I just signed up to run the Wine Country Marathon in Sonoma
County, Calif. Several important considerations influenced my choice of this
event over others. First, the timing is good for me. The race falls in
mid-October, the ideal time to take advantage of my summer training. Second,
the location couldn’t be better. Healdsburg, where the marathon starts and finishes,
is less than three hours by car from where I live and it’s in the heart of wine
country—a great destination for a weekend getaway with my wife whether or not
there’s a marathon involved.
The course was another consideration. Few marathon courses can boast
of being both scenic and relatively fast (i.e. flat), and the Wine Country
Marathon is one of them. Yet another factor that went into my decision was the
weather. According to Weather Underground, I can expect blue skies and low
humidity on race day with a temperature in the low 50s at start time and the
low 60s when I cross the finish line.
One last feature of the
Wine Country Marathon—the one that sealed my decision to sign up—is its
on-course nutrition. There are ten aid stations along the route, nine of which
offer both Accelerade and Accel Gel Energy Gel. If I could organize my own
marathon this is exactly how I would set it up.
There aren’t many
marathons that supply a sports drink with protein such as Accelerade. Research has shown that carbohydrate-sports
drinks enhance performance more than conventional sports drinks that lack
protein, especially in highly prolonged endurance tests. Even if I gain only a
1.5% advantage from this product compared to another I will finish two minutes
faster—and those two minutes matter to me!
Still fewer marathons offer energy gels at virtually every aid
station. It’s beneficial to supplement fluid intake with gel intake during a
marathon because it is difficult to consume enough carbohydrate to maximize
performance (roughly 60 grams per hour, or somewhat less if protein is consumed
as well) in such a long race with a sports drink alone.
In the last marathon I ran I carried a flask filled with Accel
Gel mixed with a bit of water to ensure I got enough carbohydrate plus the
protein that was needed to reduce muscle damage and stave off “the wall”. It
worked great, but carrying one’s own nutrition in a marathon is not ideal. I am
excited to finally get a chance to run a marathon with perfect on-course
nutrition so that I don’t have to look after myself.
If you’re a performance-minded runner, you too should consider
an event’s nutrition offerings before signing up. The specifics of what an
event organizer provides can make a huge difference—for better or worse—in your
experience and results. Many events out there provide “low-calorie” sports
drinks that are little more than flavored water and hand out energy gel packets
at only a single aid station near the end of the race. I’ve run a few of these
events and I’ve performed terribly each time because my muscles didn’t get
enough carbohydrate and got no protein whatsoever.
Timing, location, the course, and weather are all important
factors to consider when choosing a marathon to run. But if you care about your
time, nutrition is not to be overlooked.
