Right before a race, many runners refrain from eating solid foods, as well as foods rich in dietary fiber, in order to avoid digestive problems during a marathon. Some runners also try to keep their body hydrated by drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day before a marathon and a glass of water 30-45 minutes before a race. For the same purpose, it is recommended to exclude foods and drinks rich in caffeine and alcohol from the menu. A light warm-up with elements of stretching before the race is also considered useful for maintaining muscle elasticity. Even during a 12 hour run, carbs are the primary fuel your body uses to get across the finish line. This applies to both the fastest rider and the slowest. Most marathon runners have very low or no carbohydrate stores in the last kilometers of a long distance. This is glycogen, an animal starch that is stored in the liver and muscles. Unlike a car that travels at the same speed whether the tank is 100% full, 50% full, or 20% full, your muscle performance progressively declines along with depleted glycogen reserve. Therefore, maintaining a high speed at the end of the race is much harder than at the beginning. Endurance training helps you store more glycogen during recovery and use your energy stores more efficiently. However, during the last days before the race, you need to focus on the main task: – to maximize the carbohydrate reserve right before the start. If you successfully cope with this task, then the performance in the marathon will be appropriate.

During exercise, the body also uses fat as fuel. The ratio of what is used to a greater or lesser extent depends primarily on speed. And it’s a myth that you can train your body so that during intense exercise it will mainly use fats. Thus, when there are practically no carbohydrates left in your body, you can no longer drive fast, because the body automatically starts switching to the “slow” energy source – fats. As a rule, to accumulate the maximum reserves of carbohydrates in the body in the form of glycogen, one last day before the competition. The optimal time is 3-4 days before the start of the marathon. At this time, it is necessary to significantly reduce the volume of training, and control the diet so that it contains the most carbohydrates. The goal is to ensure that the intake of carbohydrates exceeds their consumption. These days, it is recommended to use only warm-ups and short accelerations as workouts.

As for the diet, it is recommended to eat often and in small portions. In food, it is better to avoid as much as possible both fats and proteins, which reduce the absorption of carbohydrates.
And from carbohydrates, the main emphasis should be placed on a carbohydrate with a “long” molecule – starch, which will be absorbed more smoothly compared to short sugar molecules. It is best to use a variety of cereal products: muesli, oatmeal and corn flakes, cereals, rice and spaghetti. We must not forget that in order to assimilate a large amount of carbohydrates, the body needs a large amount of water.
Try to avoid alcohol and coffee, which lead to dehydration. Alcohol requires a large amount of water for its disposal, and coffee has a pronounced diuretic effect.
On the day of the competition, in the last two hours before the race, you should not eat large amounts of roughage, because the stomach should not be full. 15 minutes before the race, it is best to drink 200-300 ml of an isotonic drink (Isostar, Gatorade or equivalent) and eat an Energy Bar. These products are absorbed very quickly and by the beginning of the race will raise the level of blood glucose to the optimal value.

During the run

coaches recommend keeping your speed as constant as possible during the race. A common rookie mistake is trying to “save” time in the early stages of a race by running them at speeds much faster than they hope to run the whole distance. This strategy inevitably results in the runner running out of glycogen and running out of steam long before the end of the run. Carbohydrate-rich gels such as PowerGel, Gu, Accel, and Clif Shot are a good way to replenish energy during a run. When using them, however, one must be careful and drink enough water to avoid dizziness and vomiting. Most experts recommend Consume ~100 kcal in gel form every 45-60 minutes during a run. Gels usually contain sodium and potassium salts to replenish salt balance. Some gels also contain caffeine, which improves performance but is sometimes not well tolerated by runners. Honey is a natural, economical substitute for gels. Other substitutes may be a sugar cube, sucking candy, figs or jelly.

Usually the marathon distance is open for participants no more than 6 hours, but some marathons are open much longer (8 hours or more). Those runners who, by the time the track is closed, have not yet finished the distance, are collected from the track by the organizers and taken to the finish line. Completing a marathon is a significant achievement in itself, but for those who run as a hobby, a time of less than 4 hours (slightly faster than 6 minutes per kilometer) is an outstanding achievement. Coaches recommend that you always keep in mind the time reference for the entire distance, this makes maintaining a constant pace psychologically easier. In the Russian sports category, overcoming a marathon with any time qualifies as a 3rd sports category. Carbohydrates are converted during digestion and stored by the liver and muscles in the form of glycogen. Glycogen can be quickly converted into energy. Runners are able to store about 2,000 kilocalories of energy in the form of glycogen, which is enough to run the first 30 km of a distance. Many runners have experienced that it becomes much more difficult to run at this point.

When glycogen stores are depleted, the body must use other forms of “fuel”, mainly fat, which releases significant energy, but is nowhere near as efficient. When this happens, the runner experiences a state of extreme physical fatigue. This condition is also described as a “marathon wall” or “passing into the fat zone”. One of the goals of marathon training, according to many trainers, is to maximize glycogen stores to make fatigue and walling less pronounced, and to develop the habit of using a higher percentage of energy from fat early in the run, resulting in a more economical glycogen consumption.
Another way to make climbing the wall less difficult is to replenish your supply of sugars while running.