our 45-time Ironman friend joined francesca, dive 'n me during lunch and confirmed needing at least a gram of carbohydrate in your favorite energy bar, gel, or whatever they have at the aid stations to prevent hitting the wall, . . . or worse. 

I gram of salt is also needed per hour so Dr. Feman eschews gels as usually inadequate salt to say nothing about any energy drinks with citric acid added for taste, e.g. Gatorade, . . . although at my pace it doesn't seem to make much difference. 

If you're a non-caffeine drinker, or can cold turkey three weeks before the event, he guarantees most any caffeine source in the last hour or two will provided a super boost, not to the muscles where probably needed but to the brain which tricks the muscles into thinking it is them.

However, only defizzed caffeine colas, etc. as carbonated anything even makes my stomach sick.

Dr. Feman even said a NoDoz tablet is same as two cups of cofferr and Divechief seemed to have  supersource too.

======================

pre race (my ideas):

1.  one water bottle of favorite drink 60-90 minutes before start

2.  6oz Dixie cup of favorite drink immediately before start (after last porto-visit)

-------------------

It's obvous to see that your great support crew will be making the difference no matter what you eat/drink?

what have you got planned for them, . . .  and them for you during the marathon?

You should wear that outfit.  You'll get lots of crowd support.

 

 Go Nono Go Nono Go Nono Go!!!!

Stick to your pace, stick to your plan.

Thanks everyone!  I have had a busy day -- finally starting to pack things up.  We're on a mid-day ferry over to Rehoboth where I'll get to spend the night in a luxury, beach front motel. Heh.  We'll see...

I spent a whole lot of time on my nutrition plan, as my family wanted something to do.  Therefore, they have 4 lunchbags and we have 4 preassigned locations to meet up (this is a small marathon -- if we miss each other it will not be due to crowds!).  My mix of stuff includes -- clif shot blocks (for the caffeine hit Tet!), coconut water instead of a sports drink, a soft pretzel, some orange slices (that sat really well with me in the later miles of the LBI 18 Mi Race) and some M & Ms, which sat well with me in my 18 mi training run while in Orlando. 

I saw that Bart Yasso will give you marathon predictions on runnersworld.com.  He says I'll be in in 4:10:00. I'll try not to make him a liar!

dg, thank you for starting this thread, and I truly appreciate all the responses.  Each one makes me smile!!! 

Mentally, I've decided that I'm looking at Saturday as Day 1 for my training for the Shamrock in late March.  Kind-of a way of turning everything on its head, but heck, if I start out my training with 1 marathon in the bag, then I really have something on which to build.