I'm doing my first Marathon in April and was wondering how I should prepare nutritionally before and during the race.

I have done a number of triathlons in the past, before I was following an LC diet. I would always carb up beforehand and would drink energy drinks during the race.

I want to avoid burning out half way through the race but I also want to avoid taking carbs if I don't need to.

Any advice?

Thanks.

There are a few different threads here devoted to this topic you might want to poke around. My impression is that people with blood sugar problems (who crash and burn when eating carbs) tend to perform better in endurance events when they go lower carb. Other folks like me with no insulin resistance (got told yesterday I will never develop Type II diabetes with my perfect blood sugar levels) tend to perform better with the extra carbs. So, one thing you might do is try to figure out what type you are. If you are sensitive to carbs, you might be able to adapt to running and low carb.

My husband, for example, does great with running on zero carb (he's run up to about 8 miles on zero carb and raced 5 miles), but I would really bonk. You can train low carb and just use gels and whatnot for races, but for longer distance runs that will hamper your training and recovery so it's a balance. Last summer, every weekend practically I was running between 13 and 17 miles for my long run and I would not have survived those without carbs. Another tactic is to use "better carbs" and fewer of them - no gels or blocs, just real food and drink something like coconut water. When I do long runs in the summer (12+ miles) I drink coconut water and take a baggie of sea salt to eat from. Some people make their own sports drinks with honey and lime juice. Some people eat chia seeds.

Good luck! Which marathon are you doing?

Thanks for the advice. I doing 2 x 5 miles and 1 x 8 mile runs a week on practically zero carbs with no ill effects but I need to step up to a 10/12 mile this weekend as the marathon is in 6 weeks. I'm debating whether or not to eat some carbs beforehand as I don't want to change my nutrition too close to the race. I'm doing the (first) Brighton marathon. It will be the second biggest in the UK after London.

Based on my experience, I would only step up the carbs for a run that length if it was over 60 degrees. Pure running voodoo, courtesy of me! Is this your first marathon? Woo hoo! What distance tri's have you done?