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While every meal is important in maintaining proper bodily function and mental alertness, none is more vital than the one you eat prior to a race. Choosing the wrong kinds of foods, over or undercomsuming, or eating at the wrong time all have the potential to ruin your race. Eating the right pre-race meal at the right time ensures that all your training does not go to waste.

The main purpose of the pre-race meal is to increase the amount of glycogen in your system. Glycogen, stored in your liver, plays a major role in fueling your nervous system. After dinner, your liver will use about 50% of the glycogen stored inside of it before morning. Your muscles, however, will be fully glycogen loaded from the day before as a result of their inactivity during the night.

Timing is the most important consideration for your pre-race meal. Ideally you should leave a 4 hour window between the meal and the start time since that will leave you enough time to digest the calories without your muscles using up the energy gained from the caloric intake. However, since most races begin in the early morning hours and since sleep is important, a full breakfast is not a realistic goal. Most runners and triathletes will eat just two hours before the start, which is acceptable bearing in mind that a reduced amount of calories has to be consumed because of the shorter time and more emphasis is placed on where those calories are derived. The following is a list of the most common and most valueable foods you can consume prior to your own race.

Bagels

Not only do bagels make an excellent pre-race meal because they're high in carbs, low in sugar and easily digestable, but also because they're what many of us already have for breakfast. It's important to stick as close to your regular routine as possible and to not experiment with new or different foods on race day because of the increased probability for nausea or cramps brought on by the exertion. If eating a plain bagel is not appetizing enough for you, top it with something low in fat and sugar such as a small amount of reduced fat cream cheese.

Bananas

Perhaps the easiest way to get carbs into your system, bananas are also high in potassium, which is lost in sweat while you are running. If you've ever experienced "the shakes", that would be the warning signs not only of dehydration, but being low in potassium. While bananas are sweet, there's not enough sugar in them to be a danger or to cause adverse effects while competing in your event.

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