Not one menu is a perfect fit for all athletes, but there are some general rules that everyone can use as a guide during the final 24 hours leading into your race.

As the season looms near, with some of us already kicking off our racing with an early Spring marathon or maybe even Ironman 70.3® in Oceanside, CA, the topic of what to eat comes to everyone’s mind. If race nutrition isn’t something you’ve previously thought of, NOW is a perfect time to start!

Those final 24 hours before the big race are always filled with nervous anticipation, especially if it’s your first time toeing the line in a triathlon, marathon or even your first local 5K. Over time, that feeling slowly diminishes, but unfortunately never goes completely away, even after years of racing. All the ‘what ifs’ fill your head…What if I get kicked during the swim, get flat on the bike or cramp on the run? What if I forget my helmet? These things are all par-for-the-course and are part of the excitement of choosing to participate in any endurance-sporting event versus hiding under the covers on a Saturday morning.

With all these thoughts flooding your head, there’s another critical component to your final countdown to the gun – what do I eat? This is a very easy question but the only person who has the answer is you!

Not one menu is a perfect fit for all athletes, but there are some general rules that everyone can use as a guide during the final 24 hours leading into your race.

Hydration is Job #1: Possibly the single biggest issue which could negatively impact your race is dehydration. Losing as little as 1% of your body weight in fluid can decrease performance by up to 10 percent. A priority should be to start the race with your fluid reserves at full capacity. Lucky for you, this is very easy to accomplish.

• Use Fluid Replacement Drinks. Fluid replacement drinks such as Cytomax, Accelerade, EFS or HEED are better than using water alone because it helps you maintain proper electrolyte balance. What you consume vs. what you retain are two completely different things and these fluid replacement drinks can make a dramatic difference.

• Pass the salt. Many athletes will begin to heavily salt their foods in the days leading up to an event, especially if conditions are expected to be overly warm. As was noted above, this helps the body retain water and reduces the likelihood of getting to the starting line dehydrated.

• Don’t over-consume. Only consume enough fluid so that your urine is very light to clear in color. Continuing to drink past this point could affect your electrolyte balance and negatively impact your sleep pattern. In addition, there’s nothing worse than disruptive sleep and having to visit the bathroom every few hours the night before your big day!

Eating “Clean” is Job #2: The last thing you want to do is have your toes at the water’s edge ready to kick-start your race and nature calls leaving you scrambling for the closest Port-o-John!

• Find your meal. There’s no “one-size-fits-all” diet that works for every athlete, but one thing that holds true is to stick with a diet that your body can easily digest. As a general rule, in the 24 hours before your race, you want to avoid those foods that are slow to empty from your stomach. Foods that fall into this category include those that are high in fat, high in fiber or other high processed meals. Basically the more simple a meal, the better. As an example, here’s one of my favorite pre-race dinners.

• Don’t let your last meal do you in. Your last large meal should be finished at least 12 hours before your scheduled start. This means that if you have a scheduled start of 7 a.m. on Saturday, you should finish your last meal by 7 p.m. on Friday. This will ensure everything is fully digested before the race kicks off. This is not to say that there shouldn’t still be significant calorie consumption between that last large meal and the start of your event, but the ratio of liquid vs. solid calories should be heavily weighted towards the liquid variety.

Morning Eating Job #3: Liquid versus solid calories – do you eat an energy bar or a smoothie? Do you drink your breakfast risking hunger or eat a hearty one and risk heartburn?

• Watery First Meal. More and more athletes are leaning towards a liquid diet on race morning as the calories are much more easily digested and you are also typically aiding in hydration. Timing is also less critical with a liquid meal as it will empty from your stomach much quicker than a solid meal with a similar nutrient profile. As discussed in ”Job #2,” there’s no single meal that is best for every athlete, but if you haven’t yet looked into the possibility of a liquid meal, the ’08 season may be the place to start. A good rule of thumb is the shorter the race, the higher the intensity and the more critical it is for you to be at the starting line with your breakfast out of your stomach. There’s nothing worse than racing as hard as you can and being at the 1st mile of a 5K and having some of your breakfast ‘burping’ back up on you. Conversely, at a longer distance event, the pace can be considerably less and the likelihood of digesting calories is greater. But something to keep in mind…a bagel is still a bagel when it gets into your stomach and needs to go through MANY steps to get to a point where it’s broken down and can be used by your muscles. Conversely, liquid calories in the form of a smoothie or meal replacement such as Met-Rx, Metabolol or Ultramet are MUCH easier to digest and will exit quickly from your stomach.

• Solid Meals Before Race: If you’ve determined through training that your system prefers and can tolerate solid foods before your event, be sure this meal is finished at least two hours before your start time. Again using our 7 a.m. start time, this would mean your last bite should finish by 5 a.m. In those final two hours before your event, it’s important that you keep your hydration capped. Keep drinking fluid replacement drinks right up until the gun goes off.

There are many more elements to perfecting your individual pre- and race-day plan, but hopefully this will help get you going in the right direction. After all is said and done, and your race day is over, make sure you keep a record of what you ate so you can refer to it in the future. If you had any digestive issues, you will want to make note of it and if everything went as planned, you want to make sure you can repeat that same recipe for your next event.

If you have any other specific questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Good luck with your season, hope to see you at the races!!

Brian Shea comes to Competitor with a wealth of experience in endurance sports as both a triathlete and coach. He has been competing in all levels of endurance sports from 5K to Ironman to Ultra-marathon, including the Ironman Hawaii World Championships with a 9:31 personal best. On the coaching side, he is a USAT certified coach and has worked with athletes ranging from beginners to professionals. Brian is also the President/Owner of www.PersonalBestNutrition.com, a nutritional supplement resource specifically catering to the needs of endurance athletes and can be reached at Brian@PersonalBestNutrition.com.