[This is a post for April Cools, a supercool idea by Hillel Wayne to write a post about something that we normally don’t blog about.]
When I started to train for my first marathon, I read a lot about shoes, heart rate, water intake, but not really a lot about… food. Doing half marathons, I had mostly supported myself on Dextro Energy tablets, and while I knew that there was a thing called a “gel” that you could eat, I really had no clue what to buy. So in this post I will give you tips to eat while running, and also talk about different marathon foods I have tried, and what I like or dislike about them.
Generic running & eating tips
Eat a lot. There is a lot of focus on drinking too little in a run (which makes sense) but many people will also forget to eat. While preferences of course vary, eating a gel or snack every 5 kilometers is not too much, and you definitely don’t want to eat less than once every 10k. You really want to eat before you feel hungry!
Practice eating. This sounds silly because you have probably been eating fruit jellies since you were a baby but it really takes practice! Before my first marathon, I had ever only eaten one gel that I got from a friend, and only took a few gels with me on the day itself. I figured I could just eat the things they would offer on the way, and it turns out the gel that was offered in my first race tasted like dish soap, which caused me to take way too little. You really want to try out a few brands so you get a taste that you like and you also really want to practice the mechanics of eating while running, because stopping and starting, of course, is shit.
Decide how to pack. Some people just eat the food they offer in races, but after my first race with bad tasting gels, I decided not to do that anymore, not just because I want control over the taste of my food, also because taking stuff at races always involves navigating many people and often stopping. So I now carry all in need in a little running backpack. While a backpack might be a bit much for some people, you do want to figure out how the gels or packs will fit in your pockets!
Size and shape matters. As you will see below, marathon foods come in various forms and shapes, literally! Tubes, packets, or rolls make a lot of difference in you are carrying them around for 30+ kilometers. When practicing, it is important to not only practice eating but also carrying. So don’t bring 1 pack, bring 4 to 8 like you’d do in a race and figure out where to stuff them all! You really, really don’t want to buy a fanny back an hour before the race because you only then find out how large 5 packs are (true story!) Also look at the shape of the packs. Some brands make longer tubular gels that easily fit in a deep pocket, others make more rectangular ones that fit broader, shallower pockets better. And it is not just about the shape of the container, the drinking experience can also differ. Some brands have packs with little straws that are really nice to drink from, and some packs are easier to open than others. While it might seem really easy to open something now, in the hell that is kilometer 30 above really don’t want to struggle with a stupid food pack.
Know your nutrient needs. Many of the marathon foods below have extra nutrients, like caffeine, proteins or vitamins. Depending on your diet and habits, you might want to take foods with added nutrients but this too can take practice. If you are not a coffee drinker, you probably don’t want to eat 5 caffeinated packs in a day.
Type of running foods
Tablets. Tablet, in their most famous form: Dextro Energy. Imagine you make sugar cubes from powdered sugar and a bit of fruit juice. Benefits are that they are relatively cheap, and you can buy them in many supermarkets. I ran many a half marathon on tablets and they are pretty ok, but they can feel very dry in your mouth and if you are not careful the dust can lead to a coughing fit. You really only want to eat tablets if you carry water, or wait until you are close to a water station.
Fruit drinks. Some brands sell fruit drinks, that are only just a little denser than a regular fruit juice or sodas. The benefit of fruit drinks is that they are food and drinks at once and don’t have a bad mouth feel because it is just like drinking a regular drink. The downside is that you will need to drink (and carry!) more since they are not really concentrated.
Gels. Gels are basically the very dense versions of fruit drinks, like the thickness of sugar syrup. These come in various tastes, not only fruity but I have also tried espresso or salted caramel. Like with tablets, it is better to have some water at hand to make the gel go down because it will be really sticky in your mouth!
Fruit packs. The final type of processed marathon food that you can also try are fruit packs. These are simply… packs with dried fruit, something with added nutrients. The benefit is that they taste really good they feel like actual food while also have a lot of sugar in them. Downside is that they do involve biting and chewing which not everyone can do.
Actual food. And then, there is actual food! In many organized races they will offer fruit on the way, bananas or oranges are most common. While it is hard to pack fruit yourself, a banana will be totally brown before you are at the end of kilometer 5, an apple is quite easy to bring along and can be nice to eat. But eating real food while running (at a good pace) really takes practice and is not for everyone. But you can eat other things too. Candies are nice because they have sugar, and especially the types of candy that you can suck on them for a long time are great, keeping your mind a bit busy (a marathon is very boring, in a sense) I have now grown so accustomed to running and eating that I can (and will!) also eat cake and chocolate while running!
And of course, we have to close this with a mandatory running picture of me eating Fries superbrood (sugar bread) when I was doing a multiday ultrarun in February!
Enjoy running and eating!
