The Atlantic

Should I Eat Potatoes While I Run?

Consuming a lot of sugar is essential for endurance athletes, but the process doesn’t need to be complicated.
Source: Rogan Ward / Reuters

The greatest fear of many distance runners is a devastating fate known as hitting the wall. In marathon running, that often happens about two hours into a race. The body says, Okay, we’re done here. It is no longer capable of motion. You want to collapse on the ground and weep, but instead you fall sideways and lie rigid in the road like a horrible work of taxidermy. Other runners step over you until someone can drag you off the course.

I know because this happened to me (slightly less extremely). When I ran the Chicago marathon in 2013, around the 23rd mile, my legs turned to tree trunks. I

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