These runners carbed up a little too late.
Traditional fitness wisdom suggests eating carbohydrates between 24 and 48 hours before going on a long run, but athletes at the Williamsburg Pizza Mile turned the convention on its head by eating several slices amid a mile-long dash around the McCarren Park track on Wednesday. The combination was a recipe for nausea, one participant said.
“It was a strange pull of delicious and disgusting,” said Williamsburg runner Mary Harvey. “I actually expected it to feel a lot worse.”
The race, modeled after the Beer Mile, in which runners typically chug four beers during a mile run, required runners to eat a piece of pizza before starting, and an additional piece after each quarter-mile lap. The eating portion was as competitive as the foot-race thanks to inspections in which judges examined the inside of participants’ mouths to ensure they had swallowed the last bit of crust before running off.
Harvey completed the pizza mile in 13 minutes and 40 seconds, running faster than any other woman in the race.
“I ran conservatively,” said Harvey. “Five minutes of my time was eating.”
Representatives from Brooklyn Running Company and Williamsburg Pizza, which organized the race, plan to host another one next year.
