Running to Eat or Eating to Run:A Personal Perspective
Dave Shipman
A couple of triggers have prompted me to write something down and share aspects of my experience of running / eating over the last 20-odd years.
The first was a description in Geoff Simpson's eulogy at the funeral that the Elvet Striders is a running club where people put as much efffort into socialising, eating and drinking as they do into the pursuit of athletic excellence and competition,which at the ensuing house gathering was later translated by one of Geoff's friends into "The Striders - you sound like a running club with an eating disorder and a drink problem ." He may be right ,and it has the makings of a good club motto or a t-shirt ........certainly many of us run to keep fit / keep the weight off / prevent the beer gut from growing too fast or as a brutal way of cleansing the system after a heavy session the night before.
The second trigger has been recent developments at the Harrier League ,where the number of Striders participating has increased directly in relation to the number of cakes provided afterwards !! For me it began with the Sherman Cup late in 2006 ,when the most amazing chocolate fudge brownies were passed round,at Consett it was ginger sponge and malteser cake, at Farringdon it was a glorious iced date and walnut cake, chocolate chip cake and a large box of chocolates....who knows what feast will be available for the next round in February ... ???
However, please be reassured that I am not about to take on the role of club confectioner or even recipes columnist, there are many others who would be better placed to do so,as evidenced by the marvellous fayre described above. Instead I will concentrate on that difficult topic of what to eat before you run ....
When I first started running I was firmly of the view, drilled into me by numerous rugby coaches, that you shouldn't eat for at least two hours before exercise and water should only be taken on board if runs lasted for more than an hour or so. Such an approach seemed to make sense to me as I reacted with stomach cramps / stitch or a highly active digestive system ( code for the shits !! ) whenever I broke those rules. But, then came the great running boom and we all practiced drinking water and later energy drinks on long runs in order to benefit from the proliferation of drink stations which started to appear at races. Strange as it may now seem there were "old school " runners around at that time who moaned that such runs were no longer proper road races, that drinking lots of water wasn't helpful, something hard to imagine now, as all sports bring out the water bottles at every opportunity and the scientific benefits of staying hydrated are well known. Moving with the times I started to overcome my fear of drinking water before or during a race,though my volatile stomach persists and I do usually avoid food for an hour before running if its going to be anything more than a comfortable training run.
Bearing that in mind ,I thought I should pass on some of my pre-race "No-No"s, all tested out in the heat of competition.
1. Apples, good for you, and chemically beneficial regarding exercise, but almost certain to give you indigestion, or much worse, on the first hard hill, or in my case the horrible 3rd lap of a 1500 meters track race.
2. A full English Beakfast - tried this as I'd paid for a good b+b the night before the Northumberland Coastal Run and wanted to get my money's worth, made it as far as Craster Harbour before the fried bread and tomatoes reappeared.
3. No direct connection with the example above, but Craster kippers, served up by someone making what they thought was a caring gesture in the early stages of romance, well I had to eat them, and the many slices of brown bread and butter that came with them ... I then charged off to the Harrier League at Jarrow - no longer used but more famous for its prolific dog crap than for the beauty of the course. I will spare you the details ,but lets just say the taste of Craster kippers, and probably the smell, stayed with a corner of a Jarrow field and with me throughout the race and for several hours afterwards. I tried cleaning my teeth, mouthwash, chewing gum but to no avail. After the shake-up of the race Cillitt Bang would probably have been required to shift the kippers, which seemed to stick somewhere between mouth and stomach for several days !!
Over time I have discovered that such activity is very individual and often situational, so we will all have our own tried and tested favourites and similar experiences. For example, on my first London Marathon, at about 18miles I ate an ice lolly to very good effect. At the finish, not really knowing whether I wanted to throw up or whether I was starving and dehydrated, I ate and drank everything they passed my way, but a combination of a beaker of Marmite, a Mars Bar and a ham sandwich didn't make me feel good. Similarly, at the Blaydon Race I have never found the combination of tripe, warm beer and pease pudding to settle the stomach too well. Imagine my confusion when I entered into the murky world of fell running, at my first Yorkshireman they were all drinking tea and eating fruit cake about 10 minutes before the start. At my first Swaledale Marathon I shook my head in disbelief as runners grabbed handfuls of jam sandwiches at the 15 mile mark, closely followed at the Gunnerside checkpoint by the offer of a hot meal and pudding ... how could anyone run the last 5 miles after that, but they did, and many flew past me on that last stretch.
However, I do recognise that as my running has matured and my knowledge has expanded I have adapted my approach succesfully. Supporting fellow Striders on the Bob Graham Round I have eaten an assortment of cakes, sandwiches and hot drinks with the best of them. My own pre-race favourite is wholemeal toast ( slices x 2 ) with butter and a generous spread of Mike Bennett's home made jam, at least 1 hour before a race ( incidentally Mike's favourite is a big bowl of porridge ).You will all have your own routines, if you haven't my pointers may save you some painful experimentation. Certainly newer club members have been seen wolfing down bananas or energy gels minutes before the gun, gargling isotonic and mysterious chemical potions rather than flat coca cola and black coffee. There was a time when serious track runners drank Milk of Magnesia and sucked peppermints, long distance runners munched fig biscuits or jaffa cakes, jelly babies and wine gums appear to have had their day. I could go on to share my perspective on eating and cycling, based on in-depth research with Barry Bird in the Pyrenees,but I think thats for another article ...
