Forums >Off the Beaten Path>Best pre or post race snack in organized race.
Village people
I am helping with a cross country fundraiser. We do a relay meet at this beautiful farm in NH. I have ideas but I wanted to see what post or pre race food really hit the spot for runners and maybe the spectators who stand around and wait.
thanks
#RunEveryDay
I've never seen much for pre-race food. One race had a coffee cart there but I had no money to buy coffee.
Post race coffee or hot chocolate has been very welcome on winter race days. Never seen a race offer any food options for spectators.
Half Fanatic #9292.
Game Admin for RA Running Game 2023.
Are we there, yet?
Best post-race food I've had was a full breakfast: eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, fruit, toast, bagels, donuts, etc. Spectators could buy meal tickets, free to volunteers and runners.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
So this is kind of an all day thing. There is a JV boys and girls race plus the relay for varsity boys and girls. Each team member runs the full 5km course. Parents will be standing around awhile and those JV kids will be hungry. I think we are hoping for new uniforms.
spam
#artbydmcbride
Peanut butter stuffed pretzels
Runners run
Really like where you're going with the pretzel thing...but I would offer - jumbo hot pretzel. It gives you that easy bready theme that post race bagels do, but bagels en masse like that usually are of the sucky dunkin kind, plus they generally suck without something like butter or cream cheese (or peanut butter) on them, and opening to get the stuff on them, and the knife the last guy used is all gross, etc.
A jumbo hot pretzel gives you the bread, the salt, the maybe dipping it in spicy mustard. It seems like an ideal post race thing.
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watermelon!!
If it's cold, hot chocolate
1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)
If you are providing for runners, can I also add please make sure there is something left for the runners finishing at the back of the pack? And that can even be as simple as leaving some food to put out later in the race period. It sucks to finish and there is nothing left.
Memorable food from races:
cupcakes--new bakery had the post race food. This was about 9 years ago, I still frequent the bakery
pit beef sandwiches at a evening race
Do you have any local food trucks? Some of the ones in my area will do fundraisers. Some will also allow you to set up a tip jar for your organization.
N'town Kevin, that gives me a bad memory of a not hot Philly soft pretzel after the AC HM. No butter or mustard. Very dry.
Oh man, I'm sorry. All these things have the downside of being really bad if not done right. Hope you fixed that with a proper white house sub later.
Mother of Cats
My only suggestion is: it's nice to have a variety of stuff for people with different dietary needs and restrictions. As some who is gluten-free for health reasons, I'm always a bit wistful when the offerings are bags of pretzels, cookies, danishes, etc (since that's the norm, I keep post-race snacks in my car).
Bananas are great because they hit that carb-need post race, and can be enjoyed by the gluten-free person, the nut allergy person, the vegetarian or vegan, etc.
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Also, you could always get in touch with a local food truck and offer them a spot. They might be very happy to set up and serve whomever wanted to buy. Have a table of bananas and bagels for the runners, and let the families buy whatever they want from the food truck.
The race is over, thanks everyone. I think it went well. We had around 700 runners, I think. It was a beautiful day! I tried to have options for everyone but I think a lot of the teams did bring some of their own stuff. My kid is a senior and I am going to miss this race. So much fun.