January 4, 2016
As I was preparing for the London marathon, I decided to try Sarah’s 14-day fat-load/carb-load protocol she had been talking a lot about on the Eat 2 Run blog. With hopes this method would work as well for me as well as it had for others I’d read about, I took it on. I actually found it quite easy to adhere to and had no other cravings! It worked perfectly since I was travelling on the Thursday before the race and it’s so much easier to carb-load on the road than to fat-load 🙂 Marathon day rolled around… And it went great! I started out conservatively and continued to pick up the pace until I caught up with the 3:30 pace bunny – the very time I was hoping to crack. When I pulled ahead of the 3:30 pace bunny somewhere at the half-way mark, I started to believe it might actually happen. I felt strong, despite little pains here and there. I felt like a strong runner and it was great! In fact, in the last quarter of the marathon, I passed more than 685 other runners – and only 1 passed me! I finally crossed the finish line in 3:26:10 – a PB by nearly 4 minutes (previous PB was 3:30:01). Success!
I truly believe that the fat-loading played a major role in my success. I could feel it in my legs that I just had this sustained energy. I had a rhythm and although the race was very hard, I felt different in my energy and ability to complete this marathon strong. I will definitely be trying the fat-loading again in the fall – thank you Sarah for introducing me to the concept.
Heather Christie, Victoria BC
