Food to eat while running a marathon

By Nidhi Garg

This is going to be a short post and a not-so-technical one. I promise!

Actually, there is one experience that I want to share. It is about the food to eat during a long distance race. Generally, food and hydrating agents are provided by the organizers themselves. The organizers, who get huge sponsorship from energy drink providers, serve energy drinks throughout the race.

I used to find this very cool once. And I used to freely gulp down the energy drinks during a marathon. But now that I think about it, I find myself asking the question: when we are actually making an effort to go out and run that extra mile, then why not do it as a real challenge? Why not use natural energy drinks? Why not use healthy running foods?

These are the foods that I consumed in the last race: banana, yoghurt, brown bread-peanut butter sandwiches, honey-lemon drinks, oranges. And at lunch time, curd rice and wheat paranthas. And, of course, H20 (water).

The most important things during a race are to stay hydrated, to keep replenishing the electrolytes and to have glucose in the blood to provide us enough energy to run. All of the natural foods above take care of all of that.

All of these foods can also be used while practising for a marathon. They do not add extra calories and simultaneously fulfil all other requirements of a runner.

So this was a small one. As promised!