What to Eat the Week of a Marathon: The Complete UK Guide (2026)
Race week nutrition is where good training is protected or wasted. This is the honest, day-by-day UK guide to what to eat in the 7 days before a marathon, with our interactive carb-load calculator.
Eat normally and balanced in the early part of race week. Carb-load over the final 2 to 3 days at roughly 8 to 12g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight per day. Cut back on fibre, fat and alcohol to protect your gut. Make your last big meal a lunch the day before, not a huge late dinner. On race morning, eat a tested breakfast 3 to 4 hours before the gun, with 1 to 2g of carbs per kg. Do not try anything new. For a personalised plan, see a registered dietitian.
You have done the hard part. Months of long runs, tempo sessions and early mornings are behind you. Race week is not the time to chase extra fitness. It is the time to protect the fitness you already have, and a big part of that is what goes on your plate.
Get race week nutrition right and you arrive on the start line with full fuel tanks, a settled stomach and a clear head. Get it wrong, and you can undo weeks of work with a single rushed, unfamiliar meal. This guide walks you through the whole week, day by day, in plain language, with no myths and no magic foods.
One honest note before we start. Edge is a training app. It builds your running and strength plan and adapts it around your life. It does not build your nutrition plan, and nothing here is personalised medical advice. If you have a health condition, a history of gut trouble, or you simply want a plan made for you, speak to a registered dietitian. This guide is the general protocol that most healthy runners can follow.
The race-week principle: protect, do not chase
The single most useful idea for race week is this: you cannot add fitness in seven days, but you can ruin a race in seven days. Every food decision should be judged against one question. Does this help me arrive fuelled, settled and rested, or does it add risk?
In practice that means the early part of the week looks almost boringly normal. You eat balanced meals, you keep training light as part of your taper, and you sleep. The changes are saved for the final two to three days, when you deliberately top up your muscle and liver glycogen, the stored carbohydrate that powers a marathon.
Two things tend to go wrong. Some runners do nothing different and arrive under-fuelled. Others panic and overhaul everything, eating strange new foods and enormous portions, and arrive bloated and anxious. The sweet spot is calm, deliberate and familiar.
The day-by-day race week plan
Here is a simple framework for the seven days before a Sunday marathon. Shift the days if your race is on a Saturday. The early days are about normal, quality eating. The back half is about loading carbs and protecting your gut.
7 to 5 days out (Sunday to Tuesday): eat normally and well
Nothing dramatic. Balanced meals with carbs, protein, vegetables and some healthy fat. Stay hydrated. This is still a normal eating week. Keep alcohol low and prioritise sleep. Your training is tapering, so your appetite may dip slightly, which is fine.
4 days out (Wednesday): start thinking about fuel
Begin nudging carbohydrate up a little and keep meals familiar. Make sure your kitchen is stocked with the foods you plan to eat over the final days so you are not improvising later in the week.
3 to 2 days out (Thursday to Friday): carb loading begins
This is the heart of the protocol. Lift carbohydrate intake to roughly 8 to 12g per kg of body weight per day while keeping total food volume manageable. Lean on easy-to-digest carbs such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and oats. At the same time, start reducing fibre and fat so your gut is calm. More on the exact amounts in the calculator below.
1 day out (Saturday): load at lunch, ease off at dinner
This is the most common mistake to avoid. Make your biggest carbohydrate meal a relaxed lunch, not a giant late dinner. A large meal the night before sits in your gut overnight and can leave you heavy and uncomfortable on the start line. Aim for your last substantial meal roughly 14 to 16 hours before the start, then keep the evening lighter and low in fibre. Hydrate steadily through the day.
Race morning: a tested, familiar breakfast
Eat a breakfast you have practised in training, 3 to 4 hours before the start, providing about 1 to 2g of carbs per kg of body weight. Think porridge with banana and honey, toast with jam, or a bagel. Keep it low in fibre and fat. Sip fluids with electrolytes. Top up with a small snack or gel 30 to 60 minutes before if that is part of your tested routine.
Carb loading explained, without the myths
Carb loading is simply topping up the carbohydrate stored in your muscles and liver so you have more fuel available during the race. A marathon is long enough that running low on stored carbohydrate, the dreaded wall, is a real risk. Loading helps push that risk back.
The modern approach is straightforward. You do not need the old week-long depletion phase where runners starved themselves of carbs first. Current guidance is to simply eat 8 to 12g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight per day for the final two to three days, alongside your taper, when training volume is already low.
Two practical points. First, choose carbs that are easy to digest rather than high-fibre wholegrains during these days. Second, expect to gain a kilo or two of water weight, because every gram of stored carbohydrate holds water. That is normal, expected and helpful for hydration. It is not fat and it is not a problem.
Carb-load calculator
Enter your body weight to see your daily carb target for loading, plus what that looks like in real food. Educational estimate only, not a personalised plan.
Estimate based on general sports nutrition guidance of 8 to 12 g carbohydrate per kg body weight per day during loading. Individual needs vary. For a personalised plan, see a registered dietitian.
What to cut: fibre, fat, alcohol and new foods
Loading is only half the job. The other half is protecting your gut so all that fuel sits comfortably. In the final two to three days, deliberately reduce the things that slow digestion or cause distress.
Fibre. Swap high-fibre wholegrains, large salads, beans, pulses and lots of raw vegetables for lower-fibre options such as white rice, white bread, peeled potatoes and ripe bananas. Fibre is healthy in normal life, but the night before a marathon it can leave you bloated or sending you to the toilet at the worst moment.
Fat. Keep meals lower in fat in the final days. Fat slows digestion, so go easy on fried foods, heavy creamy sauces and large amounts of cheese or oil.
Alcohol. Skip it, or keep it to an absolute minimum. Alcohol dehydrates you, disrupts sleep and adds nothing useful on race week.
New foods. Race week is the worst possible time to experiment. No new restaurants, no untested gels, no unfamiliar cuisines. Eat foods your gut already knows and trusts.
Hydration and electrolytes
Hydration is not something you fix on race morning. Aim to be well hydrated across the final few days by drinking to thirst and checking that your urine is pale straw coloured, not dark. You do not need to force litres of plain water, which can actually flush out the sodium you need.
Electrolytes matter, especially sodium. As you load carbs and drink more, include some salt in your food and consider an electrolyte drink, particularly the day before and on race morning. This helps you hold onto fluid rather than passing it straight through. If the forecast is warm, pay extra attention here.
A simple rule: hydrate steadily and consistently, do not gulp huge volumes at the last minute, and pair fluids with electrolytes rather than relying on plain water alone.
Race morning breakfast
Your race morning breakfast should be familiar, carb-rich, low in fibre and low in fat, eaten 3 to 4 hours before the start. The target is roughly 1 to 2g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight. For a 70kg runner that is around 70 to 140g of carbs.
Reliable options include porridge made with water or a little milk, topped with banana and honey, white toast with jam, or a bagel. Add a coffee if that is your normal routine and your stomach tolerates it. Sip an electrolyte drink alongside.
If your start is early and a full meal 3 to 4 hours before is impractical, eat a smaller tested breakfast and top up with a banana, a gel or a sports drink 30 to 60 minutes before the gun, again only if you have practised it. The golden rule on race morning is the same as all week: nothing new.
Common race-week food mistakes
Most race-week nutrition disasters come from a short list of avoidable errors. Watch for these.
The giant late dinner the night before. The classic mistake. A huge pasta feast at 9pm sits heavy overnight. Load at lunch instead and keep dinner lighter.
Trying something new. A new gel, an unfamiliar restaurant, a fancy meal as a treat. All risk a stomach that does not cooperate on the day.
Too much fibre. Doubling down on healthy wholegrains and salads right before the race is a common cause of mid-race toilet stops.
Carb loading with fatty foods. Pizza, creamy pasta and cheesy garlic bread feel carb-heavy but are loaded with fat that slows digestion. Choose cleaner carbs.
Forgetting electrolytes. Drinking only plain water for days can leave you low on sodium and feeling worse, not better.
Skipping the practice. Test your loading approach and race morning breakfast during a long run in training, not for the first time on race day.
A simple sample loading day
Here is what a single loading day might look like for an example 70kg runner aiming for around 10g per kg, roughly 700g of carbs. Treat it as an illustration to adapt, not a prescription.
Breakfast. Large bowl of porridge with banana, honey and a glass of fruit juice.
Mid-morning. White bagel with jam and a sports drink.
Lunch. Big bowl of white rice or pasta with a low-fat tomato and chicken sauce.
Afternoon. Banana, a cereal bar and an electrolyte drink.
Dinner. White pasta or rice with a simple lean protein, kept moderate in size and low in fat and fibre.
Evening. A small carb snack such as toast with honey if you are still short of your target.
How Edge fits into your race week
Let us be straight about this. Edge does not have nutrition, carb-loading or hydration guidance built into its plans. This guide is the protocol. For a plan made for your body and goals, see a registered dietitian. Edge handles your training.
What Edge does do is make sure the training side of race week is right, which matters just as much. Your coach-built 24-hour plan, enhanced by Edge AI, tapers your running automatically so you arrive fresh. If life gets in the way during a busy race week, Flexi Swap lets you move sessions around without breaking the plan.
Edge is a native Apple Watch app, and workouts push to Garmin and Coros too, so your easy shake-out runs are right there on your wrist. There is general strength and mobility work in the app to keep you moving during the taper. More than 17,000 members train with Edge, and the whole point is making fitness feel good for everyone. Think of it this way: Edge looks after your training, this guide looks after your race-week food, and a dietitian looks after a truly personalised plan.
Edge is £19.99 a month or £119.99 a year.
Quick race-week checklist
Pin this somewhere you will see it.
Early week: eat normally and balanced, hydrate, sleep, keep alcohol low. Final 2 to 3 days: load carbs at 8 to 12g per kg, cut fibre and fat, add electrolytes. Day before: biggest meal at lunch, lighter low-fibre dinner, last big meal 14 to 16 hours before the start. Race morning: tested breakfast 3 to 4 hours before at 1 to 2g per kg, low fibre, low fat, fluids with electrolytes. Always: nothing new.
The bottom line
Race week nutrition is not complicated, but it is easy to get wrong by panicking. Keep the early week normal, load carbs sensibly over the final two to three days, protect your gut by cutting fibre and fat, hydrate with electrolytes, load at lunch the day before, and eat a tested breakfast on the morning. Do not try anything new. Do that and you give every mile of your training the best possible chance to show up on the day. For a plan made just for you, a registered dietitian is always the gold standard.
Frequently asked questions
How many days before a marathon should I carb load?
For most runners, two to three days is enough. The old week-long depletion-then-load approach is no longer recommended. Simply eat 8 to 12g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight per day for the final two to three days, while your training is already tapering.
What should I eat the night before a marathon?
Make your biggest carb meal a relaxed lunch rather than a huge late dinner. In the evening, keep things lighter and low in fibre and fat, such as white rice or pasta with a simple lean protein. A giant late meal can leave you feeling heavy on the start line.
What is the best breakfast on marathon morning?
A tested, familiar, carb-rich breakfast eaten 3 to 4 hours before the start, providing roughly 1 to 2g of carbs per kg of body weight. Porridge with banana and honey, white toast with jam, or a bagel all work well. Keep it low in fibre and fat, and never try something new on race day.
Why am I gaining weight during carb loading?
That is normal and expected. Every gram of carbohydrate stored in your muscles holds water with it, so a kilo or two of gain over the loading days is mostly water, not fat. It actually helps with hydration on race day.
Should I avoid fibre before a marathon?
Reduce it, do not eliminate it forever. In the final two to three days, swap high-fibre wholegrains, beans and large salads for lower-fibre options like white rice, white bread and peeled potatoes. This lowers the risk of bloating and mid-race toilet stops. Return to normal fibre intake after the race.
Does Edge tell me what to eat during race week?
No. Edge is a training app and does not include nutrition, carb-loading or hydration guidance in its plans. This guide is the general protocol you can follow. For advice tailored to your body, health and goals, see a registered dietitian.
