The FastDay Forum

I feel like a bit of a fraud posting on this thread - as you are all have very impressive times for your events!!!

I am a VERY slow old lady compared to you lot!

I am running my first half marathon on 10th May & I was wondering what advice people could give me regarding what to eat the night before the race. Its a morning event & we have to travel to it so will be staying in a motel that night which does make things a little more difficult, but I think there will be cooking facilities there. It will be my sons 10th birthday, so I'm thinking we might eat out for lunch & have something back at the motel for tea. (My son will probably want pizza - but I doubt that would be a wise choice for me???)

I sometimes use pizza for carb-loading. Anything starchy is good because it gets converted into glycogen. Filling up those stores will help a lot in a long race like a half-marathon. On the actual day, I would eat lighter. I've regretted even eating a rice ball within a couple hours of the race. Usually a banana is all I have for an early race, at least one hour beforehand. I don't use anything during the race (my stomach tends to be a bit dodgy even for water when I'm running), but a lot of people swear by those gels. I guess they're mostly electrolytes and glucose.

I'm so not fast. I took almost 3h to finish my first half-marathon. I've cut that down, but my time is still embarrassingly slow. Now my weight is down, I can focus on getting faster...

I'm not an expert like others on here, as I'm running my first half marathon this Sunday! But I run in a club with lots of people who have, and the coach has said to me that the day before is too late, you need to start building up the glycogen stores before, so race day -5 to -2, eat carbs - rice, pasta, potatoes (preferably for lunch, rather than dinner to ensure that you sleep properly). This is is what I've been doing. The day before is too late to build up suffucient glycogen stores, you should eat what you do normally to ensure you sleep properly, although carbs for lunch is OK. You should avoid a lot of fibre, red meat and acidic food the day before.
I've read that pizza isn't a great pre race food as there is a lot of fat, but not sure.
I'm planning on eating a bowl of porridge a couple of hours before my race, I don't think I could do what Mary Ann does and survive on a banana!
Don't forget to drink loads of water the week before to ensure you are properly hydrated either...
Good luck with your half marathon

I haven't been carb loading much in advance because of fasting. But you run a lot faster than me so i'm sure you need more glycogen, Susan. Also… I should add… the pizza I have is quite healthy as pizza goes. Nothing is very fatty in Japan.

I just found this in an article about marathon mistakes from runners world:

Mistake #5: I ate too much

There's nothing like an all-you-can-eat buffet of cheese-soaked ziti to inspire a sense of calorie entitlement in a marathon runner. "I'm carb-loading," I rationalized before one 26.2-miler. The next day, despite my typically foolproof ritual of strong coffee and morning headlines, the buffet stayed with me, making my stomach slosh and my waistband chafe all the way to the finish line.

No surprise there, says Mueller. Fat (including that in cheese and in creamy or high-fat-meat sauces) slows digestion. "So if you go to bed after a rich, heavy meal, you are going to wake up with nerves and a bunch of undigested food in your gut." At best, it can weigh you down. Or it may require an unplanned pit stop.

Lesson Learned: Load up properly
After months of training, a runner's glycogen–or blood sugar–stores are depleted to about 50 to 60 percent of normal. In order to sustain energy for three, four, or more hours, they must be topped off–which means carb-loading starting 72 hours out (not the night before). Eat four grams of carbohydrates per pound of body weight per day. For a 130-pound woman, that would be 520 grams. Your diet should consist of 80 to 90 percent carbohydrates.

Steer clear of high-fiber foods, like nuts, seeds, fruits with the peel on, and juice with pulp–all of which tend to leave a residue in the gut. Choose instead bananas or melons; creamy (not crunchy) peanut butter; pulp-free juice; and white foods like rice, bread, and pasta. "Prerace is the one time I recommend white over wheat because of its low fiber content," says Mueller. Finally, the day before the race, make your lunch your biggest meal so you have plenty of time to digest.

link: http://www.runnersworld.com/race-traini ... kes?page=2

Thanks MaryAnn. No pizza for me then!

Think I've been eating way too much lately - (kidding myself that I'll burn it all off with all the training!)I seem to be stuck on the same weight - in fact I think it's even going up a little!!!! Not good! Time to be 'mindful' again!

Yes @Philippa, be careful, you don't want to carry around anymore weight than you have to! It can have an effect on your running time.
I'd gone up a couple of kgs and made a specific effort to lose those for my half marathon which I have done. With carb loading the scales are going up a tiny bit this week, plus I haven't fasted, but I guess that is to be expected. For every 0,5kg lost you can gain 15 - 20 secs in time on a 10km race. The last 10k race I did I'd lost the 2kgs and my time was a minute faster than on my previous race when I was heavier. I have an very regular running speed so think that the (albeit very small weight loss) did have an effect. Don't over eat to compensate for the extra exercise!

I've just done my last long run before the big day next Saturday. 16-17k along the sea and up to the castle where I left my car last night.

I hope all you park runners had a good day

First half marathon done and dusted at last, 1h43m40s so I was quite pleased - I wanted to get under 1h45. The last few kms were tough, but the course was quite good and the weather ideal, no wind, grey and not hot.
Hope everyone else has had a good weekend running!

Congrats, Susan! That's amazing!

That's absolutely fantastic Susan, well done

Well done Susan, first one out of the way and a very acceptable time!
Now you will know how to plan the next, and what you need to do to crack 1:40 - should not take you long...
As a young(er) runner I was desperate to break 1:30 but ran 1:31:20 in my chosen race, then 1:27:58 exactly a week later - which was as surprising as it was ridiculous!
Anyway, both self and wife had poor parkruns yesterday. I was 41 sec slower than last week and she pulled up with her ITB problem after 2 miles. No run next week, off to Tenerife for some sunshine...

Thanks everyone!
@CreakyPeteI wanted 1H41....but I just don't have the mental strength. I was beaten 30m before the finish by a girl from the club who bettered her previous time of a semi by 6 mins - I just didn't have anything left to compete with her. I'm so regular with my times I suppose in a way it is good, but after 6 months of training 4 times a week I don't seem to be able to go any faster.
I know the important thing is to enjoy the running, and I do, but it would be nice to improve my times too!

Congratulations @Franglaise

Super time!

There was a local running event in the parkway 5 mins from my house this past weekend. http://www.martianmarathon.com/
It's a fun annual event and had 1500 participants. I wasn't able to run it this year but was curious about the results, especially my age group, 60-64. I did get to see the first place Marathon runner who came in with 02:33:06.0, his strides looked effortless.

Below are the times of the top 5 Half Marathon in my group 60-64

01:39:29.0 63 Male 7:33 min/m
01:45:47.0 60 Male 8:02 min/m
01:46:49.0 62 Male 8:07 min/m
01:53:48.0 60 Male 8:38 min/m
01:56:08.0 64 Male 8:51 min/m

The top 5 Womens Half Marathon runners, all ages:

01:31:41.0 35 Female 6:59 min/m
01:33:41.0 23 Female 7:08 min/m
01:37:18.0 40 Female 7:25 min/m
01:37:22.0 29 Female 7:24 min/m
01:37:54.0 48 Female 7:27 min/m