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THE BETTER RUN · NO. 04
You're not slow at km 16. You're empty.
How much to eat on long runs and race day, and a simple plan for a 2-hour half.
Hey {{first_name|runner}},
You know the moment. Km 16, the pace slips, your legs go heavy, and it feels like you're just not fit enough.
Most of the time, you are. You just ran out of fuel.
WHY IT HAPPENS
Your muscles store a limited amount of carbohydrate. At race effort you burn through it fast, and when it runs low, your body slows you down. The fix isn't more training. It's eating while you run.
WHAT RUNNERS ACTUALLY DO
At the 2022 Seville Marathon, researchers asked 160 runners what they ate during the race. The average was 35 g of carbs per hour: less than half of what works.
Runners who hit 60 to 90 g per hour were more likely to finish under 3 hours.
HOW MUCH YOU NEED
For scale: a gel is usually 20 to 25 g of carbs, and a banana about 25 g.
YOUR 2-HOUR HALF, SORTED
Start at 30 minutes, not when you feel tired. By then it is too late.
Take each gel with a few sips of water.
Caffeine helps: about 3 mg per kg, 60 minutes before. For 70 kg that is roughly 2 cups of coffee. Skip it if you haven't tried it in training.
TRY IT THIS WEEK
On your next run over 75 minutes, take a gel at 30 and 60 minutes. Your gut needs training too.
Then hit reply: what do you eat on long runs? We read every answer.
A quick word from today's partner.
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Eat early, finish strong,
The Better Run
Sources: Jeukendrup A. A step towards personalized sports nutrition: carbohydrate intake during exercise. Sports Medicine, 2014. Jiménez-Alfageme R, et al. Seville Marathon nutrition study. Sports Medicine - Open, 2025. Guest NS, et al. ISSN position stand: caffeine and exercise performance. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2021.