Latest / Eat More Carbs | A Period Recovery Podcast / 139. Running the New York City Marathon, Full Race Details

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139. Running the New York City Marathon, Full Race Details · Eat More Carbs | A Period Recovery Podcast

0:00
Hey girlies, just a quick reminder before we dive into
0:02
today's episode. The information shared on this
0:04
podcast is intended to be general sports nutrition advice
0:07
and education. Related to period recovery for
0:09
female athletes. This is not specific to anyone
0:11
individual and it may or may not apply to your situation.
0:14
If you are looking for personalized guidance, be sure
0:16
to apply to our RBSN Period Recovery Nutrition Coaching
0:19
program. Our four month period recovery.
0:21
Program is designed to help you sustainably get your period back
0:24
and keep it. You can apply now to get started
0:26
in our program and we'll leave the link for the program below.
0:28
This is the Eat more Carbs podcast.
0:35
Hello and welcome back. This is the Eat More Carbs
0:37
podcast. We're Riley Beatty Sports
0:39
Nutrition, and we're a team of dietitians and we talk every
0:41
Thursday about sports nutrition for the girlies.
0:44
I'm Jenna and I'm the host. Of this podcast and I'm Riley.
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I'm the founder of Riley Beatty Sports Nutrition.
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We like to call it around here our BSN.
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We're super excited to talk with y'all today.
0:52
Before we get into today's episode, we are going to do our
0:54
high and low. So sharing just a little bit
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about our week, the good, and the parts we wish had gone a
0:58
little bit differently. Riley is always, always.
1:00
Can you kick us off? What's your high and low?
1:01
Yay. My high this week, a couple of
1:04
weeks ago I did the New York City Marathon, and that's what
1:06
we're going to be chatting about today.
1:07
So I'm so excited to share with you all a little bit about my
1:11
experience, about the race. And this is my first marathon,
1:14
so I didn't really know what to expect, but it was such a good
1:17
time and I'm so excited to keep talking about it.
1:21
Congratulations, she's a marathoner.
1:23
I didn't even realize this but you can see my metal like I'm so
1:26
like a purpose. Wait, can you show for anybody
1:29
who's watching the video feed, can you show us your metal?
1:32
Yes, OK, I'll go get it. At least I'm not wearing it.
1:35
During this I was tempted. Maybe you should I.
1:38
Can't. I can't.
1:39
I can't. This is the metal.
1:40
I have never been so excited about a metal.
1:43
It even has like a place to get it engraved like on the back.
1:46
I didn't do that. But I think the coolest thing
1:48
about this metal is it has the elevation profile on it for.
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Anybody not watching the video feed this?
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Like when Riley turns the metal to the side, you can see the
1:56
actual elevation of the course, which I think is so cool.
2:00
So we'll definitely put like a clip of this on social media so
2:02
that way you can see it if you're listening to this
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podcast, not watching us. It's such a cool metal.
2:07
So cool. And like New York is like known
2:09
for being hilly. So they like completely embraced
2:12
it. And it's so cool too because
2:13
it's like a like the lines go across the metal.
2:16
So I thought it was very cool. Thanks for asking.
2:18
We've talked a lot offline already about your race recap
2:22
and kind of like what all happened because like I was
2:24
tracking you that whole day and sent you like 1200 texts.
2:27
But I'm also really excited to, like, talk through all of like
2:30
your marathon experience because, like, I'm excited to
2:32
hear about it. Yeah, yay.
2:34
Milo also has to do with the marathon and it it was actually
2:39
something that we were just chatting about, which is so
2:41
funny. But with the races or like with
2:45
the major, again, it's my first marathon, so I don't know.
2:47
You get a ton of statistics, right?
2:49
You get your time, you get your ranking for the entire marathon.
2:53
You get your ranking for age, group, gender, all of that
2:56
stuff. And something that they put on
2:58
there, I guess one of the kind of rankings is they will do a
3:02
age grade percentage or an age grade time.
3:05
And basically what they do, they give you your time or adjust
3:09
your time based off of if you were in your prime.
3:12
And I definitely think I've seen this number before on like other
3:16
races I've done and it's never been different.
3:18
But this time it was different and they changed me down, right?
3:22
So I think my clock time was like 351 but my age grade was
3:27
like 347 or 345 or something because I'm no longer in my
3:31
prime. Wait, I have a serious question.
3:34
Your birthday was also the day of the race.
3:36
Do you think it wasn't changed before because you were
3:39
technically considered in the bracket that's still part of the
3:42
prime and you aged out of it on your birthday?
3:45
Because isn't your birthday this current birthday the one that
3:47
puts you in the next bracket? Up I don't know so for Boston
3:51
right like I have now graduated to the the 35 to 40 range.
3:59
So if you aren't from early earth running, there's something
4:01
called the Boston Marathon. Boston has a time qualifier.
4:05
And I think it's actually really interesting because all of the
4:08
major races, so there's six of them, there's six majors,
4:10
There's New York, Boston, Chicago, Berlin, Tokyo, London.
4:14
And now they've added like a 7th, which is Sydney.
4:17
But everybody still talks about the big six, but they actually
4:20
all have time qualifiers. But like as a running community,
4:22
like everybody's so focused on qualifying for Boston.
4:26
With Boston, you have a certain age group time cut.
4:30
There's a huge conversation about this in the running
4:33
community where you have to get a certain time to qualify for
4:36
entry for the Boston Marathon. And then there's also they do
4:40
gaps and different things like that and adjusted times.
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And we're not getting into that in today's episode.
4:44
But basically now that I am 34 and the earliest I could ever
4:49
run Boston, I would be 35. I have now graduated to a slower
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time, slow with air quotes so I guess that could also be a high
4:59
which I officially get at least 5 more minutes now on my time
5:02
which is tight I think with a marathon.
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It really is. It's all fast.
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And I think we've talked a lot about this, but like the
5:09
Internet standards for fast are really difficult to look at.
5:13
Our definitions of fast are based off of a lot of people who
5:16
are like running influencers who for their job run.
5:20
And it's a lot of comparison. The running community has just
5:23
grown exponentially in the last couple of, which is super
5:26
exciting. However, that does mean that
5:28
like that field of faster runners continues to grow and so
5:31
does our comparison pool. And that's hard because like we
5:34
shouldn't be comparing ourselves to like people who do this for a
5:37
living, but because of the way that the running community is
5:41
kind of going. And we even saw this with like
5:43
New York, who gives entry to someone who is an influencer, a
5:47
running influencer in particular, like how that's all
5:49
kind of coming together and like the standards that runners are
5:52
being held to. It's just really interesting.
5:54
It is interesting and I do want to clarify that I actually, I
5:57
got in to New York City through the lottery, which there's
6:01
different ways to get into all of these major races.
6:04
And again, there's a time qualifier charity.
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I feel like most people get in through charity.
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There's a program and New York, I think it's very similar to
6:12
their program in Chicago where if you like complete a certain
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amount of races to that race organization or you volunteer,
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you can get entry to different things.
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And then I got in through the lottery, which I still cannot
6:24
believe that. I think all my luck got used up
6:26
on November 2nd of 2025. But everybody can get into these
6:30
races like a little bit differently.
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And I do think that there's such an emphasis on time
6:34
qualification because with charity you have to raise a lot
6:37
of money. And then I guess I forgot,
6:39
influencers are also getting into these races.
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So it's just crazy to be completely honest.
6:45
It really is, yeah. And it makes it more and more
6:47
difficult for people to get into these big races.
6:50
If you are someone who's interested in running some of
6:52
these big races, that doesn't mean that like running a
6:55
marathon that's it's not a major like isn't a huge
6:57
accomplishment. New York City is an iconic
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marathon and I'm so excited that you got to run it.
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I was so excited to watch you erase it from a couple states
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away. I should have gone inspected it
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because it just looked like so much fun and.
7:08
Well, thanks for sharing me on from Arizona.
7:09
Always yes. Tracks you the whole time.
7:11
I put my phone, I do not disturb, but when I did get to
7:14
the finish line I did have like 15 texts from you and I was so
7:17
excited. I was like, I know that people
7:20
who listen to music or like have their phones not on Do not
7:24
disturb, their phone will read them the text message through
7:27
their headphones. And I knew that your phone was
7:29
on do not disturb. Like I could see that.
7:31
But I was so tempted a couple of times to like, push a text
7:34
message through and notify you anyway because that's an option.
7:37
But I held myself back and I was like, she'll see them at the
7:39
end. I did have like, Rob's was the
7:42
only person that could get through just because I didn't
7:44
want to like get distracted. But then he could tell me where,
7:46
like everybody was on. Course so smart to do.
7:49
That I also like tried to text him one time like through Siri
7:52
because I was like where? Like I was like, I think I said
7:55
where send because I was like trying to say like where are you
7:58
send? And I texted him like Land's End
8:00
or something and he was like, are you OK?
8:02
I think it was logistically challenging and that's why, and
8:05
I'm going to share a little bit more about that.
8:06
But New York is a challenging course and especially for
8:09
somebody like myself who was a first time runner, I think
8:11
logistics were more challenging than maybe the course itself.
8:14
Can you imagine if you get these text messages and it reads
8:16
through and it's like family is at the corner of the street in
8:19
this street, and then the next one that comes through is one
8:21
that I pushed through and it's like, let's go.
8:24
I would have been so excited. Rob's was like texting me and
8:26
stuff like that too, where he'd be like, let's go.
8:28
Like he's like, you're halfway now, like and all that stuff.
8:30
So that was great. I didn't really listen to music
8:33
that much. I should say my high is Rob's
8:35
because he literally made this like ginormous spreadsheet where
8:38
like subway routes and like where to find me and all of that
8:41
stuff. So we had already kind of
8:42
planned out like, OK, I'll probably see him at mile 17.
8:46
I'll see him at mile 18. So I would put my headphones in
8:48
around that mile time so that I could be on the lookout for him.
8:53
It was really challenging to see certain because there's so many
8:56
spectators and then also it's not like you could easily cross
9:00
the street, so I would have to be on the left side or the right
9:03
side of the road, like depending on where they were.
9:05
I know Robbie does not want to be on the podcast, but maybe we
9:08
should have him on the podcast as like a spectator guide next
9:11
year for anyone going so that way he can share his knowledge
9:14
and spreadsheets with everyone who is going to spectate the New
9:17
York City Marathon. We need to work on trying to
9:19
convince him starting now though, because he's not one to
9:23
like again. Come on the podcast, maybe if we
9:25
make it our campaign for next year, well, we'll get them
9:28
right. We'll.
9:29
Start. Early yes.
9:30
We have talked a lot about the New York City Marathon, though,
9:32
and I know that's what we're talking about in today's
9:34
episode. So before I keep going on and on
9:36
and on about it, I want to hear how your week went.
9:38
Want to give a shout out to somebody?
9:40
This is a friend of ours that she also has had a hamstring
9:43
issue. And so she's been so helpful
9:45
with like helping me work through my own, like sharing
9:48
articles, sharing research. And then she even goes to the
9:51
point where she'll send me videos of like doing exercises
9:53
for rehab, which I so appreciate because like, I'm a very visual
9:57
person. So she will record herself doing
9:59
them and send them to me. And I won't lie, I was a little
10:01
bit hesitant to work in a new exercise that she had sent
10:04
because I was like very nervous, especially given how my
10:07
hamstring has been feeling recently.
10:09
But I have done it a couple Times Now.
10:10
And I was shocked with how the first time I did it, like I
10:14
immediately felt it exactly where I like typically have
10:17
pain. I think it just like helped my
10:19
brain realize that like loading the muscle and like doing this
10:22
specific exercise was like something I need to like work on
10:25
doing more of to kind of strengthen the tendon.
10:28
So I'm really appreciative of all of her help helping me get
10:31
back to running and like helping me work through like my own
10:34
fears around like actually doing some of the exercises and being
10:38
so thoughtful with like how she presents the information to me
10:41
because I am so visual. And that's like so helpful.
10:44
So just a big shout out and thank you to her for helping me
10:46
with my own struggles. That's my high.
10:48
How is your hamstring feeling A. Lot better, good and I've run a
10:51
few times too which has been good.
10:53
Not fast or far, but my low also has to do with movement.
10:57
Right now I am really working on my pull ups.
11:00
That's been a goal for mine for 2025.
11:03
Never really had that as a goal before but I decided at the
11:05
beginning of the year that that's something that I wanted
11:07
to work on. So I was doing some pull ups
11:08
last night and I just felt something happened like in my
11:12
shoulder and back like when I was doing them.
11:14
Like I don't think I like tweaked anything or pulled
11:17
anything, but it's just like I overworked it and I have such a
11:20
big knot like in my neck and shoulder from doing them last
11:24
night. And then I think I slept on it
11:26
wrong. So that's what I'm dealing with
11:27
today. So I feel like, I mean to like,
11:28
if anybody like says something and I feel like I need to like
11:30
turn my whole body versus turning my neck because I'm so
11:34
sore. And I just feel so old because
11:36
I'm like, this shouldn't be happening.
11:38
But it's one of those things that we're just like so
11:40
sensitive to things. I guess as you increase in age,
11:43
and unfortunately I haven't found the fountain of youth.
11:45
So I'm going to continue to age. I have to continue to be mindful
11:49
of how I move my body and maybe not pushing it as hard.
11:52
Welcome to your 30s. I just don't like it.
11:54
Jenna, the good news is, is you're closer to getting a
11:57
faster time for Boston. Right, Yes, exactly.
12:00
I need to look at it that way. The more I age, the closer I get
12:03
to actually running a race. That's a time call because I
12:06
definitely can't keep. Up with me neither if it's not
12:08
fun, right? Like that's what we're going
12:10
for, so. So true though today we are
12:12
talking though, just like Riley mentioned about her New York
12:14
City Marathon experience. I know everyone was following
12:17
along on social media, kind of watching for your race updates,
12:20
waiting patiently so that we can see like when we started and all
12:23
of that if but overall, like what was the energy?
12:26
Describe it to us? For those of us who like
12:28
couldn't be there to spectate or weren't able to actually run the
12:31
race, what was it like running the New York City Marathon?
12:33
It was unreal. Like I know that people keep
12:36
saying that online, but like I remember just being like
12:39
completely overwhelmed by the energy.
12:42
I even heard multiple people like behind me or around me be
12:45
like this is the best day of my life.
12:47
And like I honestly like do not have words because of how like
12:51
overwhelming it was like in a good way, if that make sense.
12:55
Like I really do think it lived up to the hype, at least from
12:58
like my experience. I know everybody's gonna have a
13:00
different experience, but I felt like it lived up to the hype.
13:03
Well, that's a good start. Something that you did a lot was
13:06
like preparing and planning for the logistics of the race.
13:08
You kind of talked a little bit about this and you're high and
13:10
low, but can you share a little bit about like what that looked
13:13
like? I know it's very different in
13:14
New York than it is for a lot of other races.
13:16
Kind of like our Boston episode where we talked to Megan about
13:19
like all of the logistics that go into getting to the start
13:21
line there. New York has a very specific way
13:24
that you need to show up at your start line.
13:26
There's different corrals and all of that.
13:28
Can you kind of like walk us through what that experience was
13:30
like and maybe how that even impacted race day for you?
13:33
Yes. For people who have never run
13:35
New York, like Jenna just said, there is a lot of logistics that
13:38
go into the race. First off, you are starting on
13:41
Staten Island and then you are running through different parts
13:44
of New York City and you are ending in Central Park, which is
13:47
in Manhattan. So even if there's just 10
13:49
people running, like that is a logistical issue, right?
13:53
Shutting down streets in New York City, crossing bridges,
13:56
doing all of that, like that in itself is something that is
14:00
logistically challenging. And then trying to move 55 to
14:03
60,000 people through that process is insane.
14:07
I feel like one of the best things to kind of compare it to
14:10
is like going to Disney World or Disneyland where there's 10s of
14:13
thousands of people, but like logistically, like it flows,
14:17
right? And there's like resources and
14:19
help and trash cans and bathrooms and all of that
14:22
everywhere. There's just a such a big number
14:25
of people that like you're going to have to wait.
14:27
So with my situation, I was in wave 2.
14:31
So my start time, the time that I would start my race was 945.
14:36
With that, I had to be on Staten Island and ready to go at about
14:41
9:00 because my corral opened at 9:00.
14:45
My corral closed at 9:25, and then they walked us to the
14:48
bridge for us to start at 9:45. Why New York is talked about and
14:53
discussed as being very logistically challenging is
14:56
getting to Staten Island. So there's two ways to get to
14:59
Staten Island. You can either take a bus or you
15:02
can take the Staten Island Ferry with transportation.
15:05
You pick transportation and I believe like in the middle of
15:08
August, and like I just said, you can either take a bus or you
15:12
can take the ferry. A lot of people in Wave 1 and
15:15
maybe like the elites, the influencers, the people who are
15:18
going off earlier will often take the bus.
15:20
There's different bus options, I believe starting at 5:00 and
15:23
they end at 6:00 because all the buses have to be across the
15:27
bridges before 7 because the bridges have to close so that
15:30
everybody can obviously run over the bridges.
15:32
Being in wave 2, I didn't go off until later, so I opted to take
15:36
the ferry. That being said, I had to subway
15:39
from my hotel to the ferry, get on a ferry and then ferry over
15:43
to Staten Island and then take a bus from the ferry terminal to
15:48
the Start Village on Staten Island.
15:50
I did a ton of research, so I was very well prepared with
15:53
subwaying to the terminal, getting on to the ferry.
15:57
I even knew what side to go on the ferry to see the Statue of
16:00
Liberty, right? Like everybody said, like when
16:02
you get on the ferry, you go to the right side.
16:04
I knew that the bathrooms were on the second floor of the
16:06
ferry. Like I was very, I feel like
16:08
prepared for that ferry part. We got to Staten Island and then
16:12
I had to wait for a bus to take me to the start village.
16:16
And I do not think I was prepared properly for that
16:19
period of time because I ended up waiting for about 45 minutes
16:23
for a bus. And I, I think that I probably
16:25
maybe went to the wrong line. I didn't do my research enough
16:28
because I do think that was probably the most stressful part
16:32
of the process. Did you feel stressed about
16:34
making it to your Corral time when you were standing there?
16:36
I know that, like even someone who's never run the race,
16:39
there's a lot of information out there that people talk a lot
16:42
about how the Corral's open and that they close.
16:45
That's not something that happens at a lot of other
16:47
marathons. Like most of the time the Corral
16:48
is open. Were you nervous about that at
16:50
all? They are extremely strict.
16:52
Like extremely strict, there was everywhere security everywhere.
16:56
Like there were very strict and also very clear about like if
17:00
you are in a certain corral, like you need to go to that
17:03
corral thing. Also with New York City, as
17:06
there's three different starts. There's a pink start, an orange
17:08
start and a blue start. So you're supposed to go to your
17:12
wave in the corral that's associated with your color.
17:15
So I was in wave two, I was corral D and I was blue.
17:18
So that was a corral that I was supposed to go to.
17:21
You can move backwards, right? So if I wanted to move to corral
17:26
EI could move to corral E or I could move to corral FI could
17:29
not move forward though to corral C.
17:31
That makes sense. After the corrals closed at, you
17:34
know, 925, they opened up like the gates between corrals.
17:39
So I could have like pushed my way forward if I wanted to.
17:43
I didn't care. I wasn't going for a really.
17:45
I had a time goal, but I wasn't like I wasn't super sold on
17:48
that. It didn't really matter.
17:49
I think because of that I knew that like I was going to run the
17:52
race. I just if I didn't make my wave
17:55
two time, like I can move back to wave 3.
17:57
Like I was prepared for that. I had extra snacks.
18:00
Like I do feel like I was overly prepared for that start village
18:03
because I only ended up having like 20 minutes to kind of sit
18:06
down when I was there and I had planned for two.
18:08
Hours, which we always are emphasizing with the people that
18:11
we work with, to have a Plan B, to have multiple options, to
18:14
have backups, to have extras, because we never want to be in
18:17
the opposite type of scenario when it comes to like fueling
18:20
and preparing for some type of an athletic event like a race.
18:23
Did you drop clothing? Did you change shoes?
18:27
Like what did that experience in those 20 minutes look like for
18:29
you in the start village? Like what were the most
18:31
important factors for you and preparing for actually running
18:35
that race? You obviously did have a little
18:36
bit of walking to do once you got into the crowd to the start
18:39
line. So that kind of all adding up
18:41
with like a long period of time between when you left your hotel
18:44
and when you actually started running.
18:46
Like what were those key moments for you or those key like, I
18:48
guess changes in between, like waking up and actually starting
18:52
the race? Yeah, like I said, I was like
18:53
over prepared. So like I had a bunch of
18:56
different layers on that I was easy to kind of able to take
18:58
off. I think if you are running New
19:01
York City, what I would strongly recommend is making sure that
19:03
one of your throw away pieces of clothing because again, kind of
19:07
backing up a little bit, you wear a lot of clothes that
19:08
you're going to drop once you get in the start, you are only
19:12
taking with you like what's on your body.
19:14
So like if there's a jacket that you love or something like that,
19:16
like this is not the race to wear it before because
19:18
everything gets dropped and then it gets donated.
19:21
So my biggest recommendation would be to make sure that you
19:24
have a jacket that zips all the way up because this was actually
19:27
a mistake that I made. And that ended up just being a
19:30
really great coincidence because I dropped all my other clothes.
19:33
But I was able to still wear my jacket because I could show my
19:36
bib number because if I had a sweatshirt, like they have to
19:39
see your bib number to get into the corral.
19:41
So I was still able to wear that jacket and still stay warm
19:45
because they can see my bib number in the front.
19:46
Wow, That's not something that I would have thought of, but it
19:48
totally makes sense and you definitely want to like keep
19:51
your warmth. It was chilly when you guys were
19:53
kind of making your way there. And like, it wasn't the warmest
19:55
day in New York either, which may be perfect conditions for
19:58
running 26.2 miles, but waiting around like you're definitely
20:02
wanting to stay as warm as possible before that race
20:04
starts. What was fueling or what snacks
20:06
did you have for like that waiting period?
20:09
So I originally my plan A was to actually have pop Tarts, but
20:13
what I noticed was like the bagel that I got from my first
20:17
fueling period was actually bigger than I planned because it
20:20
was a New York bagel. It was bigger than what I had
20:22
been practicing with. So I went to my Plan B option,
20:25
which was like a Noka packet, which is like a smoothie packet,
20:28
and then I had a Rice Krispie treat with that at about 8:30.
20:32
My original plan was to like eat as soon as I got to the start
20:34
village, but I ended up being on the bus at like 8:15, which is
20:39
when I wanted to kind of start my breakfast.
20:41
So I had my Noka pack like on the bus and then I had my Rice
20:44
Krispie as soon as I got to the start village.
20:46
I think that really emphasizes the need for flexibility with
20:49
your fueling plan leading into a race like this.
20:51
Because even though you had planned to have it in the
20:53
village, like if there was some reason that you could or you
20:56
couldn't have that on the bus, if you had picked something that
20:58
was harder to eat or something like that, like it would have
21:01
been a different scenario. So having something that like
21:04
could, could have worked in both places.
21:06
You had both places and all of that was like super important
21:09
for making sure like the timing of things worked out.
21:11
Because obviously like the time for when you were having that
21:14
was one of the most important pieces.
21:15
And you knew you had to move that to the bus in order to
21:17
accommodate. Like when you wanted to have
21:19
that digested and ready to use as fuel versus trying to do it
21:22
super close to the start of your race, which obviously, like you
21:24
said, got kind of pushed back because of needing to wait a
21:27
little bit longer for those buses from when you got off the
21:30
ferry and to the village Talking a lot about fueling.
21:33
We've talked a lot about your fueling strategy for during
21:36
runs. You're not someone who like
21:38
enjoys a lot of gels, but tell us a little bit about like what
21:41
you did. Finally, decide on for your
21:43
fueling strategy for your intra during the New York City
21:46
Marathon. I have been pretty open about my
21:48
dislike of gels, but I did actually end up using more in
21:52
gels and they felt really good. Like I feel like they worked
21:55
really well for me. I was doing like a little bit at
21:58
a time. My goal was like 10 grams per
22:00
mile and I also carried a bottle of water with me, but it was a
22:04
water that I, I could like toss if I needed to and I had a sippy
22:07
top which saved my life. I think.
22:09
I highly recommend that. And then again, I could have it
22:12
and I could toss it. So I tossed it at about mile 20.
22:14
But New York was a little bit different because every single
22:17
mile has a water station. So it's a little bit of a
22:19
different fueling availability maybe compared to another race.
22:23
I did end up using the 160 Mortons.
22:26
They are about 40 grams of carbohydrates.
22:28
So I knew that I needed to have one of those at least done every
22:31
4 miles. I tried so hard to remember how
22:35
many gels I used on course, but I feel like it kind of like shit
22:39
hit the fan because when I was running, like people would be
22:42
giving me more in gels. And so I remember like grabbing
22:45
those and then just being like, OK, I need to have 10 grams
22:48
here. I also had a pace band and I had
22:50
circled what I needed to have Gatorade at my stations.
22:54
So I wasn't using it really to pace when you're running or in a
22:57
big race like this, like you need to make, at least for me, I
22:59
need to make it as easy as possible so I could look at my
23:02
band and be like, OK, I circled this.
23:04
This means I need to have Gatorade now, or this means I
23:07
can have water at the station. I stopped doing my gels at about
23:10
mile 22, and then from there on I just took Gatorade and water
23:15
at every single station because I had calculated that there's
23:18
about 8 grams of carbohydrate per cup of Gatorade and that was
23:21
very close to my kind of 10 grams per mile of carbohydrate.
23:25
We've talked a lot about like flavor fatigue and that being
23:27
something that a lot of uriners experience if you're using like
23:29
the same type of gel like throughout your entire race.
23:32
So kind of having that backup plan of knowing that you take
23:35
the Gatorade, which was on course for those last couple of
23:37
miles really helped like kind of offset that idea of needing to
23:40
take gels for those final 6 miles for you, which I love that
23:43
that was an option and available to you.
23:45
I think that having a pace band where you've planned out not
23:48
even just like paces, if that's something that you're kind of
23:50
working towards a like pace specific goal, but having the
23:53
fueling reminders. Because even though it might
23:55
seem really simple to fuel every 3 miles or fuel every 30 minutes
23:59
or whatever your goal is for fueling, that is so easily
24:03
overlooked on race day because there is so much going on.
24:05
And I know that sounds crazy of me because you're like, it's you
24:08
literally just have to run in fuel.
24:09
But there is so much more happening on race day and your
24:13
adrenaline is usually really high.
24:14
It's easy to forget that. So I love that as an additional
24:17
component to help with like a fueling reminder because like
24:19
obviously this is the More Carbs podcast.
24:21
We're talking about fueling, like how important fueling is to
24:24
run and sustain a race and run all of those miles.
24:27
But having that as an additional reminder, I think is so smart.
24:30
Were there any other pieces of your fueling that you feel like
24:34
went really well or that you would recommend other people
24:36
doing to help remind to fuel or help get in fuel like while you
24:40
are leading up to the race or even during?
24:42
I think practicing, like if I had not practiced my fueling,
24:46
like I don't think I would have been able to sustain what I was
24:49
doing with practice, I started to realize that like about mile
24:54
18, like I'm going to start getting sick of like solid fuel
24:58
or even like gels. And so because I knew that, I
25:02
knew that, OK, like I just need to push through.
25:04
And then once I break the wall, right, like I'm going to go to
25:07
liquid energy now. Because what was a really big
25:10
struggle for me is like I can't get down a gummy or a gel.
25:14
Like if I have dry or cotton mouth, that just happens at the
25:17
end of a race. And so knowing that and then at
25:20
that point being like, OK, I'm going to switch to liquid fuel
25:24
here, I think really helped practicing and having that plan
25:27
and having it written out made it so I didn't have to think
25:30
about it. Like I could just do it.
25:32
Taking out that component of trying to calculate during a is
25:35
really smart because then we're like not having to worry about
25:37
that. As an additional piece,
25:39
something that you've talked a little bit about online already
25:42
is how your stomach has felt afterwards.
25:45
And maybe even that being something that was affected by
25:48
like the high amount of carbohydrate that you had as
25:51
part of your fueling, not only during the race, but kind of
25:53
leading up to it now. How are you feeling post race?
25:56
How's your stomach? How are your legs?
25:57
So I feel like my legs are OK, like I think I have shared with
26:01
you, but I feel like immediately after the race I felt more sore
26:05
from a mechanical perspective, like my hips hurt.
26:07
I actually was really happy that I basically had a pain free
26:10
marathon, which I feel like that was a gift from above.
26:14
Thank you. But you know, I have been going
26:16
to PTI have been like trying to do a lot of the the recovery
26:19
pieces. So I did feel really good during
26:22
the marathon. I also went at a slower pace
26:24
than I thought. So I don't know if that plays a
26:26
role in it. I'm actually feeling pretty good
26:27
today. I do think the stomach thing is
26:30
what's been affecting me the most, but that's just something
26:33
kind of that I've been managing and kind of working with my
26:35
entire life. So I kind of expected it to
26:37
happen, to be honest, which it's never fun to have stomach
26:40
issues. And it can also be challenging,
26:42
you know, to fuel your body properly or push your portions
26:44
or things like, you know, we talk about all the time with
26:46
period recovery when you don't have a great appetite or your
26:50
stomach is feeling a little off, you just got to do it.
26:52
Even though we kind of anticipated that your stomach
26:54
was maybe not going to react the best after this had a lot of
26:58
like really positive takeaways from this race and a lot of like
27:01
really, really great memories. I'm sure it's such really an
27:04
iconic race. One of the things that I have to
27:07
share when Riley shared her like bib number for me to track her,
27:10
which I know a lot of people were tracking you that day and
27:12
cheering you on. I pulled it up the morning of
27:14
her race and I was looking at it and I was like, Oh my gosh, it's
27:18
past the time of her expected start time.
27:21
And I started to freak out because I was so nervous.
27:23
Something went wrong. Like Riley didn't get to the
27:25
start line, which I was like, I know she's planned for this.
27:27
So I was so nervous about it. And then my husband reminded me
27:31
that we went through daylight savings and in Arizona.
27:34
Arizona doesn't do daylight savings.
27:35
So we were actually like an hour closer together than what I
27:38
thought. So I was anticipating that Riley
27:40
would have started, but in reality, she hadn't started yet.
27:43
And I still had an hour. And I was so relieved to learn
27:47
that daylight savings had happened.
27:48
Did that impact you at all with, like, the change in time?
27:52
Like, I know we fell back. So you technically got like an
27:53
extra hour of sleep, but did it change things for you?
27:57
Not really. Maybe it gave me an extra hour
27:59
of sleep, but like I got an extra hour of sleep, right?
28:02
Like, and I think that's great, but like I don't usually sleep
28:05
that well before races anyways. So I kind of like took into
28:10
account that I wasn't going to be feeling at least from a sleep
28:12
perspective, great. And I had been trying to like
28:15
make up for sleep like earlier on in the week.
28:17
And I know you can't make it up like that, but I was trying to
28:19
set up like A at least a good foundation.
28:21
I was a little nervous though with that that it might throw
28:24
off my hunger because I'm very clockwork with like when I get
28:28
hungry I think just because of the nerves I didn't feel.
28:30
It OK, so the nerves are almost like a good thing in that case,
28:33
kind of masked the hunger the whole time, but then it didn't
28:35
impact it in a way where you only felt hungry at certain
28:38
times. Yeah.
28:38
So it just, I think because of everything else that was going
28:42
on, like I don't know if it really affected me at least
28:45
mentally that much. I'm sure it might have
28:46
physically affected me, but not mentally.
28:49
What are your final things that you want to share about your
28:51
race experience? Oh my.
28:52
Gosh, I don't know, I think it just was so fun.
28:54
And I think that I'm so excited and like proud that I didn't
29:00
necessarily like freak out in the beginning because I was
29:03
running slower because I had trained for a certain pace or I
29:07
had an idea of a pace I wanted in my brain.
29:09
And I knew at like after 2 miles like that wasn't happening.
29:12
And then I just was like, F it, right?
29:14
And I think, you know, we have talked about like, I ran 1/2 a
29:17
couple months ago and like that didn't go how I wanted it to be.
29:21
And I really freaked out and I, you know, ruined that race for
29:25
myself. And I'm really glad that I
29:27
didn't do that this time. That makes sense.
29:29
And I just was able to enjoy it. And I really think that because
29:33
I was able to kind of just enjoy it and take it all in.
29:35
And I saw one of my athletes that I've worked with before
29:38
and, you know, I stopped and talked to her.
29:40
And if I had been trying to really push for pace, like I
29:42
wouldn't have never had that opportunity.
29:44
So I think especially with these big races, like, it's just to
29:47
remember like, we're supposed to enjoy running.
29:49
We're supposed to enjoy our sport.
29:51
And I think sometimes, like, we just really lose that piece of
29:53
the plot. Oh, I'm so glad that you brought
29:55
this up and that you shared that.
29:57
I know that you had a whole team of people that were kind of
30:00
helping you prepare and plan for this.
30:01
You shared a little bit about like your coach and also like
30:04
PT. What about the mental side of
30:05
things? We talked a lot about like the
30:07
mental side of, you know, fueling and the mental side of
30:10
preparing for this race. But like, how did you approach
30:13
this differently knowing like some of the things that you'd
30:15
experienced in the past from like previous races and like the
30:18
mindset? I worked with Emily Parent a
30:20
little bit. We both know Emily.
30:22
She's a good friend of both of us.
30:23
I think she helped me. I also think that practicing it
30:27
right, like practicing it doing different races, right?
30:31
Like practicing how I was adjusting my mindset with
30:34
things, implementing things like on my day-to-day life.
30:38
So not just focusing on like my stress on race days, but like
30:42
looking at how I'm moving through stress, how I'm handling
30:45
stress, like that type of emotional regulation.
30:47
Like outside of my sport, I'm calling myself a runner now, but
30:51
basically, you know, like outside of the activity, I think
30:55
was really helpful because I didn't feel stressed at all.
30:57
Like logistically, yes. Did I cry on the bridge when the
31:00
race started? Yes, I was just overwhelmed, but
31:03
I wasn't stressed ever about like my pace.
31:05
Like I think, you know, preparing and at least being
31:07
confident in your training plan, being confident in your fueling
31:10
plan, and then also just being confident with like, this is
31:13
what's gonna happen. I think something that Emily and
31:15
I have talked a lot about is like, things are going to be
31:18
hard, but like, how do you move through that?
31:20
And something that she shared with me that I felt like was
31:23
really helpful was like, when things get hard, how do I like
31:26
make it better? Do I put my headphones on?
31:28
Do I drink some water? Do I drink some Gatorade?
31:30
Like do I have my gel? Do I work on breathing?
31:32
Like how do I work through the barrier that has come up?
31:36
And I think that was really helpful because I'm like such a
31:38
doer. If things get hard, it was like,
31:40
OK, how do I make this better? And I was like I have my list of
31:42
my 5 things that could help me get better.
31:44
There's so much to take away and so much more that I'm sure could
31:47
share about your marathon experience.
31:49
If you guys are interested in running a first race, running a
31:53
marathon, kind of strategies for approaching fueling and
31:56
strategies for approaching running a race.
31:59
Riley and I can do a full separate episode on like
32:01
preparing for your first race and kind of how to maybe go
32:04
about about that from more of a logistics standpoint.
32:06
So that way you feel as prepared as Riley did showing up for her
32:09
race. If you do have additional
32:11
questions for Riley and I about running a marathon, fueling
32:15
period recovery, please reach out to us.
32:16
You can always leave questions that you have in the comments of
32:19
this podcast, or you can find us online.
32:21
You can find Riley at easy dot sports dot nutrition and you can
32:23
find me at Jenna dot Fisher dot nutrition.
32:26
Thank you so much for listening to this episode.
32:27
Please make sure you rate, subscribe and review.
32:30
And as always, remember to eat more carbs.