For today’s New York Marathon special on NOWNESS, we asked five top sports enthusiasts to tell us what they’d be eating on the day of the event, resulting in a carb-heavy food fest, photographed by Jonathan de Villiers. Here’s a run down of our galloping guzzlers and the reasons behind their menu choices.
Brad Ludden
You may recognize Brad Ludden as Cosmopolitan’s hottest American bachelor of 2008, but he’s not just a pretty face. This world-class kayaker (the first to be sponsored by Nike) has scooped a string of awards since he started competing internationally at age 12, including 13 medals at the Teva Mountain Games between 2001 and 2008. He’s also a dedicated philanthropist and founding member of First Descents, a charity dedicated to helping young people with cancer by building confidence and strength through free adventure sports courses. “I’m running the marathon in honor of the young adults we serve, to raise awareness for their cause and to challenge myself as they have challenged themselves in our programs,” he says.
Laura Skladzinski
New Yorker Skladzinski is a self-confessed “Marathon maniac.” At just 24 she is the youngest person to run a marathon in each of the US’s 50 states. Oh, and she did it all in the space of two years, finishing her epic quest on June 6, 2010. “The cliched way that people eat the night before a race is with a pasta dinner,” she says. “But while there are a ton of great Italian restaurants in New York City, given that there are 40,000 runners looking for pre-race food, my plan is to avoid that scene. Instead I’ll go to a very non-traditional source of carbs, but one that I love: Belgian beer.”
Keir Dillon
Considered one of the world’s best professional snowboarders, halfpipe champion and X Games medalist Keir Dillon is running the marathon for Stoked Mentoring, a New York-based charity that offers action sports coaching to underprivileged teens. “Everyone tells me it’s all about the training to get you through the marathon when that day comes,” he says. “For people like me that have not trained as hard as they should have, I am hoping packing in some good food before and a huge celebration meal after will be enough to get me through the 26.2 miles.”
Amani Toomer
Former NFL player and Super Bowl XLII winner Toomer has a unique goal in the New York Marathon. Sponsored by Timex, he will start the race in last place, and raise $1 for every person that he passes on his way to the finish line. This means that up to $40,000 could be winging its way to Toomer’s chosen charity, New York Road Runners, which provides free courses in physical and mental fitness to young people. His pre-marathon menu is simple—it's basically just a 12-hour pizza binge—but hey, isn’t simple sometimes best?
Mara Yamauchi
Who says you can’t have brains and brawn? In addition to a degree from Oxford University and a master’s from the London School of Economics, Britain’s Mara Yamauchi also holds the distinction of being the woman with the second best time ever in the New York Marathon, alongside top ten placements in competitions including the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Having previously worked for the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, she is currently on extended leave in order to focus on her running career. Her menu reflects the culinary influence of her current hometown, Tokyo, where she lives with her husband Shigetoshi. “The night before the race I eat chikara udon, which means “power udon” in Japanese,” she says. “It’s a big bowl of udon noodles with a few extra things thrown in to give you lots of stamina!”