Breakfast of Last Place Finishers

If you’re planning on placing last in your next half or full marathon, you’ll need a hearty breakfast to keep you going for the long hours it takes to cross the finish line.

The Breakfast of Last Place Finishers combines carbs, fats, and proteins and is raw, vegan, and free from gluten, dairy, and soy (depending on the milk you choose.)

It’s the only breakfast I eat before a marathon and I place in the bottom tier every time. It’s tested and approved.

Skip to the Recipe (or keep reading for more information than you need about each ingredient.)

Carbohydrates, A Break Down

The key element to any race-day breakfast is carbohydrates. Complex carbs (found in whole grains, beans, and vegetables) take longer to break down, provide slow-release energy, and are good for endurance during long-distance runs.

Simple carbs (sugar, raw sugar, brown sugar, and high-fructose corn syrup) will give you a short burst of energy. Combining the two on race day will help you start (you’re going to need all the motivation you can get) and finish the race.

How does it work? By a process known as magic, our bodies transform carbs into glucose. Glucose is what gives us energy.

Runners carb-load the night before a marathon to create glycogen (stores of glucose) that will be broken down and released into the bloodstream during the race.

The amount of glycogen a body can store is finite, so eating carbs the morning of the race will make sure both your root cellar and stomach are full.

Ingredients, More Break Downs

Oatmeal—is my favorite race day carb for a number of reasons.

1) Bob’s Red Mill extra thick rolled oats can be eaten raw. Who wants to cook breakfast at 4 am on race day? The sun isn’t even up at that time. (Fact: marathons start before 9 am – and sometimes as early as 7 am—because anyone who is fully awake would realize what they’re getting into and walk away.)  

2) Oatmeal is filled with soluble fiber, the thing that makes you poop. I can slip out a healthy load within 30 minutes of eating raw oatmeal, which means it won’t be coming out during the race. [Read more about runners’ diarrhea here.]

3) Oatmeal makes you feel full, in a good way, not the—“I’ve just binged a box of Oreos and washed it down with a quart of brandy” way.

4) Oatmeal is versatile and so is the Breakfast of Last Place Finishers. You can enjoy it raw, after letting it sit overnight, or, if you’re extra ambitious (and what last-place finisher is?) you can cook the oatmeal.

Walnuts—are a super nut! They’re filled with polyunsaturated fat (the good kind), alpha-linolenic and linolenic acids (which are anti-inflammatory), and antioxidants (that boost vascular function aka help the blood deliver oxygen to the body. Because oxygen is the most important thing on race day, and every day.) They’re also a good source of protein.

Sunflower seeds—your body is working its ass off to get you across the finish line, give it the extra boost it deserves with these small but mighty seeds. Like walnuts, they can reduce inflammation (and what isn’t inflamed after a marathon?). They’re also filled with vitamins and minerals like zinc and selenium (good for your immune system) and vitamin B (the b stands for boost because these babies boost your energy.)

Raisins—sweet, sticky, and filled with potassium (the electrolyte that drips from your armpits and anywhere else that sweat is released, like butt cracks.) Raisins are also full of fiber (more juice to get you going), and iron (which helps with blood flow.) The sugar content adds sweetness and a spike of energy.

Apple—the fruit that claims to keep the doctor away. Apples are filled with fiber and antioxidants and also contain vitamin C, which will help your body absorb the iron from the other ingredients. Apples, they’ll pump you up.  

Milk—if you have food allergies, or just an aversion to drinking another animal’s breast milk, you’ll find plenty of non-dairy substitutes. Cashew, soy, rice, coconut, macadamia, hemp, oat, pea, and almond are all turned into something white and wet that you can drink or pour over dry oatmeal. Weighing the nutritional pros and cons of each could easily be a blog post of its own (and it won’t be).

I trust you’ll choose whatever is best for you.

The Recipe

½ cup Bob’s Red Mill extra thick rolled oats

¼ cup raisins

4-5 raw walnuts, broken into bits

2 tablespoons raw sunflower seeds

1 apple, sliced

1 cup milk (dairy, nut, or oat)

Steps:

1) Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

It’s race day, you have enough steps to take, let’s not add any extra at breakfast.

Variations

Overnight oats: If you’re not a fan of eating raw oatmeal you can combine all the ingredients in a bowl, cover, and refrigerate overnight. By morning, you’ll have a cold and mushy mess to enjoy.

Cooked: Okay, overachiever, you can cook the oatmeal before you add in the other ingredients. If you’re using the stovetop method (I bet you don’t even own a microwave), you can add the raisins, walnuts, and apple to the boiling water before or with the oatmeal. The raisins will come out plump and juicy and the walnuts and apples will be softer. Since you’ll be using water to cook the oatmeal, you can reduce (add a splash after cooking) or eliminate the milk completely, but you’ll be depriving yourself of the added nutrients and that’s not a logical thing to do before a marathon.

One final caveat: don’t try anything new on race day. It’s important to know how your body will react to certain foods and testing the waters (or bowels) the morning of a marathon is not a good idea.