What if anything do you eat the morning of a marathon?

I usually had a donut and a cup of tea about two hours before the start.

bagel and coffee worked for me

Tomorrow morning I'll likely have Coffee and a peanut butter and banana sandwich.

I have 2 eggs, toast and potatoes, 3-4 hrs before the race start. Then just a gel (or G1 type thing from gatorade) 15-30 mins before I start. Always felt like I needed something the day of.

Cliff bar small applesauce and banana starting about 2 hours before.

A few strawberry Fig Newtons and a banana or an energy bar and a banana, with lots of fluids.

One gel before and about 5 during.

Gobbler wrote:

Will a big meal the night before a marathon be enough or must I wake up hours before the race for a bite?

For me, coffee to speed morning constitutional and half banana or nothing. very small bite. Any thing more and you risk being stuck in portapotties during the marathon. After that, maybe one gel before the start.

For Boston, which starts late, I typically eat a normal sized breakfast. Usually cheerios and a banana. For early morning marathon I eat one or two pop-tarts (I think pop-tarts basically have the most possible calories compared to how much they fill you up) around 2hrs before the race.

I never eat anything within an hour of the race except a gel.

If I have 2 hours I'll eat a small meal of simple carbs. Usually oatmeal with some kind of sugar. Maybe a banana too, if ravenous.

If I have 4-5 hours I'll eat a regular meal; all simple low-residue carbs.

Just one of these:

oatmeal

GRANOLA cereal

PB & J sandwich

plus

1 cup tea or coffee (8-10 ounces)

I like to poop twice before the gun. Once at home and once upon arriving to the race.

eat nothing in the 2 hours before the gun.

oat mil a couple of hours before the race and a banana close to start time

I bite the head off a mackerel and knock back the blood. Lots of proteins and iron.

Everyone is different and you don't want to try anything new on race day, so "practice" your diet on your long runs.

I have to have breakfast. For me it's plain oatmeal, banana, almond milk and coffee. I don't have a gel beforehand because that irritates my stomach. Once my body gets adjusted to running, I take a gel about 5 or 6 miles in, then approximately every 5-6 (depending on water locations) after that. So that's 4 GUs total, though I bring an extra in case I lose one.

Exact same as my long runs. The day before, no food after noontime (otherwise I would get GI issues 2 hours into the run). The morning of, 4 hours before, 800+ calories: 8 oz oj, 2 bananas, 2 slices of bread each slathered with pbj, 16 oz black coffee, 8 oz water. (Oatmeal is not my friend.) The only difference is that for my long runs I drink only water, for the race I drink gatorade, starting with 10 oz at the gun. Experiment.

HRE wrote:

I usually had a donut and a cup of tea about two hours before the start.

This is what I eat, only substituting a large coffee for the tea (unless I'm in England). Fuel up the day before without stuffing yourself. You don't want to go to the start feeling "full". A couple GUs during the race, plus plenty of water (don't bother carrying your own, it's overkill) and you will be good.

My pop-tarts story.

For about 20 years I would eat pop-tarts almost every day. About 12 yrs ago I was eating pop-tarts on the front porch and dropped a huge crumb. There was an ant hunting around -- I left the crumb and thought it would be amusing to watch the ant struggle with it. Eventually the ant bumped into the crumb, backed up, and went around it. I left the rest of the box in the cafeteria at work, haven't had a pop-tart since.

Carbo load

My competition. For breakfast.

best answer. ever.

superbigman wrote:

My competition. For breakfast.