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I took a business trip to Kona to check out Ironman this week. It was a great experience and some exciting fueling takeaways from the athletes that shared their fueling strategies with me.
Here are some highlights:
Maurten
Maurten is the official Ironman Gel and is widely used by most athletes. It was also on the course at all the feeding stations.
Most athletes were combining it with a Maurten drink and taking at least 2 Maurten Gels per hour of the bike ride, and many were increasing to three per hour on the run.
I surveyed the bikes in the transition area, and the exclusive Maurten 25.2 oz (750ml) bottle was the most popular.
“I can’t take one more Gel!”
I also spoke with a few athletes who struggled to take any more Gels. They said they stopped taking Gels and just drank water, and many suffered on the 2nd half of the run.
If these athletes had started fueling on the bike with real food Gels like Spring Awesome Sauce, they could have maintained their carbs per hour and then switched to Maurten or other gels later in the ride and on their run and likely had a more pleasant time reaching the finish.
“HOTSHOT Saved my Race”
I ran on the course to survey the disposed of gel and other packages to see what was popular. I saw a lot of HOTSHOT bottles. It was scorching, and cramping was a severe issue.
Every athlete I spoke with that cramped AND had HOTSHOT was happy they had it. As a tip, you take it once you feel the cramp starting.
New products
I did find a bunch of new products, many international brands, and some fascinating new high-performance technology that we will be adding in the coming months, and I’ll be excited to share them with you.
The first mom to win Ironman World Champs
The pros were impressive, and the women’s champion Chelsea Sodaro had a moving speech when she said she was most excited to be the first mom to win the Ironman World Champs. She also wandered around the day after and stopped to take photos and chat with anyone that asked.
It was also fun to watch all of Lionel Sanders’ intimate and personal video blogs each day leading up to the race. If you want to see what it truly takes without any spin or sponsor hype, you should check out his YouTube.
The most impressive was the thousands of age group athletes. The heat was probably just as hard as tackling the course itself. Congrats to everyone brave enough to start, and those that finished, you are an Ironman.
DRG
