Fuelling Your Marathon: The Lead Up and Race Day by Jason Morrissey
You can do every long run, nail every session be they easy or long and still have your race fall apart in the last 10km if you haven’t fuelled your body efficiently. Eating for a marathon isn’t complicated, but it needs some practice and rehearsal. Much like you wouldn’t run a marathon without the required practice. Here is a little guide on how to get it right.
In the week before, the big thing is carb-loading. Most people get it slightly wrong. Rather than one enormous bowl of pasta the evening before. In the final 2-3 days, you want to gradually raise your carbohydrate intake to around 8-10 grams per kilo of bodyweight. The aim is too top up your glycogen stores, which is your bodies premium source of fuel, so they are full for race day.
You are not eating more food overall; you are in fact shifting the balance towards carbs. Since you are tapering and training less the energy requirements drop, so there is no need to pile on extra calories. Lean more on rice, potatoes, bread, fruit and ease back on fibre and fats in the last day or two. The reason for this is because fat and fibre hang around in the digestive system (which is good on a day-to-day basis but not when you want to feel light and have everything cleared). You are purposefully eating a little unhealthier to avoid feeling heavy and sluggish off the start line.
Hydration starts 7 days out too, not on race day. Sip consistently through the week, add a pinch of electrolytes and keep an eye on your urine. Pale but not white is what you’re after. A little salt on your food helps you retain some of that fluid. Golden rule is to stick to familiar foods. Race week is not the time to try out and experiment with new recipes or restaurants. The night before dinner moderate, carb rich and early enough so it doesn’t affect your sleep.
On race day, eat breakfast 2.5 – 3 hours before the start. Keep it carb heavy, low in fibre and fat. Ideally, it’s something you have eaten before long runs like white toast with honey, banana, porridge etc. If you have a long wait and feel a little hungry before the start, a gel or a banana 15-30 mins before the start to top you off. During the race the target is about 30-60 grams of carbs per hour, well trained guts can push more towards 90 grams using gels that mix glucose and fructose. A lot of people tend to be reactive rather than proactive. Take the first gel 35 – 45 minutes in, long before you feel empty. Once you start to feel the wall it can often be too late to fix it.
Take your gels with water rather than a sports drink, doubling up on concentrated sugar is a sure-fire way to bring a queasy stomach into the equation. If it’s a particularly hot day or if you are a heavy sweater, make sure to keep your electrolytes topped up throughout as well. The rule that matters most is familiarity is a safety net. Every gel, everything you eat for breakfast, every drink should have been part of the routine on your long runs first. Your gut is trainable, the more you practice taking on carbs while running, the better it copes when it counts on race day. Rehearse your race day fuelling exactly as you plan to do it on race day, and you remove one of the biggest variables standing between you and finish line.
Get the food and hydration right and you give all that training a chance to show up when it matters most.
