Running tips

Equipment

From head to toe:

Hat: a hat that can go through the washing machine, for when it's cold or rainy.
Neck gaiter: cover mouth when it's so cold that breathing hurts.
Heart rate monitor: better heart rate sensing for watch.
Short sleeve or long sleeve technical t-shirt: many races give these out or sell them.
Arm warmers: good to wear with short sleeves when you think you'll warm up.
Sports watch: tell you what to do and track progress. I use a Garmin Forerunner 765.
Gloves for dry weather: can be thin and mainly protect against wind.
Gloves for wet weather: there exist mittens with optional rain covers.
Jacket: ideally something that's visible and good in rain.
Shorts or pants: over time it becomes more important to have lightweight shorts/pants.
Gu gels (for longer runs): I take one for every ~4-ish miles of running when running 7+ miles.
House/car keys: ideally on a separate keyring to make it easy to grab just them.
Rain pants: second layer if it's raining pretty heavily.
Socks: I don't know much about socks right now.
Gaiters: to cover the shoes if it's snowy.
Road running shoes: I like Fleet Feet; they can scan your feet to identify types of shoes.
Trail running shoes: I like ones with a rock plate, but I don't have much experience.
Shoe inserts if needed: I do this per Fleet Feet's recommendation.

I like Brooks Running and started out looking through all their apparel for ideas.

For at home:

Shoe dryer: for when the shoes get wet. There exist quiet ones that will dry shoes within a few hours.
Nuun tablets: I'll use one of these afterwards when I run 5+ miles.
Clothes washer/dryer: it's gonna get a lot of use.

If you have a Garmin watch:

Add the race to Garmin
Make the course if needed; you can do this via Garmin Connect. If there are multiple loops for the course, consider plotaroute.com's planner. plotaroute makes it easy to repeat a loop.
Create a PacePro plan
Ensure the course + PacePro plan are synchronized to the watch

Gather materials: