Eating out before a marathon

Very true, very true. I would think that the manager, assistant, whatever would take care of that for them - but I guess not.

Maybe they should eat out more during training. Perhaps they're so used to eating fastidiously prepared meals all the time that they have no resistance to anything else.

Your point does make sense. Why risk it? Just get a hotel room with a kitchen and cook your own food. However Kastor didn't get food poisoning, she had to go number 2, pretty common thing to happen to runners. Food also is out of your stomach after about 4-5 hours so I don't think it would give you stomach cramps the next day unless it was contaminated. I think people are too quick to point to food poisoning as the reason behind things.

Andrew dined at the Y?

Dippered wrote:

Food also is out of your stomach after about 4-5 hours so I don't think it would give you stomach cramps the next day unless it was contaminated.

Depending what it is, it's still probably somewhere in the GI tract.

You're right though. I ate out before Chicago and Nashville and suffered for it both times. People were in town and wanted to do something. I should have put my foot down and said, "tomorrow." The only race where I never had cramps was my first one. I ate bagels and gatorade in my hotel room.

My thoughts exactly - a little muffin in the morning?

DATY wrote:

Andrew dined at the Y?

i would say night before's ok, morning of might not be the best idea.

I'm not saying it's food poisoning. But when your body is so finely tuned, coupled with the physical demands of running a marathon any thing can set you off. Even if it's a bit too much fat in the sauce. I'm just saying, why risk it? Why not stick with something that you are used to, and you know from practice won't cause you any problems?Also I think 4-5 hours is too soon. It's more like 12 hours for everything to be completely out of your system.

Dippered wrote:

Food also is out of your stomach after about 4-5 hours so I don't think it would give you stomach cramps the next day unless it was contaminated. I think people are too quick to point to food poisoning as the reason behind things.

not sure wrote:

i would say night before's ok, morning of might not be the best idea.

I think this differs for everyone. From personal experience night before effects me the next morning. I have learned that for a morning race it's better for me to have my big fuel meal at mid-day the day before, and snack on bland food after that.

This is a GREAT topic. I remember a few years back one of the guys in the lead at Men's Trials at Houston? stopped with the runs because of "chili" he ate the day before - even though he never eats chili. I can't remember the runner.

As prepared as I think I am before races, I've always find it difficult to eat as regular before an out of town race...nerves, travel, no fridge/kitchen, schedule all out of whack. On top of all that, I'm not usually as "regular" as I should be. Basically the routine is all shot...right when it needs to be perfect for race-day.

My only idea on this wouldn't be a cook to prepare meals, but a condo-type place with small kitchen, so you could do things as "normally" as possible. I know the elites get free hotels, but this may be a better answer. Make a trip to grocery, get a couple days worth of favorites and go to race as if you were stepping out of your own house. My wife and I just stayed a week at a condo in Orlando, just off-site at DW and it saved us money on meals with kids and all, but it also kept us in a routine.

I also hate "waiting" to eat in a restaurant, plus you don't usually get just what you want to eat - often eating something "new". I'd much rather enjoy my trip, enjoy my company, and rest/relax for the vacation or the upcoming race.

[quote]Deenastrouble wrote:

I'm not saying it's food poisoning. But when your body is so finely tuned, coupled with the physical demands of running a marathon any thing can set you off. Even if it's a bit too much fat in the sauce. I'm just saying, why risk it? Why not stick with something that you are used to, and you know from practice won't cause you any problems?

Also I think 4-5 hours is too soon. It's more like 12 hours for everything to be completely out of your system.

[quote

You are absoulutely right. It's crazy to go to a restaraunt the evening before a marathon. You don't know what you are going to be served, or how long you will have to wait.

I will be eating noodles in my Hotel room for my last meal. Just boil the kettle and pour on the water, a meal in 2 minutes. Plain noodles with no sauce. Fuel not food.

Here is an article about Deena's "troubles" and they were not due to a bad meal! - she simply got her period

Well that is bad news for her, but it doesn't negate the theme of this thread. Truth is you have to be even more careful to eat normally when you are dealing with that issue as well as nerves and running 26.2 miles.

wimp. if Uta can do it and Kempainen can puke going 5.15 per mi. then so can you.

I remember reading that Radcliffe brings her own porridge and microwave with her. That way she eats her normal breakfast and knows it is cooked the same.

Deenastrouble wrote:

I'm not saying it's food poisoning. But when your body is so finely tuned, coupled with the physical demands of running a marathon any thing can set you off. Even if it's a bit too much fat in the sauce. I'm just saying, why risk it? Why not stick with something that you are used to, and you know from practice won't cause you any problems?

Deenas body is incredibly trained, but it is not "tuned". People are not musical instruments. Deena is not a piano. She probably eats out at a restaurant for the same reason that every else does. Because very rarely if ever does something bad happen. She probably does that in training all the time. She was eating pasta at the restaurant - not exactly an exotic dish. And in the end it did not cause her problems.

Non issue.

This is an interesting thread. We do need to pay more attention to what we eat before the race and we often forget to stress that. After having run marathons for 13 years I was undone in Boston in 1974 because I got sloppy concerning my evening meal the night before and took the easy way out.

And I remember passing a youngster in Boston twice in 1967 because he had to make a pit stop. The next year Amby Burfoot had learned his lesson and also won the race.

Why to professional couch sitters, who prepare meticulously for months, pouring over every press release and every interview, blow it all by starting dumb posts like this one? Why? You'd think that with all that's at stake, they'd learn by now, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Nature’s call sinks Kastor’s dream

By Karen Guregian

"According to someone in Kastor’s camp, it was simply that time of month. Kastor was hit with cramps and her menstrual period, forcing a pit stop,."

Yeah but she does not eat out at that restaurant all the time, and I'd be surprised if in training she eats out the night before a tough marathon simulation run.

It's not just her, I know many good runners that do this. Really, I am just bemused why these highly tuned athletes (it's a metaphor, darling - use a little right brain)take such an unneccessary risk.