Race Fuel

A run down on what I ate on race day.

The Best Western that we stayed at ($1400 for 5 days in Manhattan) said the complimentary breakfast would start at 5 am for marathoners. I went down a bit after 6 and there wasn't much to choose from. I had a mini bagel and some scrambled eggs that said they weren't done, but looked done. I didn't eat much for breakfast.

I thought I'd stop at Dunkin' Donuts on the walk to Penn Station. They don't open that early.

But, Dairy Queen was open at the Staten Island Terminal. I passed and got on the ferry. On SI, Au bon pain was open. I think that's french for 'my feet hurt', but I might be mistaken. Anyway, I got two apple pastries and a steak and cheese sandwich. I knew I would be waiting at the start village and if I wanted lunch, I'd better eat it before the cannons went off at 10:55.

At the start village I found a nice spot to sit with my back on a tree. Ate my apple pastries and a cup of coffee from the Dunkin' Donuts tent. They did not have donuts. After a while, I had my sandwich. It wasn't very tasty. I only ate half.

I decided to see if I could sneak into the earlier wave and get a 30 minute head start. I was successful, they don't check bibs really close. While I was in the corral I drank a pre workout drink they handed out. I think it was from Gatorade. It tasted good.

During the run I had fruit chews from Mott's. They are similar to sports beans, chomps or the sports chews you buy at your local running store. Yet, they cost half as much. The calories are similar, carb amounts similar. Another running blog suggested it and I like them much better than downing gu's, gels or overpriced sports chews. I tried to eat 2-4 of them each mile.

I had my fuel belt with two plastic canteens. One was for my chews and the other was used to refill with the gatorade that the race provided. I drank gatorade most of the race.

I did get two mini candy bars, a half of banana and some pretzels from spectators as I ran.

I thought about stopping at the White Castles on 1st avenue. Yeah, I can eat anything when I'm running. But, they were closed.

In the last few miles of the race, when I felt very tired and sore I remembered I had a small chia seeds packet that the race gave all runners at the expo. I packed it away in my fuel belt because I heard chia seeds were the magic pill for runners. I ate most of the packet, downed with gatorade. My last 1.5 of running was as fast as I ran the whole day. Was it the chia seeds that gave me that extra boost?

After the race, I had a New York McIntosh apple, some recover gatorade and a bit of a powerbar. I didn't like the powerbar.

That's what fuel me until dinner time. I never felt hungry the entire day.