In this post I will give you a rundown of the gear I will be running the 128th Boston Marathon in and what I will be eating and drinking for breakfast and both pre and during the race.

Although I run the 2023 Boston and London marathons, it seems I forgot to post a Gear blog for those, so it has actually been 18 months since my last Race Day Gear post from the New York City Marathon 2022. To be honest, looking at that post now, very little has changed. The breakfast is similar, the race nutrition is the same and the race gear, that’s changed slightly I guess.

I’ll kick off by going through the nutrition side and bear in mind, that this is my own personal choice that I think works for me and something which I have used during many long runs over the last 7 years of marathon running. Remember, always try these things out in training and find what works for you but by all means, use other people’s advice and tinker with it. I have picked bits up here and there from many different people and certainly don’t have the best plan, non does it work on every occasion, we’ve all had those shitty runs, right?

Nutrition:

With Boston being an international race for me where I am staying in a hotel, I have brought all of what I need from home and not taking any chances with new brands.

Pre Race:

I have said many times during these Gear posts, that my traditional pre-race and long-run breakfast is porridge oats. I am not exactly a trendsetter here, I think the vast majority of runners have porridge oats before a race or long run or have done at some point.

Last year I brought the bag of porridge with me and warmed that up in the microwave in my apartment, this year, well I forgot I did that in 2023 because I didn’t write the damn blog, so I brought two small pots of porridge oats with me which I have used before a lot of my marathons.

For 2024, I am trying something new (for the race, I have done this in training), whereby I have a Maurten Calf 3200 drink mix with my breakfast to top up the carb stores even more and give a bit of a caffeine hit early on

As Boston involves a lengthy trip to the start line and a bit of waiting around, I have packed a Maurten Solid bar to eat on the bus to the Athletes Village and a Maurten Drink 320 to sip on during the journey and at the Athletes Village. All with the aim of keep the carb levels high in readiness for the race.

Race:

For the actual race, I will be carrying 5 Science in Sport Beta fuel gels to take roughly every 30mins. These gels give me 40g of carbs, so 80g per hour during the race which is something I find sits well with my stomach. I think I would prefer to use the Maurten Gels but they are just too expensive and these SiS gels contain a similar quantity of carbs for a more favorable price, although, they aren’t cheap either.

I also carry a 500ml bottle with me, this will be mixed up with SiS electrolyte mix. Something I have done during training as we all do, is carry my hydration with me and I have opted for continuing this in the last few marathons now. I know I have it with me as and when I need it and it is something my body is used to.

One of the problems I have had during the last 4 marathons is like a dry heaving when I am in the latter stages of the race. I haven’t gotten to the bottom of it yet but one theory I have tested in this training block is whether I have been drinking too much and it’s been sloshing around in my stomach. With having the bottle in hand, I tend to sip on it quite frequently so this time I have restricted myself to sipping either every mile or every two miles depending on the weather. We’ll see how this goes in Boston.

Race Day Gear:

Let’s run through the race day gear from the top down as usual.

This year I am running in the Rabbit Speedeez Boston 24 special edition singlet. To be truthful, I haven’t run in this yet which is a small calculated risk but I think I will be good to go. It feels super lightweight and breathable which should work out well this year as the forecast is looking nice, with scattered clouds and temps ranging from 11’c to 16’c throughout the race.

For the shorts, I have the Gymshark Sport 5″ slim-fit Shorts. I have enjoyed using these during training, they have two zipped side pockets which have been perfect for carrying all my gels or my phone etc.

I then have a pair of blue Smartwool socks, these may be a little too thick for the warmer weather we have forecast but they are what I brought so I will have to live with that choice. You never know what you will get weather-wise in Boston.

Shoes, I am running in the Nike Vaporfly Next% 2, I ran Boston & London in these last year and ended up losing a toenail which has only just fully grown back. I did intend on getting some new race shoes but couldn’t justify the expense so hopefully, I don’t have a repeat of last year. As a catch-all, I am tapping some cotton balls to the big toe to try to protect it from rubbing again. Other than that, I can’t fault them, I love running in the Vaporfly’s, the snap from the carbon plate and cushioning from all that foam really helps over the full marathon distance.