Everything Olympian Alexi Pappas Needs for Marathon Day

Pappas traveled to the Paris Olympics this summer to cheer on the athletes, and had a great time, with one major exception: she fell and broke her collarbone. She had surgery in Paris, and the RecoveryTherm Cube has been a lifesaver during her recovery. She can strap the device directly to her collarbone and get a blast of chill, then a wave of heat to help bring more blood flow to the area. She always travels with the cube and loves that there are no messy, sweaty bags of ice to deal with.

This is not your average necklace. The pendant is a breathing device that uses an ancient technique to help calm your nervous system and reduce anxiety. When you breathe into the chamber, you’re forced to slow and lengthen your exhale, which helps you relax. Pappas wears the necklace all the time, but she especially likes using it the night before a competition to help find her focus and chase off pre-race nerves.

Pappas finds the process of grocery shopping “draining,” so she relies on several food delivery services to keep her kitchen stocked. ButcherBox is always on the menu, and she especially loves the bison, scallops, filet mignon, and wild salmon. She loves cooking when she’s home and having friends over, especially post-race when she’s too tired to go out.

Pappas says that in her Olympics days, she would religiously eat a peanut butter and banana sandwich four hours before her race. Now, because she’s traveling more and not as focused on her times or placing, she relies on a portable peanut butter and jelly bar from Bonk Breakers. She’s tested the bars before races, so she knows they’re easy to digest and dense enough to keep her fueled for a marathon or longer.

In her post-Olympics days, Pappas has become known for a signature race day style that shows off her whimsical side. She paints herself in glitter and stashes more in her running belt to decorate fans along the course. She’s currently developing her own sweat-proof line of body glitter because she’s yet to find a great one that sticks throughout a marathon.

Pappas doesn’t usually race with her phone, but she packs her trusty SpiBelt with glitter and snacks, including Bonk Breakers Energy Chews, which are fortified with electrolytes to keep her hydrated.

These are Pappas’ go-to road racing shoes. They’re light and bouncy, and Lisa, the vision-impaired runner Pappas guides through Achilles International, won the Boston Marathon in these shoes. Lisa said they helped ease her nerve pain during the race. For trail runs and races, Pappas laces up the Merrell Agility Peaks.

Pappas is a dedicated Feetures fan. She wore these socks for a 100-mile race and didn’t have a trace of a blister, which says alot about their durability. She recently visited the family-owned company at its headquarters in Charlotte. Pappas is a storyteller in her other life as a film writer, and she loves meeting the people behind her favorite brands (as do we).

You can pop these hydration chews without water, so Pappas likes to stash a few in her SPIBelt during races. She supplements the chews with water grabbed from the aid stations along a course to get a nice balance of electrolytes and fluids.

Pappas generally races in head-to-toe Merrell gear, which is built for the roads and the trails, so it’s ideal for her current training and racing schedule. Her biggest tip for marathoners is to get out of your sweaty sports bra as soon as possible post-race and get into something dry and soft.