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i keep marathon morning breakfast fairly light (probably cup of tea & toasted bagel with jam) + it's also good to get it in 2-3 hours before you run. I usually pop an immodium around this time as well, just to be on the safe side..! 

Re: Carb Loading - I'm on my final day of carb depletion and will carb load from tomorrow. Apparently if you deplete carb stores early in the week then load, you absorb the new carbs better.

During pre-marathon week I use a (free) iphone app called My Fitness Pal - and scan the barcode on the food packet to keep track of how much I'm eating and the carb intake. Ideally you don't want to eat too much, i.e. over your daily calorie intake but make sure the carb intake is a sufficiently high proportion (~75% of intake vs Protein and Fat). For average runners (we're generally leaner than the most) you want to aim for around 500-600g of carb on Thursday + Friday. Saturday you can carb up too but try & finish the loading by around 6pm.

I've spent a fair amount of time in supermarket aisles check nutrition values. High carb foods would include: Bagels (w/Raisins), Pancakes (w/raisins), Oatcake (taste like cardboard but high source), Potato Cakes, Malt Loaf, Pitta Bread, Crackers & of course Pasta/Rice (Brown varieties best).

Good luck!

Had a super trail 16 miler on Saturday morning with a progressive-recovery 10k last night. Resting today with a bit of core tonight to keep my mind occupied. Nice tip about the shelter Hillheader - I'll bear that in mind on the day.

My first Edinburgh and a PB shot (under 3:24 will be party time); I did my 3rd London a couple of weeks ago and am still in recovery mode, survived a very painful 20 last Saturday. 16 this weekend. Just wondering about the spectator bus, presume that's the easiest way for my partner to get down to the finish? Is it well organised?

Thanks & taper well!

Hi all, just started following this thread - I am signed up for my Edinburgh marathon which will be my 6th 26.2miler, looking forward to the opportunity to go for a PB (3:24) which I did in Berlin over 2 years ago and failed to get close to it at VLM and Halstead this year despite training very hard last winter/spring.

I've used (& recommend) Hal Higdon training plans all the way through my Novice - Intermediate II. I might change tack slightly for next year though as I'm also venturing into the world of Ultramarathons and doing a 48 miler in August which will be my first, very nervous about that but Edinburgh will be good training for it!

@Gary - have you looked at 'Eat and Run' by Scott Jurek? I've just started it and will try and improve my diet over the coming months based on that (perhaps after Xmas!) - he's an amazing Ultra runner.

cheers.