The Long Cold Run

The Pesach Problem

This year and next, Pesach and the Boston Marathon are on a collision course for those who both keep Pesach (particularly those who are Ashkenazi) and run the Marathon. Over the next 2 months, I'll be testing recipes for alternatives to the usual performance nutrition products. For now though, here are some things to consider if you also find yourself needing these alternatives:

1. Carbo load with potato -- we Jews know potato, now the question becomes, how many potato dishes can you make the night before the marathon? If you have good recipes, lets read them!!

2. KP fruit juice with extra salt and water is your friend...take that salt water from sedar and toss it in with fruit punch. Give it to your friends to have every few miles along the course! It is too bad we can't organize Boston's Jewish Community to show up near all water stops to hand it out to those of us who can't take the Gatorade!

3. Honey packets as a Gu alternative; Another alternative (that I personally can't stand) are RingGels -- I may be able to get my friend David to come watch the marathon again this year just by promising to eat them (YICK!)

Some suggestions for what NOT to do:

1. Avoid matzah when possible --- we know what running does to our digestive systems and we know that matzah has it's own special impact...eating matzah the weekend of race day will only cause problems

2. Dried fruit can be tasty but can also loosen things up - some thing that happens naturally while running as well. The last thing you want is to be a few miles into things and have to hit the port-a-johns every few miles. If you do dried fruit, be conservative -- a better alternative could be bananas and oranges that can be found along the route.

Those are my thoughts for now...if you have ideas, I'd love to hear them! Jesse's test kitchen will go into production mode next weekend!

posted by Jesse @ 4:05 PM