How do you fuel for a marathon when you have IBS?

IvyandEleanor

Hiya all, I'm really struggling to fuel up for my races. I have IBS which is worse in a morning so it's really difficult to eat anything at all before a morning race. I am going to practice using some gels and isotonic drinks but I've also been told that I also need to take in carbohydrates and not just sugar. My first marathon is in October so I am building my distance slowly but did a 10.5mile slow run last week and I had to walk from mile 8 as I had run out of energy. The longest I have ever run is a half marathon years ago and I had to be almost carried by my friend to a pub afterwards to get some food and sugary drinks down me so this is why I am very nervous. p.s. I am lactose intolerant too and don't like eggs. Does anyone have any advice they can give me or have you been through this yourself and have found a solution? Thanks in advance. Jemma xxx

Desi2479

Try Huma gels. My husband has a really sensitive stomach and they have not bothered him in the time we've used them. I usually have to buy them from their website or Amazon because I can't find them in stores.

jgnatca

Good news. Sugars are carbohydrates.

You got generic advice for people without IBS. You know what you can tolerate. Follow that.

deannalfisher

you could try a liquid nutrition - I use tailwind pretty much exclusively for my endurance events - it doesn't give me gut issues; there is also infinite that people swear by (it gave me horrible gas)

you could try a service like thefeed.com - where you can do samples of different nutrition and try to see what works the best for you

rybo

Well the good news is that you don't HAVE to eat anything before a morning run, yes even a marathon. But, you will need to practice that way in training and your previous day's food intake needs to be sufficient to get you started. You will need to take in race calories. This can be gels, chews, sports drinks or whatever you find that you are able to tolerate. You'll be fine, it just may take some figuring out

IvyandEleanor

Thank you for all your advice, I guess it's just trial and error until I find what works. I was out on my long (ish) run and nipped into a small corner shop to get some jelly baby type sweets as I was really struggling. I only had 5 and my stomach turned straight away I'll buy a few different gels and see how I get on with those. Thank you again. I'm not scared of the distance, it's not getting the fuelling right that worries me!

Keira08

I suffer from IBS & struggle to run with anything in my stomach. On my marathon morning I woke up at 5am to have some oats then went back to bed then had half a naked smoothie on my way to the start line. During the run I just had electrolytes in water, I found I didn't need anything else