Attention all half marathon race organizers! Half Marathon Calendar USA set out to hear from half marathon participants, what kind of food they LOVE post race.
Here are some of the responses we received from Half Marathon Runners & Walkers:
Sarah Savas Whowell "Chicken noodle soup! It was a great surprise on a wet day!"
Carolyn Turak Houston "Is beer a food?"
Nora Haefele "Omelets and chocolate milk"
Mary Finnegan "sandwiches and fruit
Matt Hulbert "Salty chips!"
Candice Tipton "Hot soup! Tomato or chicken noodle!"
Erin Brooks "Chocolate chip cookies"
Ron Snedaker "Dr Pepper"
Lisa Rice Seidel "Cold chocolate milk!"
Lisa Ann 🍕🍕🍻🍻
Vince Auten Chocolate milk. Potato chips. Banana
Julie Riddle O'Loughlin STL marathon did cookie ice cream sandwiches, they were delicious even in the cold temperatures.
Lisa Lopez Pasta with vegan “meat” balls
Chad Schell Chocolate milk
Lisa Tuckwood Pizza
Susie Beck Breakfast... Rehoboth Beach Marathon & Half Marathon does this.... so awesome having a hot breakfast after a cold December race
Sarah Butler Burger or pizza.
Claudia Alvarado Banana, bagels/donuts
Laura Furlow Mastella Chocolate milk, but I also like things local to the area. Ie Philadelphia half gave out soft pretzels. Something the town/city is known for...
Michelle Brack chocolate milk and pizza
Natalie Evans Piromsuk Gluten free chips - potato chips, Cheetos, Fritos...
Kristin Evans Chocolate milk and watermelon
Nicole Charlton-Nauroth Soft pretzels
Elizabeth Quirk Hot day - popsicles Cold day - hot chocolate Any time - beer
Jeri Buckley McLaughlin French Toast
Maricela Moya Cruz Pasta w seafood
Brenda Collins A big ol’ burger 🍔
Sandy Richardson Lobster rolls at Smuttynose!
Carrie Hill Kelly Soup
Shannon Harper Murphy If it's cold out, soup!
Barb Best Ice cream with crushed pretzels!!!
Diane Kay Street tacos
Fay Merritt Westenhofer Something with protein. They usually try to give me something sugary and I can't handle that late in a race.
Lisa Lonchor "Pizza! Can’t forget the beer! 😉Breakfast burritos!"
Cozette Teasley "Chocolate milk, oreo cookies, and pizza!"
Paula Yoakum "Chocolate milk. Bagel with cream cheese and pizza. Salty such as chips, Fritos."
Pam Provencher "Chocolate milk.... Beer & Pizza"
Dina Beck Zugar "Chocolate milk"
Ceri Rohrbach Sucato "chocolate milk, always! I've also really enjoyed snow cones after hot races (OCNJ!) and soup after cold ones. Loved the local cuisine after some of the New Orleans races (Jazz Half, in particular had great red beans and rice and jambalaya), too!"
Richard Mac "Steak."
Andrew Ruffino "Steak? There was race that had post race steak!? I need to know where that was."
Cheryl Corbin Biesiada "They had fresh blueberry pancakes made on site from the Egg and I at the small race I ran last weekend. Had syrup and whipped cream too😋. Hard to beat that as far I’m concerned!"
Mahesh Sethuraman "Muffins. And there was a race that handed over breakfast burritos but the line was too much"
Mary Pugh "Chocolate milk"
Maureen Bowen "Chocolate milk, pizza, and ice cream for warmer races"
Andrew Ruffino "I did a race and they had a pancake breakfast with sausage and chocolate milk. That was yummy!"
Mahesh Sethuraman "Come do Lexus laceup Running Series races 🙂 free breakfast burritos post run 🙂"
Angel V. Coleman "chocolate milk & a banana"
Erin Bliss "Thompson Food in general is good. Back of the pack folks sometimes don't get much or any. Races that run out ... SUCK!" Pickles, pizza, spoonfuls of peanut butter, beer, orange wedges, Goetta."
Well, the VERDICT is out! Chocolate Milk, by FAR, ranks at the top for post race food & beverage. Breakfast food in general seems to be very popular (Muffins, Eggs, Breakfast Burritos, Pancakes), burgers and pizza rank up there at the top as well. Fruit is pretty standard. Additionally, Potato Chips and Pretzel appear to be a pretty popular post race snack. Anything unique (as in something good for lunch) of course seems to get the "extra special attention' of participants. Shorter lines (more support to hand out food) and the good food running out, seems to be the two biggest issues I see (and I have seen first hand), hence, those are probably areas some races could improve on. And of course the beer! Some won't eat after a race, but will certainly head for the beer!