Marathon - Immediate Pre Race Nutrition

The Wexican

Hi, Running the Madrid Marathon on Sunday, and last night discovered the only option for breakfast was expressos & pastries in the hotel. I've always had porridge before any race and was hoping to just be able to pop some in the microwave in the hotel, but no joy. Can anyone recommend anything I could pick up before heading over that would work as as good subsititute, as I don't want to be messing with anything untried the day of the race.

Thanks

RayCun

Instant porridge? You should be able to get hot water from the hotel

couerdelion

You can add milk/water to the oats the night before and in the morning the porridge will be ready to eat albeit cold. The liquid is just absorbed over the time. Use about 50/50 mix of liquid to oats.

Micilin Muc

couerdelion wrote: »

You can add milk/water to the oats the night before and in the morning the porridge will be ready to eat albeit cold. The liquid is just absorbed over the time. Use about 50/50 mix of liquid to oats.

I have found uncooked porridge to be very harsh on my stomach compared to cooked porridge.

TFBubendorfer

I was once in the same position and brought my own porridge oats and used water from the kettle.

Not exactly the height of luxury but it did the trick and I would do the same again. (well, ideally I'd stay in a better place but you know what I mean)

robinph

Get some instant porridge from Tesco, they come in a pot. The hotel at the very least will have a kettle and spoons for making coffee and that is all you need.

shels4ever

i'd go with the instant stuff also, if you cant get that maybe a bagle or two.

arch_stanton

Sunday is going to be the first marathon for me so I can't advise too much on pre-race breakfast.

If you're staying near a Corte Ingles supermarket or a VIPS shop they often have frozen bagels. You could leave them defrost overnight and tuck in in the morning. It's hard to find fresh ones. If you give me an idea of where your hotel is I might be able to point you in the right direction.

Let me know if you have any logistics questions. I know the city and the course pretty well and last year I ran the 10k that starts alongside the marathon

The Wexican

I'll give the porridge a go in the morning with the water, though from past experience don't think it'll be a goer. Might just get some oat biscuits instead and maybe a bagel and some peanut butter.

Will teach me to do little bit more research in future regarding hotels

The Wexican

arch_stanton wrote: »

Sunday is going to be the first marathon for me so I can't advise too much on pre-race breakfast.

If you're staying near a Corte Ingles supermarket or a VIPS shop they often have frozen bagels. You could leave them defrost overnight and tuck in in the morning. It's hard to find fresh ones. If you give me an idea of where your hotel is I might be able to point you in the right direction.

Let me know if you have any logistics questions. I know the city and the course pretty well and last year I ran the 10k that starts alongside the marathon

We're staying on the Grand Via, just opposite the Metro stop. I'm assuming it should be a handy metro down to close to the start. But we'll be all doing a trial run on Saturday morning.

TheRoadRunner

The Wexican wrote: »

We're staying on the Grand Via, just opposite the Metro stop. I'm assuming it should be a handy metro down to close to the start. But we'll be all doing a trial run on Saturday morning.

Yeah you are very close to start. Metro in Madrid is excellent.

I had the exact same problem with breakfast in Madrid 2 years back. Ended up eating some bread, biscuits and a banana. Did me grand. Try suss out somewhere to eat the night before as well. We eventually found a great Italian that did the trick.

Get to the expo as early as possible. Foreign runners have to collect number from a different queue and it can be a disaster. Make sure you bring id and confirmation letter. I also had proof of payment which was handy as they had no record of me at all when it can to registering.

arch_stanton

The start line is only about 15 minutes walk from Gran Via metro. Unfortunately this year it looks like they're not going to take bags from the starting area to the finish line. If you want to leave a bag you'll have to drop it off at the finish line. The closest metro to the finish is Ibiza.

If you want to buy food stroll 5 minutes up Gran Via to Callao and there's a supermarket in the basement of the Corte Ingles. Enjoy Madrid and best of luck on Sunday

The Wexican

arch_stanton wrote: »

The start line is only about 15 minutes walk from Gran Via metro. Unfortunately this year it looks like they're not going to take bags from the starting area to the finish line. If you want to leave a bag you'll have to drop it off at the finish line. The closest metro to the finish is Ibiza.

Had seen that might just leave the bag with the OH to save the hassle in the morning

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Get to the expo as early as possible. Foreign runners have to collect number from a different queue and it can be a disaster. Make sure you bring id and confirmation letter. I also had proof of payment which was handy as they had no record of me at all when it can to registering.

Thanks for that had originally been planning on heading out sometime Saturday afternoon.

Thud

did Madrid a few years back, Expo was in Casa de Campos, ended up queing in the sun for a long time, which wasn't ideal so try get there earlier.

TheRoadRunner

The Wexican wrote: »

Thanks for that had originally been planning on heading out sometime Saturday afternoon.

Oh god now, get out there ASAP. By the way don't know if you seen this but here is garmin data for the course linky. It's a toughie. Warm weather was an issue the year I did it. I enjoyed it though.

Thud wrote: »

did Madrid a few years back, Expo was in Casa de Campos, ended up queing in the sun for a long time, which wasn't ideal so try get there earlier.

I was lucky to avoid this but some of my club mates weren't so lucky

The Wexican

I've prepared for hills from reading comments elsewhere. The course profile on the race website didn't look as severe as the garmin link, which made think it wasn't as bad as people made it out to be. But that link is a nice and timely reminder.

Looking at the weekend forecast, weather hopefully shouldn't be an issue, cloudy with top temps of 19 should be ok.

tHE vAGGABOND

I bought porridge and honey in a supermarket in paris last week when I had the same issue.

Folks I met were amazed I was able to find Porridge, but there were several types available, including stuff like Quaker oats [but I got the fancy organic ones which looked identical but were 2 or 3 times the price :eek:]