Before the Race

It’s 3 hours before my first half-marathon. I’m excited and nervous, alternating between “you got this” and “what the heck was I thinking?” I was never able to run even  a ¼ mile in high school. Then last June, after losing 50 lbs and completing multiple rounds of P90X, I decided to try to run a full mile - just to see if I could. Surprisingly, I did it. And here I am, less than a year later, racing 13.1 miles with an actual goal - under 2:00.

As I trained, logged miles in the snow and ice and rain and cold, I never really thought about race day itself. Well, I thought about the race of course, but not really about this specific time - the morning before the race. More specifically still, I never thought about what I should eat.  There is abundant advice about pre- and intra-race fueling.  There is also a fair amount of traditional wisdom. “Nothing new on race day” “Avoid foods high in fat and protein which are harder to digest” “No high fiber foods”  are just a few of the common mantras.

Unfortunately, these are culled from a population who eat bowls of pasta to carb-load the day before a race, followed by bagels with peanut butter and bananas on race-day morning.  For me, that would leave me in a food coma far after the opening gun sounds, with insulin levels spiking, my liver utterly confused, and a carb hangover for the ages. No, traditional methods probably won’t work for a long-term low carber.

So what to do? I have some real issues to keep in mind:

1. Fuel. While my body uses fat as a primary fuel source, there will still be a fair amount of glycogen usage. I don’t really know how to balance that in the short term with the ill effects that carbs will have.

2. Digestion. Most low carb foods are either full of fat and protein (like steak and eggs, yum) or fiber (vegetables). Both of these can provide longer term fuel, but take much longer to digest. As I don’t really want my blood diverted to my gastrointestinal tract while I’m running, I need this stuff digested before race time. Incidentally, it is this slow digesting of fat and protein that makes low carb diets so effective. But that’s for another day.

3. Hydration. Drinking adequate water is a big part of low carb dieting. But seriously, I can’t beat the 2 hour mark if I have to stop every 20 minutes to use the facilities.

So what am I doing? I’m blazing a trail (sort of). Really I’m reaping the rewards of poor planning in this area.  I made some low carb pancakes, had a cup of coffee, and chocolate Shakeology with almond milk and peanut butter.  Hopefully over the next 3 hours, this will provide me with enough fuel to get through the race with no adverse effects.

Edit:

I’m happy to report that my race day fuel strategy worked nicely. I did not experience any gastrointestinal distress, had plenty of energy, and no muscle cramps.  I ate some high-carbohydrate snacks during the run, but felt no ill-effects and did get some boost from them. My official finishing time was 1:57:46, well under the 2 hour goal I had set.