What to eat before running a 5K

slepygrl

Hey Everyone!
I'm running my second 5K this Saturday. What should I eat the day before the race and morning of? Everyone says I need to "carb load". Honestly I have no idea what that is!

Thanks!

tenunderfour

I don't carb load for anything less than a full marathon. Eat what you want. It's only 3.1 miles. You will be fine.

AmyRhubarb

I'm running my second 5k on Saturday too!

What did you do for your first race? Like tenunderfour said, for a 5k, all the carb loading isn't so necessary. Eat a good healthy dinner the night before, and make sure you're hydrating all day on Friday. How early is your race? Mine has a 6:30am start, so not a lot of time to eat a whole lot before unless I want to get up super early. And there's a pancake breakfast after the race, so I will probably just have half an apple or banana & some almond butter, or maybe a piece of toast with almond butter before I leave the house.

Either way, most advice I've read says do what you'd normally do if you were just going out for a run as part of your daily workouts - eat the same things, wear the same things. Never try anything new on race day.

Good luck on Saturday and have fun!

3dogsrunning

Ditto PPs - no need to carb load for a 5k.
As for what to eat the morning of - what you normally eat before a training run. Not a great idea to switch it up. Stick with what works.