits that help keep you healthy. Good intentions aren't enough if your environment makes them difficult to carry out.

That's why I encourage athletes to focus on controlling the controllables. It's not about creating the perfect plan. It's about making sure the important things still happen when race week becomes busy.

Three simple habits can make a real difference:

• Take snacks and a refillable water bottle when you travel. Eating enough and staying hydrated supports immune function and makes it much easier to stay on top of your nutrition when plans change.

• Reduce unnecessary exposure to bugs. You won't avoid every crowded place, but good hand hygiene, carrying hand sanitiser and considering a mask on public transport are simple ways to reduce your risk.

• Protect your sleep. If you're travelling for a destination race, save the sightseeing until afterwards where possible. Good sleep supports both your immune system and your performance on race day.

None of these are dramatic interventions. They're small, deliberate choices that add up over the course of race week.

Don't lose months of training in the final week

If you take one thing from this article, let it be this: before your next race, choose three things you're going to do in race week to reduce your chances of getting sick, and commit to them in the same way you've committed to your training. You can't control every bug you'll come across. But you can stack the odds in your favour and give yourself the best possible chance of arriving on the start line healthy and ready to perform. If you'd like support putting together a race-week nutrition strategy that works in the real world — not just on paper — take a look at how you can work with me.

Supporting endurance athletes to arrive at the start line healthy, fuelled and ready to perform.