pre race meal for a half

When i did my first half about 2 months ago, I did a "shake out run." I woke up around 4 hours before my race and went for a 10 minute jog. The run is not the important thing about getting up this early, but the fact that you can do so many things beofre your race is. After the run, I ate some eggs, toast and a glass of orange juice. Pretty much what you find at a hotel breakfast. the cool thing about getting up this early is you have time to shower, eat, watch some tv/read the paper and basically relax and focus what you want to accomplish....you get away from rushing yourself. hopefully after you eat, you will have to go to the bathroom before you get to the starting line.

regarding the night before meal, a nice bowl of pasta and some bread worked well for me.

good luck. what is your goal?

thanks ed. it was suggested to me to get up early to get my body started long before the race to do just as you said. i am racing a 15k in 2 weeks so i will experiment. during last year's half i was running 5:12's until the shit storm and ended up around 69:30. i hope to be poo free and run 67-68 depending on the weather.

thanks again,

skinny bitch

ran my first half last month. had a bagel with cream cheese and about 8-10oz of arizona ice tea 2 hours before warm up. everything worked out well.

i was hoping to run 1:09ish, but opened with a 5:05 mile! needless to say i cramped up pretty bad around 45 minutes into the race and ran 1:12ish. with that said, my performance was fine, and i thought i did well with the breakfast in the morning.

i used to stop by starbucks and get a blended mocha frap, but i started gettin real bad gas. turns out there's milk in it! d'oh! i liked the sugar and caffiene, as it made me feel full, but it didn't leave anything sitting in my stomach. i have been using the AZ iced tea and it works well.

i'd suggest cutting back on the amount of fiber in your diet & eat "safe" foods (stuff that will easily digest such as rice, chicken, bread, bananas, etc). If you did go to the bathroom before the race & more hit you later, then that can help. If it was just a matter of not getting time to get in the john, then you probably don't have to worry about the fiber overload.

its also a good idea to scope out the race scenerio the day before to make sure there are bathrooms available because you can't always count on the porto potties that are provided if there are butt loads of people. maybe even pack some of your own tp in case of emergencies into some bushes !

you should also have a plan to take if the same feeling hits you this year.. are you going to pull over & let it out or slow down overall or just crap yourself ?

relax and run your race.. the 15K should give you an answer.

If you are going to drink coffee the morning of a race, skip the cream and make it black. The cream makes you bloated, esp for the longer races.

RD