Unless he was a Gunnery Sergeant in the Marines, I doubt gun goes by gunny.

I always eat before a race, but it depends on distance and starting time. My strategy for longer races is to eat a quality meal the night before (not necessarily pasta) and have a few bowls of cereal before I go to bed. The morning of:

A. Something light - granola bar, muffin, etc.
B. Half a bagel or bowl of cereal
C. Since I'm assuming you are including 20 miles as your longest training run, I'll eat half or a full bagel, depending on how hungry I am, but I"ll bring food for the run, just in case. I always run with a granola bar in my hand bottle anyway. On my training runs, though, I rarely eat unless I'm going out for longer than three hours or two hours on trails.
D. Full bagel and extra depending on the race start. If I have to travel to the race or if I have a wait at a corral, I'll bring a granola bar or apple.

Race day diet is entirely personal preference. As a rule of thumb, you don't really need food unless you're going longer than three hours, and its important that you don't *overeat* during a race. Definitely don't listen to people when they say to have a gel every 45 minutes, I think that's insanity. Definitely don't listen to redhouse when he says you need food after 40 minutes. A solid strategy for a marathon or long run would be two or three gels max, like Gen Lee said, and eat them before you get hungry. However, if you plan on being on the course for 4-5 hours +, you'll probably want something solid towards the end, since the thought of another gel will make you want to hurl. M&Ms, raisins, and pretzels are all good options and can be carried easily. Experiment with different foods and gels and see what works, and check what the race gives out. You don't want to be eating some off-brand product the day of the race that you haven't trained with.

Not a clue, is gun what he goes by?

Gunfighter, since I'm assuming you're running a Tough Mudder (or something similar), count on waiting a lot at obstacles. These races tend to get backed up on some of the bigger obstacles, especially when you get big groups of bros or sorority girls running them together. Other than that, nothing you can train for specifically. Just be able to run the distance.

@ Crazy Anglican

Draugnar is right. I've never served in the Marines and I'm not a Gunnery Sergeant by any stretch of the imagination.

My username is a relatively obscure reference to the videogame "Medal of Honor" (2010), in which the callsign of an AH-64 Apache gunship featured in a particularly memorable mission is "Gunfighter zero-six". Medal of Honor (2010) is my second favorite game behind Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (2005).

@ 2WL

Yeah, it's a Tough Mudder/Spartan Race/Warrior Dash knock-off. I anticipate it will be comparable to those name-brand races. I wish I could be more specific with the name of the race, but I can't name the race without giving away my real-life geographic location.

In terms of difficulty, how would it compare to an ordinary run (on slightly rolling but paved terrain) of the same distance? I'm more than prepared; it's only a 3 mile race and I run 4-5 miles daily. I just don't like surprises. Also, (and I know this next bit will be hard to answer since you don't know what exact race I'm running) will one teammate be enough? A close friend of mine and I are running it together. In obstacle-type races, do any of the obstacles require a second person to traverse (such as a high wall).

Lol, I stand corrected.... again.

good luck on the race though :-)

@2ndWhiteLine
I never said that! I said your body will start begging you to eat something, not that you need to respond to that. And this running for an hour without eating isn't just about running, it's also about losing weight very fast.

@Gun, I just did one of these a couple of weekend back, which was 3.5 miles, and then as soon as we finished, we immediately started the kid run of 1 mile. My youngest was convinced by his cousin that they didn't need shoes and refused to wear them but a lot of the ground was blackberries that had been cut down and were NOT barefoot safe so I had to carry him much of that mile. Ugh.

In any case, as 2WL indicated, the obstacles were major bottlenecks. A lot of people were doing slow jogging and then walking not too far in. I'm not running much yet so we alternated between jogging and walking, with more walking the further in we got.

If you stay at the front of the pack until the first obstacle, that could keep you ahead of the bottlenecks without going so fast after that point. But that is just speculation on my part based on what I experienced from the back of the pack.

For myself, the point wasn't to compete time-wise, it was to have fun in the mud. But fun comes in all types depending on the person.

I highly suggest wearing clothes that you plan on throwing away with some underwear that are okay in public for getting the mud off in before getting your good clothes back on. Also keep in mind that the mud covering your body will add some body weight.

Oh, and none of the obstacles were particularly difficult. There was some mud pits that were a bit tough to get out of without a hand either pulling up, or bracing a foot.

@ Alderian

Thanks for the tips. I think my buddy and I are going to go all-out, so we'll try to stay ahead of the pack.

Thanks for the food responses Gen. Lee and 2WL, that's exactly the sort of info I was looking for!

red, I'm not just looking to lose weight very fast, and your suggestion makes me nervous that I'd also end up losing muscle, but I suppose a little research is in order since I'm all for losing some fat (I just want to do it the "right" way).

You won't lose muscle, you'll just tone what muscle you already have, especially if your diet is solid.

Max way to go! I have a couple of questions for you; How many days a week are you running? Do you have a marathon training schedule?

A friend recommended using miCoach for soccer, and lately I've been using it for running, tennis, soccer and basketball (tracks speed, strides, sprints, distance). MiCoach gives you a lot of information, I'm assuming you are using something similar. While I like having all that information, you really need to listen to your body. On days my body feels like shit I'll go in for a lifting session. If you want to lose weight, you should try to combine weight lifting (hell pushups/situps if you don't have a lot of time) with your running. This cross training will help a lot. Keep us updated and I wish you lots of luck!!

Here's my schedule, but I'm only running on Wednesday/Saturday, I'm using an elliptical on Tuesday/Thursday, and I vary it up for Sunday's cross training day:

http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51137/Marathon-Novice-1-Training-Program

I've just been using RunKeeper to track my runs, but I'll check out miCoach, thanks for the tip!

Elliptical? Get rid of that. "Running" on an elliptical doesn't translate at all to running on a road. If your marathon was on an elliptical, it would be fine, but since it's on a road, you need to get as many road miles as possible. An elliptical doesn't duplicate the effort required for each step, nor does it replicate the impact of each step. Basically, if you're doing serious training, an elliptical is useless.

Perhaps that's the rub, 2WL, I'm absolutely *not* a serious runner, though I am doing my best to take this marathon seriously... I don't have the best knees, ankles, or back, which is to say nothing of rupturing each Achilles' tendon in the not-too-distant past. I've heard it recommended that "new" runners only run every third day, to avoid shin splits and other such setbacks. Tuesdays and Thursdays call for 3 mile runs for several weeks of my training program, but I'm doing 60 minutes "hard" on the elliptical to get my heart rate up for an extended amount of time, and since I can run a 10K in less than 60 minutes, I figure it's a good compromise, at least for the first couple months while I am trying to establish some sort of base fitness (and while my body gets used to longer runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays)... In the end, this is my first (and likely only) marathon, and ultimately my goal is to merely finish. Yeah, I'd love to do it at a 10 minute mile pace or better, under four hours would be amazing for me, but in the end I plan to train as best I can while keeping my body as healthy as possible and let the time work itself out... I'm a "process" sort of guy, putting together a strategy and implementing it as best I can (while reacting to the unexpected along the way) is my focus, it's not whether I win loss or draw, but how I play the game! :-)

2ndwhiteline have you trained for a marathon before? It's incredibly hard on your body. Even just running to get in shape is hard! An elliptical is a great way to get in another workout with crushing your joints (an issue as you get older) Max I checked out that schedule and it's a doozy. It's great you have a schedule, but really listen to your body. If things start to hurt, take a rest day or two. I prefer run/rest/run/rest, sometimes taking two days off after 15+ mile runs. If that schedule works for you keep it going! Just remember even 72 hours off without exercise and your body starts to lose all the work you are doing !

I'm tweaking the schedule just slightly, moving the Tuesday workout to Monday night. This allows my running and elliptical to happen every 36 hours, working out Monday night, Wednesday morning, Thursday night, and Saturday morning. The cross training on Sunday is somewhat random as far as time of day, but since I view it as the easiest workout, I think that's just fine.

Good point Marx, but definitely consider moving more of your mileage onto the roads. Getting your heart rate up is one thing, but actually replicating the effort to do so is another. You'll kick ass anyway :)

kamikaze, I've run eight marathons in the past two and a half years, including a 50K and a 40 miler, and I average 60 miles per week, so I'm quite familiar with the effort required for marathon training as well as the minimum effort required to run 26.2 without feeling like you want to die. Higdon is a solid schedule for a first timer, and you learn a lot, especially about how your body responds to mileage, but there's a lot to be said for putting in your mileage on tired legs, which is how you build endurance and stamina, as well as adapting your body to the pounding it takes over sixteen weeks or so of training. You have to rest, true, but too much rest can act to counter any progress you make during your training. During my ultra training, I rarely take a day off, maybe once every two or three weeks, because its that constant grind and lack of rest that forces your body to adapt and become stronger.

"I went into this morning's 10K hoping to practice this negative split concept, and I mastered it a little too well, at the 5 minute mark RunKeeper said I had run 0.48 miles, so worse than 10 minutes per mile, oops!"

Let me assure you, this was not a mistake! That's what I call smart running! 26 miles is a loooooong way to run, and you should consider the first 6 miles to be a warmup jog before you even pick it up to "race pace". You should feel like you're moving very, very slowly for the first two miles on a 10k jog. Remember, when you get into a race your adreniline is going to be hammering and it's going to take a ton of self discipline to keep your speed under control in the early miles.

About weight and food: You have to experiment with the breakfast thing since everyone responds differently to food, but if your race time is 9:00am I'd suggest you wake up and 4-5:00 and eat whatever you normally eat for breakfast. The less things you do differently on race eve and race day the better.

I'm personally not a big fan of eating while running. I have a suspicion that the sports drink/food industries have a really great marketing program and they've got us convinced that we need something more than what we really need. You really don't need any caloric intake during exercise unless you're going over 2 hours, and then Gatorade is probably sufficient. But experimenting wouldn't be a bad idea.

Once you get up to having a workout of 90+ minutes once a week you'll probably start to notice a change in your metabolism as your body starts to process fat more efficiently. That should help with nice steady sustained weight loss unless you're like me and start eating too much because you feel hungry more often, ha ha.

Oh, and Redhouse's idea about limiting your water consumption before a run....that was really dumb. Don't do that.

At 190 lbs running 5 days a week is going to crush you. I'm guessing you weigh 140 and are skinny as a beanpole 2ndWL. Either way i'm just saying you go to hard early, you run the risk of hurting something. (I'm running at 194lbs atm)

His point is that elliptical/bike/swimming will never translate 100% into mileage. It is great for maintaining fitness while allowing legs avoid the pounding. But nothing beats actual miles run.

However, the most important thing is to get to the starting line healthy. There are quick gains to be made from a couch potato going to running several times a week, but it takes time for the tendons/bones/muscles to catch up to the new found endurance. Most injuries happen by doing too much too fast. (increasing mileage and/or intensity at an unhealthy rate)

I don't think it is true that someone over 190 or whatever cannot do 5 days a week. I know plenty of clydesdale division (200 lbs.+) guys in my running club running 5-7 days a week. But they have built up slowly to that workload. I would say never substitute your long run for elliptical time, and try to switch from 2 to 1 elliptical workout per week in a couple weeks time ( or just gradually). But most importantly just listen to your body.

You've probably been told that your whole running life, kamikaze. No offense, of course, but you probably also think that running is bad for your knees and you'll lose muscle the more you run. All wives' tales. True, you need a solid base before you can handle higher mileage, but that's what marathon training is all about - creating that base. I have several friends who are in the neighborhood of 200 lbs or higher who run just as much as me with no weight related issues. You need good form and good technique and you can go beyond the limits imposed by "conventional wisdom."

Even though this looks like an argument, everyone is mostly right.
I got up to 40+ miles a week last winter and I weigh right around 200 and I was injury free for the first time in my life, but it took me a year to go from 10 minutes a day to 40+ miles/week. I was hampered for two months in there by a non-running related injury, so I think it could have gone a bit more quickly. But I'm a big believer now in the 10% rule...don't increase weekly milage by more than 10%.

"You need good form and good technique"

Easier said than done!! I went to a 90 minute class tonight at the local runner's store, *damn*, I learned a lot!! It's called Good Form Running. There are four steps:

1. Posture
2. Midfoot (Don't strike the ground with your heel first)
3. Cadence (180 "steps" per minute)
4. Lean (Forward)

Our instructor really emphasized Cadence. But, before we went over any info, we all got video taped running, then we all had to take off our shoes and got video taped running without shoes. We then analyzed everyone's video based on what we learned.

We'll see if more efficient running results in better times, though most important will be less stress on my body and reducing the odds of injury, which is a top concern of mine.

If you can get with a local running group for any of your runs that would help too. I don't know it's worth paying for, but it's nice having company on long runs.

They really promoted 180 steps per minute? How tall are you? On my runs I range from 150 (when running with wife 10 min miles) to 170 (5-6 minute miles). What did you learn about your running posture/foot strikes?

2ndWL lets call it a draw and cheer on Max ;)

Getting videotaped while running is always eye-opening. Posture is important, as is your stride, leaning forward as well. I honestly wouldn't worry about cadence as far as steps per minute go. Keep it simple and remember that a shorter stride means that you're less likely to heel strike. I never understand why coaches and trainers preach cadence to beginners, since its more confusing than anything and because people should focus on endurance and having fun rather than the number of steps they are taking.

And I'll second the running group advice. I've run with different groups for the past three years. I only do two or three runs per week alone and I end up doing nearly all of my weekend and long runs as well as track workouts and tempo runs with other runners.

Yep, 180!! The instructor was about 5'-6" tall and probably weighed 120 lbs. soaking wet, while I'm 6'-2" tall and nearly 230 lbs. The instructor did say it is more difficult hitting that step count the taller you are.

Here's the website for Good Form Running: http://www.goodformrunning.com/

It goes over the four steps on that site, and better yet, it has a 60 second video at the top left side of the site that covers nearly everything we discussed in class. There is another video underneath that one, it's 3 or 4 minutes long, and it has a guy analyzing the running technique of athletes running at the Olymipcs in Greece. It's really helpful stuff, especially for a running n00b like me! :-)