Marathons Are For the Keepers-of-Kosher, Too

As this story tells it, you can run and keep kosher:-

...consider the plight of the kosher marathoner, who because of Jewish dietary laws may not replenish himself with sports drinks that lack kosher certification.

“The average runner can grab a cup of Gatorade anywhere along the race course, but we have to plan ahead, to have people meet us at certain points with kosher-certified drinks,” said Dovid Yehoshua Schachner, a former schoolteacher in Queens and an orthodox Jew who has run three marathons and is running on Sunday. According to Gatorade’s Web site, the drink lacks kosher certification.

...Zev Wineberg, a Hasidic rabbi who lives and runs a Jewish center on Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City, Queens...bought cases of Powerade, a sports drink that is kosher-certified, and said he will offer it to “anyone who wants it, but specifically to runners who are strictly observant.”

“We want to support their physical and spiritual well-being,” he said. Rabbi Wineberg estimated that there were perhaps “several hundred” runners in the marathon who observe kosher regulations. Many gather in groups at the starting line for morning prayer.