Quote Originally Posted by hellospaceboy View Post
oh, no post here since the Boston tragedy. I hope you guys are all safe, not sure if anyone from here was running it (or knows someone who did). It's a shame what happened.
Boston was (and still is, I assume) the crown jewel of marathons, and my dream is to one day qualify for it, even if I couldn't attend the actual event...

I also have a practical question: what kinda nutritional supplements do you use DURING your marathon run? The one time I ran I didn't prepare with anything (I was quite naive) and hit "the wall" hard at the 23 mile mark. I'd prefer NOT to do that again.

Any suggestions? (and silly follow up question: whatever you use, is it vegan?)
I knew three people who ran in Boston last week, I think the third person finished about 15 minutes prior to the bombings. It hurt me because the marathon is one of my most loved things on this earth and to see someone hurt people who were there (running and spectating) made me a little depressed and sad not so much as anger until we knew who was labeled as a suspect. I hope to qualify for it one day as well, I have to drop some near 20 pounds to get help get my speed faster.

To answer your questions, I use GU gels or Clif shots/blocks during the marathon. Usually I will try to get a banana in there around the 16th mile as well as an orange slice. I thought about carrying salt packets on me since I tend to lose quite a bit of salt while doing those long distances. I don't know if the GU or Clif stuff is vegan or not, you might have to check online.

Just as an update, I did do my 5th marathon on April 7th - Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon. It was my third time completing it with a 5:04:24 and last year I had a PR in it with a 5:02:59. I am really antsy to break 5 hours there and 5 hours overall. I was on point to finish with a 4:25 but I cramped up at the 16 mile since I had been pushing pretty hard the first half. I am going to go down to Atlanta this October to run their marathon, I am going to have to concentrate on hills more than I did for Knoxville since I have heard that the Atlanta course is more rolling hills.