Food consumed before the race is only useful once it has been digested and absorbed. This means you need to time your food intake so that the fuel becomes available during the exercise period. A general guide is to have a meal about 3-4 hours before exercise or a lighter snack about 1-2 hours before exercise. In the case of an 8am start, most athletes will prefer to have a lighter snack 1-2 hours before the event and a larger supper the night before. Make sure you practice your race morning meal many times to see what foods are best tolerated.
A good pre-race snack is something that has a low Glycaemic Index, however is low in fibre, so will not sit in your stomach. An example of some good snacks that you might aim to have at about 6:30am could be:
• milk shake or fruit smoothie
• sports/ cereal bars (check labels for carbohydrate and protein content)
• breakfast cereal with milk
• liquid meal supplement
• fruit-flavoured yoghurt
• fruit

Aim to drink 300 – 500ml fluid with the pre-event meal then 150-300 ml every 15-20 minutes until about 7:15am. This helps to prime the stomach and improves gastric emptying during a race.

Note that a small number of people experience an extreme reaction following the intake of carbohydrate in the hour prior to exercise. Any athlete, but especially those that experience this large drop in blood sugar levels, or “rebound hypoglycaemia”, should have an intake of greater than 75g carbohydrates pre-race. Also, include some high-intensity activity in your warm-up - this helps to stimulate glucose release from the liver and prevents blood glucose levels from dropping too low.

Written by Tara Diversi

http://www.taradiversi.com.au/