Sweet potato pre-race pasta

Is there ever a more appropriate time to eat pasta than the night before a race?

This sort of ritual takes me back to my high school cross-country days, but pasta the night before a race isn’t just a thing for high-school runners, the Boston Athletic Association serves up a giant pasta dinner the night before the Boston Marathon, which is almost as impressive as the marathon itself, so pre-race pasta is super legit.

Just FYI, I’m not talking about Michael Scott’s pre-race fettuccini alfredo he ate 5 minutes before the Michael Scott’s Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for the Cure.

I’m talking about the night before, even the afternoon before if you can swing it. The best time to carbo-load before a big race is actually around lunch time the day before so your body has time to fully metabolize all those energy-filled carbs.

However, because my life, unfortunately, does not totally revolve around running, I usually end up eating my pasta around dinner time and that works fine too.

So you’ve got the pasta, but what to put on it… Some sort of marinara is always a solid choice, but what about if we can replace that everyday marinara with a superfood for your super-awesome race the next day?

I’m talking about sweet potatoes!

Now I know there are people out there who are like,”Uh, yeah. I’m so healthy I’ve replaced my pasta with sweet potatoes actually.” Those people impress me greatly, but I like pasta too much to ever abandon it for spiralized veggies.

Besides, pasta is no bad for you! I mean yeah if you smother it in cheese and butter, it’s not great. But that kind of goes for anything… I eat the whole wheat stuff and when you’re looking to carbo-load, pasta works. I’m no nutritionist, but I’m using my experience card here.

So we’re keeping the pasta and we’re adding a superfood that will fill you up with so many vitamins and minerals, you’ll feel like you have your own set of superpowers at the start line the next morning.

This recipe is quite simple because the sweet potatoes speak for themselves. You don’t want something complicated sitting in your stomach on race day, you want tried and true, simple goodness. Throw in some herbs and garlic, a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper, and you’re good to go. Oh and you can totally add cheese – I’m thinking a parmesan. I would tip my cap to that decision.

I ate this the night before the Kalamazoo Marathon this past weekend and felt awesome the whole time. Did I mention I had just finished another marathon the weekend before? (Sorry, I’m just really proud of that)

Thanks, sweet potato pasta, for giving me superpowers for race day.