We are collectively thrilled with how the renewed focus on fueling strategies is changing the game across endurance sports. Ultrarunning often finds itself on the back foot, but when it comes to hitting the carbohydrates ultra-endurance runners are bringing the fire! The sport has quickly adopted what the professionals in the world of road cycling have been putting to the test in the major tours for the last several years, and it’s showing up on the podium in a big way. To get a glimpse at what is going on in the professional field when it comes to fueling strategies we reached out to the top five finishers at the 2024 Western States Endurance Run. Today we start with the women.
Katie Schide – 1st place
“I was using primarily gels as my fuel source. I also had a couple of cheese sandwiches and quesadillas. My intake was something around 60-70 grams of carbohydrate/hour. Liquids included water, Coke, the Neversecond drink mix, electrolyte mix. I also had a popsicle at Devil’s Thumb, quesadillas at Quarry Road, water from all aid stations, and few random handfuls of chips at various points. Everything else came from my crew.”
Something we all noticed throughout the day was that Katie Schide adopted a very American approach to WSER. What we mean is she started with a running vest and exchanged it for a fully loaded one or handhelds at crewed aid stations with great efficiency. While that strategy might not be permitted at every race due to mandatory gear requirements, this works incredibly well at most US-based races.
Fuzhao Xiang – 2nd place
“I had one gel per hour and had one rice ball and one potato every 10 miles. I also had noodles at Foresthill and the river. My crew made the rice balls and brought them to the aid stations for me and I carried it all in the same vest throughout the race.”
If you were following along with the front of the women’s race you may have caught the viral video of Fuzhao utilizing a longer aid station stop at Rucky Chucky with noodles flying into her mouth via chopsticks as her crew worked on getting her prepped to head across the river. A fun fact we learned after the event was that the gels Fuzhao used were purchased from GU and Spring at the expo and at Tahoe Outside.
Eszter Csillag – 3rd place
“My overall strategy was to eat gels and use drink mix on the go while utilizing solid food at bigger aid stations. Besides this, I also planned to take more solid food in the first 50km with me when the temperature was cooler.
I had rice for breakfast, and a banana before the start. Then two waffles before Robinson Flat (~50km), plus prototype Naak gels that are ~ 200calories/gels. My overall target was about 300 calories per hour. At Robinson Flat I had an energy drink and a banana. After that, I had gels and drink mix until Michigan Bluff (~85km). But I got a bit off and I was starting to have a low point. I had watermelon there and a coke. Then at Foresthill (~100km) I had pickle juice, coke, chips, and watermelon. After that I threw up, so I was eating gels slowly so I had to keep up with calories via liquid. I drank cans of Coke at the Peachstone aid station and had a lemonade at the river, utilizing a lot of drink mix in between.
After the river I felt better – probably because I was getting cooled down better. But I couldn’t eat as much as I wanted. I believe I was getting in about 150 calories per hour and mostly in liquid form. This helped me to avoid cramps.
Overall, I tried to get 800mg of sodium per hour as I sweat a lot. I would not recommend anyone blindly following what I do as this is very personal and consuming too much sodium or too little can be risky.”
Staying hydrated paid off not just on the race course, rumor has it Eszter set a new personal record for getting in and out of post-race drug testing!
Emily Hawgood – 4th place
“I carried everything in my Adidas TERREX running vest throughout the race, getting resupplied by my crew. I ate a Neversecond gel every 20-30 minutes and had the C90mix in one bottle and one bottle of water. I ate a banana at every aid station either from my crew at crewed aid stations and from the aid station tables at non-crewed aid stations, as well as chicken broth from the river to Quarry Road aid station as well as Brown’s Bar. I had Salt Stick electrolyte chews that I ate on feel as need throughout the race.
I used the Citrus, Passion Fruit, Coffee & Cola Neversecond flavors. I was fine with two [500mL] bottles early and refilled at aid stations. My hourly consumption was 90-100 grams of carbohydrates per hour and ingested around 700-800mg of sodium per hour. I ate as soon as I got done in the drug testing tent and was able to get in two cups of chicken broth and a bag of crisps.”
Yngvild Kaspersen – 5th place
We reached out to Yngvild but were unable to connect, turns out she’s a doctor and we respect the hustle!