Eating on LONG races - what do you pack?

orange_you_glad

I have a 7 hour navigation race coming up this weekend, which I'm pretty stoked about. I've done them in the past, and they are super fun. On top of being on the move (sometimes running, sometimes hiking, mostly off-trail) for many hours, the biggest challenge is eating enough, regularly, so that I don't get blood sugar crashes. Usually this means 100-200 calories every hour, plus water with electrolytes. The fun thing is that on race day, as long as I get the calories, there are no true good/bad foods, though I definitley need a mix of protein, fat, and carbs to keep me going. Running the numbers, I'm expecting to burn anywhere between 3000-4000 cals during the race (not including BMR!).

In the past, I've carried the following:

- beef jerky
- bagel and cream cheese plus peanut butter
- nuts/chocolate/trail mix
- swedish fish (these are AWESOME -- light, delicious, full of sugar)
- protein bars
- fresh fruit
- fruit leather/dehydrated fruit
- cookies

What do you carry with you? Anything that you thought would be weird, but worked out? Totally open to suggestions!

BrianSharpe

Sorry, haven't tried anything that challenging but your food selection looks pretty good (real food beats having to squeeze out a couple of gels during a race! )

gnalani

Peanut butter sandwiches are my favorite (I tried with jelly once and it hurt my stomach). I also love chocolate chip cookies during a race! For some reason the sugar in jelly killed me, but I could eat chocolate all race long lol.