Thank you for starting this discussion! I'm starting to seriously reconsider my fueling strategy after seeing the posts from you and
@DopeyBadger .
Can you eat bananas during a race? We will have 2 fuel stations with bananas during the race. A medium banana is about 110 calories (plus other good nutrients). During the race, I will take a banana half (or sometimes I take 2 of the half portions) and slowly eat it over the next mile.
What about Clif bars? I slowly eat a bar in the corral starting about 30 minutes before the gun.
I also drink both water and powerade at each water stop (except for the 3 stops in which I take a Clif gel; I only take water for those). I've discovered during training and racing that I can tolerate a good amount of water and powerade (or gatorade) with no stomach issues. It would be great to accurately calculate the calories in the (diluted) powerade drinks we receive at each runDisney aid station. If they were full strength, we would have 40 calories for every 6 ounce cup. So, with 19 aid stations, we have the opportunity for 380 calories for diluted (50%) powerade - assuming it's diluted at 50%, and assuming we can drink 6 ounces.
One more fuel strategy: I use Clif Shot Bloks for the later stages of a race. I take 3 bloks which are only 100 calories (33 each), but I do the following for a mental boost: I bite a blok in half and place it in each cheek. The blok then slowly dissolves and lasts for the next 1 or 2 miles, and I can taste the flavor which really helps. I've read training studies in which runners on a treadmill would just taste a sports drink (but not swallow it) -- and their performance improved simply from the taste. Everything helps!
FWIW, here's my fueling strategy which I've followed for the last 4 Disney marathons -- I think I need to adjust it:
Start: Clif bar
Mile 4: gel
Mile 8: gel
Mile 12: banana
Mile 16: gel
Mile 19: banana
Mile 23: chocolate / candy
Plus 16 aid stations with powerade