As a follow on to last week’s NEW YORK CITY MARATHON HOPES & DREAMS post where I set out a rough race plan for Sunday, this post is all about what I am taking with me.
Things like the race day gear, shoes, shorts, tops etc along with the nutrition I will use to fuel before, during and after the marathon.
I won’t go into too much detail, just cover the main items from each area and my thoughts on them and why I have picked them for race day.
Nutrition
Let’s kick off with the nutrition. As we all know, the golden rule here is to not try something new on race day. I have used all of the above products for over 2 years so I know what I am getting and I know how my body reacts to them.
Pre Race:
Every day I take a SiS Immune Tablet with 500ml of water, this gives a good dose of vitamin C, Iron and Sodium to help support the body’s immune system. Also, the 500ml water gets the daily hydration off to a good start.
Along with the Immune tablet, I also mix a SiS Hydro tablet with 500ml of water two or three times per day whilst travelling. I like to carry the bottle around with me whilst exploring the city and topping up the electrolytes, sodium and caffeine as I go as well as hydrating properly pre-race. I will typically start this routine 4 or 5 days out from the marathon.
On race morning I always have my tried and trusted porridge/oats. When racing abroad I will take two pots and a travel kettle with me. That way I know I can get the breakfast I want in case the hotel doesn’t offer an early breakfast or doesn’t have what I want. Planning ahead to take away any race day stresses. For New York, with the start of the race being 3-4 hours after I get the bus from Manhattan, I will take the porridge pots with me as I know Dunkin Donuts provide hot water in the race village, I will then mix them up about 90 mins before the race start.
30 Mins before the race start I take a SiS Go Caffeine shot, this gives you an extra hit of caffeine to help with the upcoming fatigue.
Race:
During the race, I use SiS Go Isotonic Energy gels and my flavour of choice this year has been the fruit salad flavour, I really like that one and I find that it is less gooey than the other flavours. I take a gel every 30 minutes to try and replace those carbohydrates the body is burning off. Each gel contains around 22grams of carbs, less than other brands but I like the SiS gels and they seem to work well for me. I would like to try the Maurten Gel one day, I have heard a lot of good reviews on them and I found their 320 Drink Mix to work really well on the bike.
For this race, I have been experimenting with taking a SiS Go Energy + Caffeine gel every 3rd gel (90 mins). During training I have tried this to see if the extra caffeine in the gel helps with the fatigue, so far, I have not noticed any great advantage from this, but I haven’t pushed the pace during the long runs to see whether this would pay off. Let’s see what happens on Sunday…
That is all I take with me during the race, I will make use of the on-course water stations. In New York these are every mile from miles 3 – 26, I will grab a cup of water from every 3rd water station (3 miles) I will also grab a cup of Gatorade Endurance from every 3rd table starting with the mile after the water (mile 4). The combo of water and Gatorade will help to keep the body hydrated and keep topping up the electrolytes.
Post Race:
Not much to my post-race nutrition. I always pack a shaker with some SiS Rego Recovery Powder in my gear check bag. This is so I can hit that other golden rule of giving the body a protein hit within 30 mins of exercise. The Rego powder has a good dose of carbohydrates, protein and electrolytes. This starts the recovery off by topping up some of what was burned during the marathon.
Race Day Gear
As with nutrition, the rule here is to not try anything new on race day. I don’t always fully follow that rule as things like socks, gloves, sleeves, hats etc are a pretty sure bet, you know what you are getting from them. Tops, Shorts and shoes are a different matter, I would never throw on a new pair on race day.
Let’s start from the bottom up.
Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% shoes. I ran the Tokyo marathon in the Vaporfly 4% shoes and was massively impressed with the comfort both during the race and lack of any foot ache afterwards. They felt fast and as if they were pushing you down the road. Naturally, when the new NEXT% came out I wanted to try them out first but have been as impressed. Not totally sold on whether they are better than the 4% still but I will be racing in these on Sunday, I just love the colour too!!
Nike Challenger 5″ Running Shorts Again, I used these in Tokyo and for every long run since then. They are my go-to long-distance short. I don’t get any chafing on hot sweaty runs or cold wet runs, the pockets are great, and I can fit all of my gels in these without losing a single gel all year…. totally jinxed that now.
Nike Breaking2 Running Sleeve Something different I am trying in New York. Usually, I would run a cooler race like this in a long sleeve top, however, this year I want to run in my club singlet but with the weather forecast looking like 7’c for the race start I am going to go with the arm sleeves to keep the arms warm. This is something I wanted to test out in training but during the latter long runs, I had a cold so I didn’t want to risk trying them and feeling cold on the run whilst ill. I don’t see much risk in trying these on race day, if I get hot I can roll them down.
Nike Dri-FIT Element Running Glove I used these in Tokyo and for some of the cooler runs towards the end of training. I may run with them but at 7’c I don’t think it is that cold to require gloves, but if it pays to plan for the worst case then I have them if I need them. Most likely these will get left in the gear check bag.
Nike AeroBill Tailwind Running cap I like to run with a hat on, it can either keep the sun out of my eyes or keep rain from the eyes.
That’s the last of the Nike fanboy posts, the rest of my gear is non-Nike stuff. I am not sponsored by Nike, I just love their products.
Knutsford Tri Club singlet. This is my triathlon club and I am proud to be running around New York in the pink & black.
Body Glide Anti Chafe Balm I started using this with my wetsuits for open water swimming & triathlon. I find it works really well with running too. I have not had any chafing from the shorts since I swapped to this.
ROKA Barton Performance Sunglasses come on! you can’t race without a good pair of sunnies. They make you look cool whilst struggling and the race photos look 10 times better. This year I have swapped from Oakley to ROKA for my running sunglasses, I prefer the look of the Barton’s and they don’t bounce or slip when pounding the pavement.
Garmin HRM-Tri just a heart rate monitor to go with my Garmin Forerunner 735xt watch. I have the triathlon heart rate monitor due to all the swim and run training for Ironman events. I do prefer to run without an HRM but I like to track the stats as well. This will be the first marathon where I have run with the HRM.
Let’s kick off with the nutrition. As we all know, the golden rule here is to not try something new on race day. I have used all of the above products for over 2 years so I know what I am getting and I know how my body reacts to them.
As with nutrition, the rule here is to not try anything new on race day. I don’t always fully follow that rule as things like socks, gloves, sleeves, hats etc are a pretty sure bet, you know what you are getting from them. Tops, Shorts and shoes are a different matter, I would never throw on a new pair on race day.
Let’s start from the bottom up.
Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% shoes. I ran the Tokyo marathon in the Vaporfly 4% shoes and was massively impressed with the comfort both during the race and lack of any foot ache afterwards. They felt fast and as if they were pushing you down the road. Naturally, when the new NEXT% came out I wanted to try them out first but have been as impressed. Not totally sold on whether they are better than the 4% still but I will be racing in these on Sunday, I just love the colour too!!
Nike Challenger 5″ Running Shorts Again, I used these in Tokyo and for every long run since then. They are my go-to long-distance short. I don’t get any chafing on hot sweaty runs or cold wet runs, the pockets are great, and I can fit all of my gels in these without losing a single gel all year…. totally jinxed that now.
Nike Breaking2 Running Sleeve Something different I am trying in New York. Usually, I would run a cooler race like this in a long sleeve top, however, this year I want to run in my club singlet but with the weather forecast looking like 7’c for the race start I am going to go with the arm sleeves to keep the arms warm. This is something I wanted to test out in training but during the latter long runs, I had a cold so I didn’t want to risk trying them and feeling cold on the run whilst ill. I don’t see much risk in trying these on race day, if I get hot I can roll them down.
Nike Dri-FIT Element Running Glove I used these in Tokyo and for some of the cooler runs towards the end of training. I may run with them but at 7’c I don’t think it is that cold to require gloves, but if it pays to plan for the worst case then I have them if I need them. Most likely these will get left in the gear check bag.
Nike AeroBill Tailwind Running cap I like to run with a hat on, it can either keep the sun out of my eyes or keep rain from the eyes.
That’s the last of the Nike fanboy posts, the rest of my gear is non-Nike stuff. I am not sponsored by Nike, I just love their products.
Knutsford Tri Club singlet. This is my triathlon club and I am proud to be running around New York in the pink & black.
Body Glide Anti Chafe Balm I started using this with my wetsuits for open water swimming & triathlon. I find it works really well with running too. I have not had any chafing from the shorts since I swapped to this.
ROKA Barton Performance Sunglasses come on! you can’t race without a good pair of sunnies. They make you look cool whilst struggling and the race photos look 10 times better. This year I have swapped from Oakley to ROKA for my running sunglasses, I prefer the look of the Barton’s and they don’t bounce or slip when pounding the pavement.
Garmin HRM-Tri just a heart rate monitor to go with my Garmin Forerunner 735xt watch. I have the triathlon heart rate monitor due to all the swim and run training for Ironman events. I do prefer to run without an HRM but I like to track the stats as well. This will be the first marathon where I have run with the HRM.
The Cheshire Runner. 