Nutrition guidance for a half marathon | How to fuel a half marathon!

Break personal bests and level up your running

Smash your next half marathon with proper nutrition

This video gives you some nutrition guidance for a half marathon. A nutrition plan for a half marathon will help you to race faster, so plan properly!

I give you half marathon nutrition advice, including how many carbohydrates to take on per hour and how to manage hydration for a half marathon.

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The aim of this channel is provide free nutrition advice to triathletes and any other athlete who might find it useful. That won't change, but if you want to help me to create these free videos then I would really appreciate it :)

00:00 Introduction
01:20 Why nutrition is important during a half marathon
01:50 Carb load
02:48 Breakfast
03:47 Nutrition during your half marathon
06:22 Hydration

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Hi! I'm James. I'm a Sport and Exercise Nutritionist and I make videos on nutrition to give people simple, clear and easy to use information on a range of subjects. I focus on triathlon and how triathletes can use nutrition to help properly fuel their training and racing.

In my day job I work as an Advanced Clinical Practitioner in General Practice, or Family Medicine for those of you not in the UK, and work in a busy NHS GP practice. I'm a Specialist Paramedic by background and have full independent medicine prescribing rights.

Advanced Clinical Practitioner in Family Medicine, BSc, PGCert
Registered sport and exercise Nutritionist (SENr)
Advanced Diploma of Nutrition, MSc Sport and Exercise Nutrition
Nutrition Consultant for Hurry The Food Up
Great Britain Age Group Triathlete
Qualified L2 British Triathlon Coach

I am not affiliated or sponsored by any brands, companies or products that I mentioned or show in my videos. My aim is to make these videos free from any sort of bias!

These videos shouldn't be taken as direct, personal advice on medicine or nutrition but more for information purposes based on the latest research and evidence. Unless otherwise clearly stated, this information is more suited to adults as under 18s have different requirements and considerations. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have as an individual though!

[NutritionTriathlon]

Smash your next running event with this carb loading plan!

[derspen]

I am running a half marathon on Sunday. This will be my first official Half marathon. Your video has answered my question. Thank you for the video. With this info I can now confidently make my fueling plan. I have done a few half marathons with friends. My tome is 2:10. I am now trying to run a 2:05. Please continue making these kind of videos.

[mkbrzoza]

I run a half marathon every Saturday. I noted what you said and will use it 👍

[lifebyshawna]

I am training for my first half marathon! It's giving me the push I need this winter. :) Thank you for all of the helpful tips!

[FRANCJ]

Top notch as usual. The 10g/kg carb load rule helped me a lot. Makes a huge difference

[dveldhuizen]

Me as a dietetics student find these types of videos super interesting. I am currrently training for a half marathon, but have never used gels or carbloaded before. I was looking for a video explaining how to do that and this video covered pretty much everything I need te know. Just wanted to say thank you!!! Keep up the content

[RonNVids]

I am running my second half-marathon later this month. I question I have is what should be the timing of consuming carbs during the event? When should I take each gel, and how long do they take to become available to your body?

[HECTORBIDO]

Very good James. I'm running half marathon next friday. Very helpful. Thanks

[IvanKoch]

Thanks for this! A marathon one please!!

[minebuilder]

I ran my first timed half marathon about a month back and i was able to take away 20 seconds per kilometer from my original pace and about 15 minutes from finish time. (1:59:00 finish time) I had the problem that i always trained with stopping and eating a banana or something similar and the supply stations except the first one only had water, iso and cola, the last one had some alcohol for some reason. At kilometer 10 i realized that i had to risk the iso drink as i would run out of fuel at kilometer 16 (training experience with longer runs and no supply). Cola was no option due to my low tolerance for high density shugar, it gives me stomack pain in a few minutes and i dont drink cola for about 12 years now so i avoided it. Now that i am training up to a marathon the sodium problem is something i have to figure out too. Thanks for the video and a rough estimate of the sodium intake.

[jessicamillar]

my first half marathon is in September this year

[oliviadigirolamo]

Training for my first one! This was helpful thank you!

[bscharuda]

First 1/2 marathon coming up June 3rd! excited and nervous! your videos are very informative. will let you know how i do! cheers.

[RavinderSingh-xw]

Going for Ladhak High altitude HM on 10th Sept 23
Got all answer, thanks for making such informative vdo 👍

[NutritionTriathlon]

Have you got a half marathon coming up? I'm looking forward to mine in a few months!

[Wule]

I run my last 21K which was my first in 2:05 ... My plan is now to run under 2 hour or possibly under 1 hour 45 minutes....thanks for the tips

[ArianaPergola]

This was super helpful! My question is - what's the best way to refuel after a run between 6-13 miles? I'd love any advice on not feeling fatigued for the rest of the day. thank you!

[lauramoore]

Thank-you very much. This was great information.

[masonswildadventures]

Hi James,
Quick question: How come carb loading is recommended for 1-2days prior to race day to have any effect, but energy gels containing carbs are easy absorbed right away during the race? If carb loading requires more time, wouldn’t the gels also need more time? Just trying to get a better understanding, thanks!

[darraghsludds]

Fantastic video, exactly the information I was looking for 👍🏻