This is a quick look through the gear I used to run the London Marathon 2024 on 21st April and the nutrition I used before and during the race. I won’t talk about the post race Big Mac & Fries, we’ll keep it classy here.

Having raced the Boston Marathon 2024 6 days prior to London, the vast majority of this race day gear is the same as I talked about in my Boston Marathon 2024 Gear post last week, bar one key difference, the race shoes.

Nutrition:

As we are staying over in a hotel before the London Marathon I prepare for this one like any of the international races. I will take all of my usual pre-race nutrition with me as best I can and use that to fuel for the race rather than taking a chance on what the hotel may offer, if they even offer a breakfast sitting early enough to make the race start.

Pre Race:

Im preaching to the converted here I hope but no trying anything new on race day and that is especially true when it comes to the food / fuel for the body. You just can’t take a chance on something you didn’t try during training. So for me, that is porridge oats. A runners classic! I have a bowl of porridge oats 60-90mins before all my long runs and it sits well, slow release and fuels for those longer efforts. Race day is slightly different in that I will eat these two Morn Flake protein porridge pots around 6:30am with the race start at 10am so there is a longer gap than during the training long runs. Whilst eating the porridge pots, I have a 500ml bottle of Maurten Drink Mix 320 Caf 100. All with go high levels of carbs to top up the stores and a slight bit of caffeine to wake the system.

In a couple of the latter long runs I woke earlier and ate breakfast 3hrs before the run to see how it may feel tomorrow. In the time between the porridge and race start, I have another Maurten Drink Mix 320 to sip on up-to 1 hour before the gun goes off. Alongside that, I will have a Maurten Solid bar. Carbs and more carbs.

Race:

To fuel during the race I will be using the Science in Sport Beta Fuel gels, taking one gel every 30mins. The aim is to only need 5 gels for a sub 3 hour race, but given I am not in the best of condition for London this year I am taking a 6th gel to cover all bases should I run past the 3 hour mark. I tried the Beta Fuel gels last year and have really got to like them, they are a little chunky and have those annoying pull tabs which just litter the streets. The gel is quite thick and the flavour takes some getting used to, certainly this Lemon and Lime flavour which I ordered by mistake instead of the Orange flavour. Each gel has approx 40g of carbs so I will be getting roughly 80g per hour during the race.

I will run with a 500ml bottle mixed with Science in Sport Electrolyte mix rather than risking using the Lucozade sport they provide on course. I mean, who provides Lucozade for a marathon? It’s piss poor. I get Lucozade must be chucking a load of money at them but come on, get with the times and provide a proper hydration partner that meets the runners needs. Anyway, rant over, I’ll carry my own hydration, tried and tested over the years.

Race Day Gear:

Ok so actually, looking at the flat lay now, when I said most of the gear was the same as in Boston last week, it’s only the shorts which have made an appearance at both races.

Let’s start with the race shoes as this is possibly a big call on my part. In my Boston Marathon gear post last week, I mentioned that the Nike Vaporfly Next% 2 shoes I was running that race were the shoes I run Boston and London in last year. Those shoes ended up causing a very painful black big toe nail in Boston and doubled down on that in London, ultimately resulting in that nail falling off a week later. In my wisdom, I ran Boston in those shoes again last week and funnily enough, I ended up with a very painful black big toenail. I know right! who would have thought that?

So we know what the end result will be if I run in the Vaporfly Next% 2 in London. With that in mind, I decided to ditch those shoes in favour of my old 2020 Nike Vaporfly Next% 1 which have just under 340 miles on them pre-race. Very beat up and not the idea shoe for a serious attempt at a fast marathon.

Moving up slightly to the socks, I did run in the Puma no show socks, they are that no show you can’t see them on this photo… or I forgot to lay them out but a sock is a sock. I have used these socks for countless runs in training, granted, all during spring and summer but as I say, it’s a sock. They don’t rub, they don’t cause any issues.

Shorts, I am running in the Gymshark Sport 5″ slim-fit Shorts. I used these last week and on every one of the long runs during training. The two zipped side pockets are perfect for holding a couple of gels in each or my phone etc, no worries of items falling out of the pockets. No chafing on the many wet long runs this winter, nor during last weeks warmer Boston Marathon.

For my race vest / singlet this year, I am wearing the Nike Dri-FIT ADV AeroSwift. Same vest as both Boston and London last year. I had no complaints with it then so feel good bringing back the lucky orange vest. It is lightweight, breathable and no issues with rubbing or chafing to.

As the weather in London is looking set to be considerably cooler than Boston, I am taking the Nike Breaking 2 arm sleeves and Nike Running Gloves, I think they are the old version of the Sphere Gloves but not 100%, these gloves have last at least the last 6 winter training blocks.

I will also be wearing the Oakley Jawbreaker Cavendish Edition sunglasses, maybe wishful thinking on the sun part, but I like to run in glasses to keep wind and glare out of my eyes. Plus they hide away the world of pain I am suffering at any given time.

Tech wise, my watch is a Garmin Forerunner 935, watch strap swapped to orange to match the race vest and I have the Garmin HRM Pro chest strap.