The New York City Marathon

It feels like the biggest running party of the year in New York City, and yes, I am referring to the marathon weekend. If you're gearing up for the New York City Marathon on Sunday, you want to keep reading for our top tips to get you from the start line through the 5 boroughs feeling your best. UCAN's Registered Dietitian, Charlotte Werner, who will be running her fourth NYC Marathon this year, breaks it down below!

Carbohydrate Loading

You may have heard that you should carb load before a marathon, but what actually is it and what does this look like in practice?

Before diving into what carb loading is, it's important to understand the role carbohydrates play in endurance and the various fuel sources you can pull from as you exercise. First and foremost, carbs are your body's primary fuel source during moderate to high intensity exercise. This is why they are a key component to endurance training and racing.

You have three different tanks you pull from during an effort, fat stores, glycogen (carbohydrate stores), and what you take in as you exercise (meaning the gels, chews, and drink mixes you may have). While we have more fat stores than glycogen, they're hard to convert to energy quickly, especially at higher intensities when the demand is high for quick energy so you can keep pushing hard. This is why your glycogen tank and the carbohydrates you take in during exercise are vital. They supply the you with readily available energy to pull from during these efforts in an easy fashion. Thus, if we are able to increase our glycogen tank, this can be supportive of allowing us to push harder for longer in a marathon.

Enter carb loading. Carb loading more specifically works by maximizing your body's ability to store glycogen before an endurance event. Typically, this starts about 3 days prior to race day. The traditional recommendations are usually provided in grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight, and can range from 8-12 grams of carbs per kilogram body weight. While this can be achievable for some, I like to take a slightly different approach to the carbohydrate load and shift the focus off of specific counting. I simply recommend athletes increase the portions of their easy to digest carbohydrates in meals by 1.5 times their usual size. Then, in between meals, aim for at least 2-3 carbohydrate rich snacks or drinks to further top off those stores. This helps minimize the stress that can come with making sure you're getting in enough, and make the focus on trying to maximize what you take in, while enjoying it!

During the carb load, you want to get curious with combinations of solids and liquids to see what sits best in your system, but keep these foods familiar. Nothing new in the carb load or on race day morning. Ideally, this should be practiced once or twice during training, as well. You also want to maintain protein to support your body's recovery during this time. Great options to include here, and go-tos for me are UCAN's Protein+ Powder and UCAN's Lemon Energy Powder. They provide easy to digest, stable energy via UCAN's proprietary starch, LIVSTEADY, and the Protein+ powder also gives the body an awesome hit of protein, too.

In addition, you want to reduce fat and fiber during the carb load to make more room for the carbohydrate additions without feeling overly full. This will also reduce the GI distress risk on race day that can occur when food sits in the GI too long as fats and fiber slow digestion. During the carbohydrate load, you may notice you feel a little more puffy. This is to be expected and a sign you're doing it right! Carbs when stored as glycogen are also stored with 3-4 grams of water, thus, the puffiness/bloating experienced in the carb load is temporary.

The Early Start + Long Wait

The New York City Marathon is unique in that you likely will have quite a bit of time in the start village once you arrive off the ferry or bus. In many cases, you may leave for Staten Island 3-4 hours before your anticipated start. There are a few considerations here, as a result. Firstly, you want to be sure you wear many layers. You can donate them at the start village just before you begin. This will help to keep you warm while you wait as it can get quite cold early in the morning. Next up is your nutrition. Aim to eat a carb rich pre-race breakfast before you leave for the ferry or bus, then space out snacks every 1-2 hours while you wait to give you continuous hits of carbohydrate pre-race. A go-to for me before leaving is a bagel with nut butter and jelly, then I pack a bottle with 2 servings of UCAN Lemon Energy Powder in it to sip on while I wait and a bottle with plain water, alongside a banana and some crackers, just in case I need more of a savory burst. The only thing to note is that you don't want to try anything new on race morning. This should be your tested strategy. It should be familiar. Keeping warm and bringing many snacks plus an extra plastic bottle with just water and one with carbohydrates will be key to staying hydrated, fueled, and warm while you wait for the start.

The Steady Climb at 5th Avenue

New York is known for being a more challenging course. The area that is always surprising to athletes is the journey up 5th avenue toward the end. It still surprises me! At this point, the body will feel fatigued and you're going to be so close to the finish. It can be easy to tell yourself to just push through and forget everything else, including the nutrition. This is where you really want to shift that mindset, hone in on your fuel, and ensure you continue to take your gels consistently as the body is low on fuel by this point, and you have one last steady climb before that glorious finish line.

I plan on bringing UCAN Gel + Electrolytes with me this year and will be sure that no matter where that last gel hits. My general rule of thumbs is if there's more than 1.5 miles to go, I am taking my gel to give me the fuel to finish strong. Even if you only take a few sips, get in what you can. Your body will thank you!

The Finish

Soak it all in. The finish line of the New York City Marathon is like nothing else. It is a beautiful celebration of all the hard work that went into the training block. You'll also get a bag of goodies including recovery nutrition. Make sure you have some of that to support your recovery right away as you walk out of the park. As soon as you are able, aim to get in a protein + carb snack or meal within an hour or two. I aim for a serving of UCAN Protein+ powder (Chocolate) mixed with my milk of choice first. Pro tip: have your support squad bring this to the finish for you! Then, about an hour after that I go for my favorite post-race meal.

Above all else, enjoy the moments out there on course and get some good rest before and after!