Boston post race report, very abbreviated

So I ran the race, had a great time, and wasn't too affected by the tradegy that unfolded.  I don't really want to talk about that since it's well covered by other sources.  All I can say is I heard 2 booms, and later a 3rd, which a police officer said was a controlled explosion of another device they found.  We should pray for all those involved. 

As for pacing, I ended up running just over 3:01, so a bit slower than my goal time.  Everyone who said don't go out too fast was right, but I didn't listen.  I of course don't really know what would have happened had I run 10s/mile slower for the first 4 miles, I may have just finished 40s slower. My best guess is that I would have been a bit faster on the last few miles, but it's hard to say.  Anyway, at the end the little muscle above the knee on the quad was pretty tired, and the experts claim running downhill too fast at the start will trash your quads.  I felt pretty good the whole time, and I really didn't fall apart until the last mile or so when I turned in a 7:30 mile in contrast to the sub or low 7's I'd been seeing the rest of the day.  I tried to use the HRM to control pace, but it quit on me well before the day was done.  Thanks Garmin!

As for nutrition, I had a bagel, banana  and yogurt for breakfast.  I followed the above pre race hydration plan.  However 5 minutes before the gun was to go off, I had a gel and a few oz of water.  Critical to a comfortable start was a pre race bathroom visit, only minutes before the gun.  I skipped the first aid station, and drank at nearly every other however.  I skipped a few when my belly felt bad, and instead of drinking dumped the water on my head.  I also only ate 9 honey packets, instead of the 18 my time would have predicted.  Maybe more honey would have helped but I was trying to listen to my stomach.  I also had 3 endurolytes.  The package said 100mg/tab in contrast to the 40 mg listed on the website.  For the most part I avoided any GI issues, so that was good.  Who knows what would've happened with a different plan, perhaps the final mile would have been 50s faster.  

I would like to learn more about the effects of dumping the water on your head.  On the one hand, it could be a way to achieve evaporative cooling without having to pass the liquid through your stomach, although it clearly won't help you metabolize your fuel or increase your blood volume.  On the other hand, it could send a wrong signal to your body causing it to cease it's natural heat management techniques, leading to a worse outcome overall.  This is completely speculative, and I'd love to know if there exist a set of conditions under which such an idea would describe reality.  

Hope this helps someone thinking about marathon nutrition and pacing.

marathon fueling strategy

I'm going to be doing a marathon soon, and I thought I'd record my fueling strategy here in case it goes well I'll have a record, and anyone who cares to can reference it.  

1 day before race: run a hard two miles (race pace), eat a good breakfast with plenty of protein and carbs, but not much for fiber and fat.  Avoid high fat high fiber foods all day.  Drink .6 oz/lbs of body weight of water.

Morning of race: Drink ~12 oz water/hr, but stop 30 minutes before race. Complete a breakfast of 200-400 calories with minimal simple sugar, fiber, and fat 3 hours before start.  A plain bagel with plain yogurt has been a winner in the past.  Consume one GU type package 6 minutes before start. 

During race: Drink water as much as possible at aid stations, and consume one honey packet every 10 minutes or as stomach allows.  Consume 1-2 Hammer Endurolyte/hour based on perceived sweat/drink rate. 

This is based off different sources such as the hammer nutrition fueling guide, an article on active.com, and my own experiences of course.

Here's some ramblings: It might make sense to make the endurolyte number based on the drink rate.  Cups are ~4oz, and 18 oz/hr is a likely maximum water intake.  Normal Saline has a concentration of 9g of sodium/ Liter, or 2.11 g/ 8oz serving.  A saltier sports drink like Skratch Labs Exercise Drink has 130 mg of sodium per 8 oz.  An endurolyte tablet has 40 mg.  So one could take more than one tablet per drink (from a marathon aid station cup), in principle.  I'm not convinced this is a great idea. 

I find this sort of thing very hard.  Running marathon pace for a marathon time causes all sorts of GI problems, and it's hard to replicate such an effort in training.  You can go that hard or you can go that long, but if you do both you're going to be wiped out for a good while.  I keep some notes, but one doesn't really know if problems were caused by too much of one thing or too much of another.  This combo has worked okay for me in the past however.