What I Ate the Day Before the 2019 Little Rock Half Marathon

Paul and I ran the Little Rock Half-Marathon yesterday! And I'll do a full race recap tomorrow. But tonight's post is all about the food I ate the day before the race. I'm such a nerd about pre- and post-race nutrition, and I think planning my workout meals is probably half the fun of marathon training. The day before a race, I follow a pretty standard meal plan that involves smoothies, salads, and plenty of healthy carbs.

The race was on Sunday in Little Rock, but we woke up on Saturday morning in Memphis and had Banana Mango Berry Smoothies with a frozen strawberry-blueberry-mango blend, banana, walnuts, spinach, and flax.

Then Paul and I headed to the Cooper Young Farmers Market, so I could grab some baked goods from Lulu's. Don's vegan rolls and savory baked goods were certainly not on my pre-race plan, but when pre-race day falls on a farmers market day, what's a girl to do? I wasn't about to miss out on Don's Pizza Bread! I got one of these to share with Paul. Hey, carbs, right? This was the most amazing chewy, buttery bread with cashew mozz and marinara. Made a nice morning snack.

After the market (and pizza bread snack time), we packed up my Subaru and headed to Little Rock so we could get to the race expo in plenty of time. Since I knew we'd be in the car around lunch time, I packed my pre-race lunch of a Giant Salad with Cashew Ranch & Smoked Tofu to eat in the car while Paul drove. Car salad!

We went straight to expo when we arrived to get our bibs and shirts and do a little shopping. Then we headed to my best friend Sheridan & Drew's house. They live in Little Rock and are nice enough to let me stay with them the night before the race every year. Every year, we go shopping at Whole Foods to get stuff to make the ultimate pre-race food, spaghetti! But Sher and Drew have this awesome tradition of "beers before shopping," meaning they never get groceries without first enjoying a beer at the Whole Foods bar. Of course, Paul and I were happy to oblige!

After beers, we got our pasta stuff and headed back to their house to cook dinner. This year, we did a Veggie Marinara Spaghetti with added mushrooms, red onion, and green pepper. We always go with whole wheat spaghetti, and of course, we had garlic bread on the side. Plus Follow Your Heart shredded vegan parm! So good!

After dinner, we hung out a little longer before bed. I enjoyed a locally brewed Lost Forty Easy Tiger Mexican Style Lager as I always have one before-bed beer the night before a race. 

And then we were off to bed by 10 pm to ensure we got plenty of sleep before the alarm went off at 5:30 am on Sunday. I'll be back tomorrow with a race recap and — of course — post-race pizza.