Dear Oscar, I have a marathon coming up. What should I eat for my pre-race meal? Runnin' in Rochester

Dear Runnin', Congrats on your upcoming race. I imagine you've been been training now for several months -- including runs up to 20-miles or more. What have you been eating prior to those training runs? Chances are, if you had successful training runs -- or even if you merely "survived" them -- whatever you ate then will probably work just fine before your biggie.

For me, my diet remains pretty consistent, whether it's a race day or a regular day. I get Nutro Lamb and Rice dogfood topped with shaved carrots twice a day. If I can, I will act just adorable enough to get my humans to give me dog cookies. If I'm still starving (which is usually, despite the fact that they give me more than the recommended helping for a dog my size, age, and activity-level), I eat grass in my yard. Nothing special before a big run -- except for maybe a bunch of water and definitely some cookies and water to replenish afterwards.

The "Run with Jan" group with which my humans run every Sunday had a speaker this past Sunday -- Kasie Enman of Huntington, who finished 11th in last year's Olympic marathon trials in Boston. She agrees that the week before your big race is not the time to shake things up. My human, Mark, seems to subscribe to that theory. His pre-race breakfast is two bowls of Wheaties with banana and honey and a glass of orange juice. Just like every morning. He keeps things the same on race day -- right down to the can of Mountain Dew in the car on the way to the event.

Experiment with different foods during your months of training. Then, hopefully, by race time you know what works.

Hope this helps!
Oscar

PS To check out the Run with Jan website, click here.