Leave diet, not carbs, at home

By Ray Buck, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Posted on Wed, Feb. 25, 2004

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/sports/8035948.htm

Marathon running is synonymous with carbo-loading. So what if you're on the Atkins Diet?

Do you bacon-binge? Cheddar-load? Is it enough to skip the bun on a double-bacon cheeseburger?

In other words, what if you haven't seen a bagel in six months and your carbohydrate-rationed body now finds itself entered in the 26th running of the Cowtown Marathon on Saturday?

"Truthfully, I think you'd be in trouble," said Fort Worth Runners Club president Frank McGinty, who said he has run 52 marathons.

Two things are fairly consistent about marathon running: Your body needs energy, and your body needs fuel.

Buddy, can you spare a carb? simply is not acceptable language around the start of a 26.2-mile race.

"If you burn 100 calories per mile, then you're going to burn about 2,600 calories during a marathon," said Jim Newsom, team and training coach who co-owns the Fort Worth Running Company. "And where's that going to come from? Carbohydrates."

OK, the message has been sealed, sent and delivered, but not necessarily received by those who swear by the high-fat, low-carb Atkins Diet.

The basic premise is that carbohydrates are the first to metabolize. Therefore, if your body isn't taking in carbs, it will burn fat.

That might work as a source of weight loss for the weekend warrior who plays a round of golf for exercise. And certainly for someone who spends one or two hours per week on the treadmill.

But running a marathon puts demands on the body's inner workings that can only be explained by an expert.

Hitting the wall

Nancy Clark, a Brookline, Mass., sports nutritionist and author of two books -- Food Guide for Marathoners and Sports Nutrition Guidebook -- makes it clear that she's not a proponent of the Atkins Diet for anyone, much less a marathoner.

"Marathon runners rely on their glycogen storage. Glycogen is made only from carbohydrates: pastas, bagels, cereals ... [and] those carbohydrates get stored in your muscles," Clark said. "When a runner depletes his or her glycogen, that's when he or she hits the wall."

That happened to Newsom at the 1991 Cowtown Marathon.

"Typically, toward the end of a marathon, if you have gone out too hard, you'll burn up all your glycogen, and your system is left with nothing but fat," said Newsom, now 61. "And once you start burning nothing but fat, you slow down two to three minutes per mile, even though you're running just as hard as you were before. Unfortunately, I've experienced it."

This is why marathon runners ingest large amounts of pasta, breads, cereals and bananas beginning around lunchtime the day before a race.

Then, that morning, a bagel and maybe an energy bar usually will suffice for what is one of the most grueling tests of endurance in all of sports.

"[But] if you're on the Atkins Diet and trying to run a marathon, you deplete muscle glycogen, which never gets replaced," Clark said. "Because you're not taking in carbs, your muscles don't have the fuel to function. ... They just stop. Your body lacks stamina and endurance. Basically, it's no fun to run."

To turn a cold shoulder to carbs is the antithesis of what most marathoners consider to be a dietary code of survival.

"If foods high in carbohydrates are fattening, then why aren't marathon runners fat?" Clark asked, rhetorically. "Carbs aren't fattening. Calories are fattening. Lack of exercise is fattening."

Local marathon runner Michael Polansky, who operates Polansky Race Management, has been a vegetarian since 1979. Carbs come easily.

Of his 21 marathons, Polansky posted his best time (3 hours, 5 minutes) during what he considered a "training run" to the Cowtown Marathon about 12 years ago at Houston.

Said Polansky: "I didn't carbo-load or anything for that race."

Perhaps what is ingested before a marathon is more inexact science than hard-and-fast standard.

Twizzler, Gummy Bears

Or perhaps it's the big picture that is most important to keep in mind.

"You can fuel your body with Coca-Cola, which will get stored as glycogen," Clark said. "Or you can fuel your muscles on marshmallows and Twizzlers and Gummy Bears, but your health is going to catch up with you."

Leave it to the experts to spoil a good sugar party.

So what would really happen if an Atkins dieter tried to run a marathon?

"Me?" said McGinty. "I'd probably get sick."

"Wait a minute, you're forgetting something," Newsom said. "To run a marathon, you have to have been training for a marathon, which means you'd already have done 18-, 19- and 20-mile training runs on the Atkins Diet."

To talk the talk, the answer here may be to walk the walk.

"There are people who walk marathons, or do them at a very, very slow pace," Clark said. "So, it's conceivable that someone on the Atkins Diet could endure the marathon by burning primarily more fat than carbohydrate.

"But for the majority of distance runners, the Atkins Diet will take its toll."

Cowtown Marathon

Saturday, starting in Sundance Square

Marathon and three-person marathon relay: 7:30 a.m., Second and Houston streets; Cost: $55; relay is $20 per runner

10K: 8:15 a.m., Second and Throckmorton streets; Cost: $22

5K adult race: 8:15 a.m., Fifth and Commerce streets; Cost: $22

Bombay Kids 5K: 9 a.m., Fifth and Commerce streets; Cost: $22

Web site: www.cowtownmarathon.org

Food for thought

Day before a marathon

Marathon runner: Giant bowl of buckwheat pasta with marinara sauce. Side dish of quinoa or rice with vegetables. Two whole wheat or pumpernickel dinner rolls. Large glass of water. Two bananas or a bowl of in-season fruit for desert.

Atkins dieter: One 16-ounce rib-eye steak with bacon bits, mushrooms and crumbled bleu cheese. Generous serving of roasted vegetables with butter. Tossed green salad with Caesar dressing (no croutons) and one-quarter cup of black walnuts. Low-carb beer.

Morning of a marathon

Marathon runner: Several hours before race: One low-fat bagel, dry. One glass of guava juice. About one hour before race: One teaspoon of peanut butter or an energy bar with a few swallows of water or energy drink.

Atkins dieter: Three-egg vegetable and cheese omelet, topped with extra melted Monterey Jack. Four strips of thick-sliced bacon. One glass of water. One cup of coffee with real cream and artificial sweetener (preferably Splenda).