Fueling better, speficially utilizing a high carbohydrate fueling strategy, has taken endurance sports by storm. Race to race in 2024, breakout to breakthrough, nearly every athlete interview includes an association between performance and dialing in nutrition and hydration. A trend we are excited to get behind! To get a glimpse at what is going on in the professional field when it comes to putting these strategies into action we reached out to the top five finishers at the 2024 Western States Endurance Run. Today we look at the men’s race.
Jim Walmsley – 1st place
A critical member of Jim’s crew in 2024 was his twin brother, Will Walmsley, and he gave us a rundown of what Jim consumed and how he carried it during his winning effort this year.
“Jim used NeverSecond for his fueling with a goal of consuming 90g of carbs per hour. He started the race with a running vest and swapped to using a running belt at the Duncan Canyon aid station (mile 24.4). When he swapped to the belt, he carried 2 soft flasks with him, one with water and the other with his liquid calories. Both bottles were half filled with ice to help with the heat mitigation throughout the race. The crew waited until about 5-10 minutes before Jim’s expected arrival to begin adding ice to anything to keep the bottles as cold as possible. Early on, Jim was using 2 passionfruit C30 energy gels mixed with water in his nutrition bottle. By Foresthill, he was wanting a more neutral taste profile and switched to the citrus C30 sports drink powder using 2 scoops per bottle. Jim also had caffeine and salt pills he carried with him and could take on an as needed basis. All of the NeverSecond fueling options use about 200mg sodium per 30g carbs. At crewed aid stations, Jim would pick up his additional calories needed to maintain the 90g carbs per hour goal between the crewed aid stations. Then was relying on non-crewed aid stations for water and ice. Additionally, the crewed aid stations had other calorie options available. This included having a half-filled bottle with coke, sliced cantaloupe and watermelon, bubbly water, chips, and other various snacks.”
While Jim had notable foot issues during the race in June this year it seemed like his nutrition held together throughout the day. After the race Jim ate a burrito, but according to Will it probably wasn’t until the next morning when Jim was able to start eating normally again without it being a chore.
Rod Farvard – 2nd place
We reached out to Rod Farvard but were unable to connect with him to follow up on his race day nutrition for this article. But one thing we know for sure is that fueling has been a big part of the Rod 2.0 we’ve all witnessed in 2024. After his breakout win at the 2024 Canyon’s Endurance Run 100km to clock his Golden Ticket he credited the change to working with sport dietian Vic Johnson. The changes included boosting his carbohydrate intake and increasing his hydration to meet his personal needs (we’ve peeped the third soft flask stashed in his vest). If you are curious to hear more about his fueling strategy during WSER check out his post race interview on the Freetrail Podcast.
Hayden Hawks – 3rd place
“I used a belt the whole time. Water, Precision Fuel and Hydration Flow Gel (95g of carbs per hour) Precision Salt tabs (2 with every 500ml bottle taken, 500mg for 500ml) and just got water at the aid stations. I had two bottles of Flow gel early on and got close to 100g carbs an hour. 889ml average per hour. 500ml early on and a liter or more later in the race.”
Hayden Hawks was an early adopter working with Precision Hydration, this is what they had to share about the fueling Hayden before, during and after WSER:
- 250ml RedBull and 1 x PH Electrolyte capsule finishing ~15 mins before the start
- Hayden carried all his fuel in Flow Flasks (500 ml or 250 ml, depending on the length between crewed aid stations). The gels were pre-weighed the day before the race. All of Hayden’s carbs came from Gels (either Flow Gel or PF 30 Caffeine Gels). He used a Naked running belt for easy access and to keep cool without having to wear a pack. He also carried 2 soft flasks of fluid, one as a handheld at all times and the other stored in his belt. Hayden took PH electrolyte capsules to meet his sodium needs, which were cut up into the required quantities for each section of the course, and kept in his belt.
- Hayden took 100% of his fuel from his crew and stayed on plan for the whole race. The non-crewed aid stations were only used to replenish water during the longer sections of the course and for ice to help with cooling.
- Carbs = 95g per hour, fluid = 900 ml per hour, relative sodium intake = ~880mg per liter. These intakes were constant throughout the race. The main change was consuming more fluid in the second half as temperatures rose, so he could try and match his increased sweat rate
- Hayden was tucking into a big post race burger watching the other runners come in at the track within ~ 3 hours.
Daniel Jones – 4th place
“I’ve been working at getting between 90 to 100g of carbs per hour. Sometimes it’s dependent on the event, conditions and the ease of aid. I’ve been targeting this level for the last year since working with Precision Fuel and Hydration. Initially I was using a mix of 90g gels and the Electrolyte/Carb drink. Liquid carbs and let’s say slightly less liquid carbs with the gels. I’ve since incorporated Flow gel into my strategy. This made it easier to carry my carbs in a flask for Western States where some crewed stations are spread far apart. I get my sodium from the carb/electrolyte Precision drink mix. Between aid stations I was topping up with water. To maintain appropriate electrolyte levels I would top up with [sodium] capsules every few hours.
Early on I wore the Adidas TERREX vest. This made it easier to carry everything for the first few hours. I proceeded to drop the vest at Dusty Corners and then just used a waist belt for my flow gel flask, carb/electrolyte flask, and had one handheld.”
Here is how his sponsor Precision Hydration broke down the fueling of Dan Jones:
- He started with a couple of Soft Flasks of PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix when it was cooler, then switched to a belt once temperatures started to heat up.
- He also relied on Flow Gel in Flow Flasks to get the majority of his carb intake.
- Dan only picked up plain water from the aid stations, ~2.5L out of his total ~9.5L.
- All of his carbs were from his own gels, drink mixes or coca cola from crewed aid stations.
- Carbs = ~92g per hour, fluid = ~650ml per hour, sodium = ~620mg per liter.
- Dan ate a burger an hour after the race! No stomach issues at all.
Caleb Olson – 5th place
“I’ve spent a lot of time and energy figuring out what I need in terms of nutrition and hydration and what products work well for me. Aside from getting Roctane at an aid station, I exclusively used Precision gels and electrolyte tablets for my fuel and hydration because I train with them every day and know that I can handle them without GI problems and they keep my energy levels even all day. They don’t have much of a flavor so I don’t get sick of them. About every 3-4 hours I took a Precision gel with 100mg of caffeine. I started with a small running vest with two soft flasks and gels in it, and then switched over to a belt and handhelds at Robinson Flat. At each crew point I swapped out bottles for new full ones and picked up more gels.”
Here is how his Precision Hydration crew recorded Caleb Olson’s fueling and broke it down:
- Most of the fluid he consumed was carried in 500ml soft flasks or hand-held bottles. Over 75% of the bottles he was drinking from contained electrolytes of a similar strength to his sweat sodium concentration.
- Every gram of carbohydrates he consumed came from PF 300 Flow Gel, PF 30 Caffeine Gels and the small amount in each PH 1000 (Drink Mix) packet. No “real foods”.
- Every gel was kept on ice until minutes before he collected them, as he found the perceptual cooling effects of cold gels to be really beneficial.
- All of his fueling came from gels received from his crew.
- Around 3.5L of his 13L total fluid intake came from aid stations, with ~10L coming from crew provisions.
- Caleb picked up ~1L of the on-course electrolyte drink within the 3.5L, as and when he fancied a change of flavors
- Carbs = ~104g per hour, fluid = ~880ml per hour, sodium = ~750mg per liter.
- Caleb’s hourly intake was very stable in terms of carbohydrates: His gel strategy was designed to give him between 90-100g per hour in pre-weighed doses. Because he ran quite a lot faster than planned, this bumped his hourly intake up as he still consumed the same total amount.
- His fluid intake increased throughout the day, which matched the temperature increase, and subsequent sweat rate increase. Caleb had meticulously prepared his hydration strategy to adequately replace his sweat losses, having had dehydration-related issues in the past.