Training Tip 4: Eating, Drinking during the Race

Training Tip 4 from Little Rock Marathon Coach Hobbit Singleton:

You have your shoes, you have your goals, you have your training schedule, you're committed.

Now, something else that is very important is you need to learn how to eat and drink while you're training and running, or walking.

Unlike a 5K, when most of us will be finished within 60 minutes, most of us are going to be out there on the marathon or half marathon course anywhere from two to eight hours. So, you wouldn't sit at your desk for eight hours without eating and drinking anything, and at your desk you're not working nearly as hard as you are trying to get yourself down the road.

That's one of the things that training is very, very good for you. You want to learn what your body can tolerate and how often you need to eat and how often you need to drink. Don't tell me that you're going to do this "I don't need to drink because I don't want to have to go to the bathroom," I don't want to hear it.

Your body needs fuel and water to keep going down the road.

Click here for the 2011 Marathon Training Fact Sheet.