The Asheville Marathon - The Day Before
So the Asheville Marathon is tomorrow! I feel relatively prepared for it, definitely more comfortable this time around compared to the other two road marathons I did in 2014 and 2017. I’ve stuck to the Hal Higdon Intermediate I guide as best as I could, skipping a run here and there but almost always hitting the long ones. I did have two longish vacations during the last four weeks of training that disrupted my flow a little bit but I was still able to complete the 20 mile training run with little discomfort.
So for this post, I’m going to mostly talk about food since that seemed to be the biggest question from my coworkers last night when I told them what I was up to this weekend.
As for pre-race preparation, I’m not super strict. I used to be really superstitious in terms of pre-race meal planning the night before my big races, but I’ve kind of dropped the pressure on myself over the past two years. The simplistic version goes like this: I know I need to get some carbs, salt, and water into my body and stay away from red meat, alcohol and sugar. So far, it looks like this:
Breakfast: eggs, oatmeal, hash brown, smoothie
Lunch: Mushroom pizza
Dinner: Planning on going to Chai Pani, which is an Indian restaurant here in Asheville. They are having a Holi celebration and my wife really wants to check it out. This is a little outside my pre-race comfort zone but I think I will be safe with one of their chicken options.
As for breakfast for race morning, I typically prepare an overnight oats situation the night before. I usually end up eating like half of it and maybe a banana. I’m not a breakfast person normally. I usually just have a cup of coffee first thing in the morning and maybe a piece of toast with jam. So it’s always hard for me to force more food into my body that early.
And for the race itself, I don’t carry my own water for road races and rely on grabbing a cup at the aid stations instead. There was an old recommendation I read once about stopping at every aid station to drink water. This worked for me in the past but if the temperature tomorrow is as mild as predicted (55 degrees, 20% chance of rain), I’ll probably only drink when I’m thirsty.
I’ll carry a few GUs, and plan on consuming one every 45 minutes as the label instructs. I’ve been using GUs for over 15 years so I know they work with my stomach and I usually pop at least one caffeine one about halfway through.
I never use headphones during road races and I’ll be leaving my cell phone with my wife, so besides the GU’s, which I’ll carry in my Spibelt, I’ll be running really light tomorrow, which I’m stoked about.
I’m just really excited to get out there and check out the new course the race designers came up with. The route has us hitting up multiple parts of downtown, north Asheville, West Asheville, and finishing near the River Arts District. It will also be the first time I’ve run on the greenway or Riverside drive since the hurricane, which was almost six months ago. I think joining the community in doing this race is going to be such a great way for the city to celebrate these areas and celebrate being outdoors.
And, of course, excited to attempt the 4:20 finish time!