You’ve Heard of Carb-Loading. Try Chocolate-Loading!
I was always dead last in high school when we ran “The Mile,” and there is nothing I enjoy less. However, in 2017, my friend, Julian, asked me to run a half marathon with him for charity in New Orleans. Something about the trip and challenge excited me, so I agreed to run the race even though I couldn’t remember ever running more than 2 miles in one go.
I started training, but I wasn’t progressing as quickly as I had hoped. I ran over 40 training runs in 2 months, but I was only just getting to 3 mile runs consistently. The 13.1 mile race was in just over 2 months, so naturally I was nervous. “They” tell you that you only need to train for about 10 miles, and then adrenaline will push you the rest of the way on race day.
On a night in late December, I was so focused on studying for an exam that I hadn’t realized I had eaten an entire box of 12 Lindtt chocolate truffles. The next morning, I felt so disgusted with myself that I needed to go for a run. What happened next was incredible.
I started the run as normal and when I hit 2 miles, I noticed I had some extra energy, so I picked up the pace. Then I rounded 3 miles, and I felt pretty good. When I hit 4 miles, I took a second to mentally celebrate the new record. At 5 miles, I noticed that I just wasn’t getting tired. At 6 miles, I still had yet to feel stress. It’s hard to explain, but I started to get worried that my body wasn’t functioning properly.
At 7.42 miles, I stopped running and began to stretch- not because I was tired, but because I was concerned I might hurt myself. I had no idea what I did to allow myself to run so far. I tried to recreate the magic in the months after, I even played the same running songs to no avail. By the time of the race, excluding my big run, I had only been able to jog 5 miles without stopping, and now I also had a knee injury. To complete the full 13.1 mile race, I needed a miracle.
The night before the race, I walked into a drug store in New Orleans and took a chance on a huge box of assorted chocolate truffles. My race buddy, Julian, looked on in horror as I shoved a dozen truffles into my mouth around 10:00 PM just as we were getting ready for bed. I’m surprised I slept at all. The alarm went off at 6:00 AM, and we headed to the starting line.
I ran the whole thing. I never stopped. Not once.
…the chocolate.
The following year, we decided to run another half marathon, this time in Orlando. I didn’t train nearly as hard as I had the previous year, and by race day I could barely hit 4 miles without stopping. This time, with an everlasting grin on his face, Julian drove me to the drug store and helped me pick out a beautiful box of 12 assorted Godiva truffles. He watched in sheer wonder as I plowed through the lot before bed. The alarm went off at 5:00 AM, and we proceeded to the starting line.
I ran the whole thing! I never stopped! Not once!
…THE CHOCOLATE!
This could be as simple as a placebo or 1-day carbohydrate load, but I’ve carb loaded many times before and never experienced anything like this. I can’t remember which box I ate, but it looked a lot like this one, in which each serving packs 7% and 20% of the recommended daily intake of carbs and fat, respectively (there are 6 servings in the box). Truffles definitely have carbs, but there is a lot of fat at the party, which is a big no-no in most running circles. I’ve seen that 1-day carb loads can be effective, but I wondered if there was any published research supporting the idea that high-fat-meals right before a race can improve performance. Funny enough, there is! Cherry-picked and all:
A Japanese study conducted in 2012 found that eating a high-fat-meal 4 hours before running significantly improves endurance by boosting the body’s ability to access its fat storage during exercise!
Moral of the Story: Don’t Train, Eat Chocolate.
