Only 5 Days Left to the Olympic Trials Marathon!

It’s almost here! I’m getting pretty excited now. Last night I shared the company of great people celebrating the big weekend. If you don’t know her already, this is one girl to keep your eye out for during the race – Erin Nehus-Vergara.   She’s an amazing runner and person. 

Her marathon debut in the fall was a 2:37. There’s no doubt that the race just touched on what this girl is capable of running. We only live a couple miles away from each other. Every time I see her run I’m just in awe of her knee lift. Even when she’s running “slow” she looks so powerful and fast.  

The Olympic Trials gathering last night got me even more excited for the big day. With only 5 days left I’m thinking more and more about race day fueling. The rolling course will have 9 fluid stations available to the runners. As I mentioned over the weekend, I’m going to stick with a plan of trying to consume roughly 25-26 ounces (based on my sweat rate) of fluid per hour. This would mean I want to take about 7.5-8 ounces of fluid from each water bottle.

I decided to go with race provided water bottles in sticking with the 2.5″ x 2.5″ guideline. These bottles hold 8.45 ounces of fluid. I find that the last ounce of fluids from a bottle is never easy to get out of the bottle anyway. My plan will be to try to take most of the bottle of fluids at each of the the 9 stations.

What kind fluid I put in each bottle also needs to be considered. I have a supply of Ironman Perform I plan to bring along with me. In addition I will take Strawberry Banana Powergels. Each 8 ounce serving of Ironman Perform provides 17 grams of carbohydrate and the gel provides 27 grams of carbohydrate. I will base my plan off my total fluid goal, wanting to achieve a carbohydrate range of 50-70 grams per hour, and the right combination of when to take water versus the sports drink in minimizing GI upset.

I’ll be bringing a supply of decorating tools. I need to decorate my bottles in such a way that they will hopefully stand out to me when I’m passing by the tables at marathon pace with a lot of very similar bottles. Maybe I should have the kids just go at the bottles and see what they come up with, ha!

The details of my plan may sound a little more scientific than a lot of marathoners prefer to mess with, but it always seems to go very well when I go into a marathon with such a plan. I feel more confident that I’m getting the proper amount of nutrition during the race. I also feel like I can adjust much easier when the plan falls off track.

This is all so fun!