Nutrition or nonsense?

Long distance runners are always looking for ways of fuelling themselves adequately so that can continue to maintain a competitive edge. We have all used gels, Power bars, Powerade and other sports drinks etc in our racing and training.

Like many things in life, all of the above substances have been around for less than 50 years. They have been synthetically made and formulated to supposedly fuel us during our runs.

I continue to make use of the gels in particular, but have often wondered why anyone would need to use them on any runs shorter than a half marathon? The body holds enough glycogen to successfully handle the 21km distance and so it was with some bemusement that I saw runners consuming up to 5 of them during a half marathon this year. Even more amazing was the person not only having 5, but also insisting on running with a 4L Camelpak over a course with numerous aide stations and volunteers. One could have even thought that perhaps said individual was thinking they were instead involved in the Marathon des Sabel.

Speaking to the winner of the Sydney Marathon on the last couple of occasions (a Kenyan dude) revealed that he does not like the gels and him and his mates prefer to drink just water (even though a few are sponsored by GU). Another point of reference is that in marathons of past years, there were no aide stations offering Gus and Coke and Gatorade and guess what people ran just fine. In fact a friend ran a silver at Comrades in the 80s on just water – positively amazing.

Ultra marathons and Ironman triathlons probably have greater needs for nutrition and even solid food in my honest opinion.

True courage is shown by Julie Moss in this early clip from the Ironman in Hawaii. She fuelled only on abit of banana, water and Coke and the result is heartbreaking but if you are not inspired by this then nothing will inspire you. – Sean Muller