Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about yourself you can learn in 26.2 miles.
Back on the Marathon Series grind. What to eat before a marathon? Super important! Food is fuel!!
Rules:
- Don’t try anything new! You don’t want to start eating things that might upset your stomach or that you don’t know how your body will react to.
- Don’t eat fibrous foods the 2-3 days before the marathon! Alright do I need to explain this one?
- Properly hydrate! Especially if it is going to be a warmer race having enough liquids in you is going to be so beneficial.
- Carbs over calories!! If you don’t watch your fat intake you could end up feeling more heavy and bloated than energized. Fruits, English muffins, oats, and rice are good carbs.
- If you are traveling, bring your foods!! Nothing is worse than being out of your routine anyways and then having to eat foods that are foreign (refer to #1).
- Eat about 70% of your diet in carbs!! Little fat and protein and the carbs will store as glycogen in your muscles!
SPOTLIGHT
Today, meet Katie!! She is running her second marathon at the Flying Pig this weekend! She is the one of the most positive and encouraging athletes! So excited to see how she does!!
Audrey: What does determination mean to you?
Katie: Determination means to persevere when things get tough. It is easy to have motivation when things are going your way, you feel strong on your runs, etc. but to have determination means to maintain motivation when obstacles begin to appear. Determination is putting one foot in front of the other when you feel like all you want to do is stop.
A: What is the best marathon advice you have ever been given?
K: Ask family and friends for their favorite motivational songs. I made a playlist and used it for the last few miles of my race when I needed the extra push. It was fun to hear different songs and connect them to the people who are important to me and draw strength from them.
A: What motivates you every day to work towards your goals?
K: Knowing that I have the ability to do these things and there are many others out there that don’t. “To give anything less than your best it to sacrifice the gift.” –Steve Prefontaine
We can never take our “gifts” for granted, in this case my health and athletic ability and it would be a waste for me not to take advantage of these things and use them to the very best of my ability.
A: What is your current running jam?
K: For long runs by myself I actually like listening to podcasts. For my first marathon I listened to “Serial”, which I highly recommend! Now I am listening to “Stuff You Should Know” soaking up all kinds of useless knowledge.
For shorter runs I actually like to pump up the jams on the Fit Radio app which offers great mixes. I even use Fit Radio in a lot of my group exercise classes and they are upbeat and offer a great variety so you don’t always know what is coming next which keeps things entertaining.
A: What is your favorite running memory?
K: My favorite marathon memory was heading down the home stretch to finish my first marathon (Columbus 2015) and feeling the energy to give that final “kick,” pass a bunch of people and finish under my goal time.
My favorite all-time running memory was in 8th grade track where my 4x100m relay team won the city championship and got the school record. I loved running sprints in track and had so much fun with these girls pushing ourselves throughout the season and ending our grade school track careers on a high note.
A: You are so close to the marathon, what is going through your mind?
K: I am starting to get the butterflies. I am excited, but there are also some nerves. I am most nervous about the hills in the Cincinnati course. My overall pace for my training runs has been averaging much faster than my first training so I am excited to see how fast I can go, but not sure how he hills will affect my overall pace.
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