RACE-WEEK FUEL · SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2026
What to eat the week before the Philadelphia Marathon
What should I eat the week before the Philadelphia Marathon?
Short answer: Eat your usual meals early in the week. For the 36–48 hours before the start (Friday, November 20 and Saturday, November 21), raise carbohydrate to about 8–12 g per kg of body weight a day, mostly from familiar, low-fibre foods, and trim fat and fibre to make room. On race morning eat 1–4 g of carbohydrate per kg 1–4 hours before your start; during the race take 30–90 g per hour depending on your time; afterwards have 20–40 g of protein with carbohydrate. These are ACSM and ISSN guideline ranges; practise the plan in training first.
Your numbers
Enter your body weight and expected finishing time. Everything is computed in your browser from published guideline ranges; nothing is sent or saved.
Enter a body weight between 35 and 200 kg (77–440 lb) and a finishing time such as 4:15.
For 70 kg:
- 1Fuel-up, 36–48 h before the start: 560–840 g of carbohydrate a day (8–12 g/kg). Plait's default: about 700 g a day (10 g/kg) for 2 day(s), never more than 1.8 times your usual plan. That is roughly 14 portions of 50 g (table below).
- 2Race-morning meal: 70–280 g of carbohydrate, 1–4 h before the start. Plait's default for your start: about 70 g (1 g/kg), 2 h before (around 05:00). For example:
- 1 × plain bagel (53 g)
- 1 × tbsp jam (14 g)
- 3During the race: 30–90 g of carbohydrate per hour, about 130–385 g over your finishing time, from gels, chews or sports drink you have practised with.
- 4After: 20–40 g of protein and a carbohydrate-rich meal. If you train again within 8 h: 70–84 g of carbohydrate per hour for the first 4 h. The day after: about 350–490 g of carbohydrate.
Day by day: race week for the Philadelphia Marathon
| Day | What to eat |
|---|---|
| Mon, Nov 16 6 days before | Usual meals Eat your usual training meals. Training is tapering, so you do not need extra food, and you do not need to cut carbohydrate either. |
| Tue, Nov 17 5 days before | Usual meals Usual meals. Keep protein steady (about 1.4–2.0 g per kg a day). |
| Wed, Nov 18 4 days before | Usual meals Usual meals. Practise your race-morning breakfast if you have not yet. |
| Thu, Nov 19 3 days before | Usual meals Usual meals. Shop for the next two days: familiar, low-fibre carbohydrate such as white rice, pasta, bagels, white bread, potatoes without skin, juice and jam. |
| Fri, Nov 20 2 days before | Fuel-up Fuel-up day 1 (the 36–48 h window starts): 8–12 g of carbohydrate per kg (your grams are in the calculator), spread over meals and snacks. Make room by trimming fat and fibre rather than adding huge meals. |
| Sat, Nov 21 1 day before | Fuel-up Fuel-up day 2: the same target. Swap high-fibre foods for lower-fibre ones (white rice for brown, peeled potato, white pasta), keep dinner familiar and not too late, and drink normally. |
| Sun, Nov 22 Race day | Race day Race morning: 1–4 g of carbohydrate per kg, 1–4 h before your start. During: 30–60 g per hour, up to 90 g per hour beyond about 2.5 h, only from products you have tried in training. After: 20–40 g of protein with carbohydrate. |
| Mon, Nov 23 Day after | Recovery Recovery day: back toward your usual meals, carbohydrate around 5–7 g per kg, protein at your usual level. |
What 50 g of carbohydrate looks like
| Food | Serving | Carbohydrate per serving | For about 50 g |
|---|---|---|---|
| cooked white rice | 150 g | 42 g | 175 g |
| cooked pasta | 150 g | 46 g | 160 g |
| boiled potato, no skin | 200 g | 40 g | 250 g |
| plain bagel | 1 bagel | 53 g | 0.9 × bagel |
| white bread | 1 slice | 15 g | 3.3 × slice |
| crisp rice cereal | 1 30 g bowl | 26 g | 1.9 × 30 g bowl |
| banana | 1 banana | 27 g | 1.9 × banana |
| orange juice | 1 250 ml glass | 26 g | 1.9 × 250 ml glass |
| jam | 1 tbsp | 14 g | 3.6 × tbsp |
| honey | 1 tbsp | 17 g | 2.9 × tbsp |
| raisins | 1 small handful (30 g) | 24 g | 2.1 × small handful (30 g) |
| rice cake | 1 rice cake | 7 g | 7.1 × rice cake |
| sports drink | 1 500 ml bottle | 32 g | 1.6 × 500 ml bottle |
Philadelphia Marathon: notes that affect fuelling
- Runners and walkers start at 7:00 a.m. Eastern time (push-rim wheelchairs at 6:55 a.m.) at 22nd Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway, near the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
- With a 7:00 a.m. start, a meal 3 hours before means eating at 4:00 a.m. Plait moves the race-morning meal to 2 hours before (5:00 a.m.) and makes it smaller, about 1 g of carbohydrate per kg.
How race week works in Plait
Plait sets your daily calories from what your watch measured (WHOOP and Garmin; Apple Watch in beta) and builds a week of meals with weighed portions.
Tell the coach chat about your race: the type, the date, your start time and your expected finishing time. Code, not the AI, turns that into a day-by-day plan: fuel-up days, a timed race-morning meal and a recovery day, from the guideline ranges above or the grams per kg you choose.
Each day stays tied to your own plan: carbohydrate and calories at most 1.8 times your usual day on the last fuel-up day, protein kept, lower-fibre swaps the day before and on race day, and at most one starch per meal. A weight-loss plan is not turned into a 4,000-calorie day.
Free: create the event, see the whole day-by-day proposal and the countdown. Pro: the meals themselves change on those days (carbohydrate and fat portions; protein stays). Nothing changes until you apply it.
Plait only knows the training and races you tell it about. Watch calorie figures are estimates.
Get your race-week plan from your watch
Connect WHOOP or Garmin (Apple Watch in beta). Plait builds your weekly meals from what your watch measured, then lays race week on top.
Get your race-week plan from your watchRacing once? The Race Fuel Pass
$19 one time, for one race: your meals follow your training until race day, then the carb load, race morning and the recovery week. No subscription.
Get the Race Fuel PassQuestions
How many days should I carb load before the Philadelphia Marathon?
For a marathon, the ACSM joint position gives 36–48 hours of high carbohydrate (10–12 g per kg a day), and the ISSN gives 8–12 g per kg a day to maximize glycogen stores. In practice that is the two days before the race. Plait's race week uses 10 g per kg for two days, capped relative to your usual plan.
What should I eat on race morning?
Guidelines suggest 1–4 g of carbohydrate per kg, 1–4 hours before the start: a familiar, low-fibre, low-fat meal such as a bagel with jam, a banana and juice. The earlier the start, the smaller and closer to the start the meal usually is.
How many carbs per hour during a marathon?
30–60 g per hour for efforts of 1–2.5 hours, and up to 90 g per hour beyond about 2.5 hours, from gels, chews or sports drink. Only use what you have practised with in training.
Should I eat more fibre or salad before the race?
Not the day before or on race morning. Lower-fibre carbohydrate (white rice, white bread, peeled potato, juice) is usually easier on the gut; keep vegetables and whole grains for the rest of the week.
Does Plait change my meals for race week?
Tell Plait's coach chat about your race and it computes a day-by-day plan: fuel-up days, a timed race-morning meal and a recovery day. Free accounts see the whole plan and the countdown; with Pro the meals themselves change on those days. Nothing changes until you apply it.
Sources
- Thomas DT, Erdman KA, Burke LM. Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine: Nutrition and Athletic Performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2016;48(3):543–568 (ACSM joint position, Table 2). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Burke LM, Hawley JA, Wong SH, Jeukendrup AE. Carbohydrates for training and competition. J Sports Sci 2011;29 Suppl 1:S17–S27 (IOC consensus conference on nutrition for sport). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Kerksick CM et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: nutrient timing. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 2017;14:33 (8–12 g/kg/day to maximize glycogen stores). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Jäger R et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: protein and exercise. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 2017;14:20 (1.4–2.0 g/kg/day). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Philadelphia Marathon: the marathon www.philadelphiamarathon.com
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