Fruit Juices and Other Drinks as Running Fuel

Gatorade is ubiquitous. It works, for the most part. Drink too much and your stomach can't handle it. Drink too much and your teeth will hate you. What else is one to do?

Good question. At the North Coast 24 I had a few drinks that went over really well.

I drank everything in the above picture, except I had Starbucks Double shot 6 ounce cans instead of the 11 ounce bottle shown above. The coconut juice, POM pomegranate juice, and Bolthouse Farms Mango Protien Plus smoothie, I did have. Frankly, those three juices worked wonders. I had a liter of each one and they all tasted good, digested easily, and had a variety of the salts and sugars, and even proteins, my body was looking for. I found that about four ounces was convenient to drink in any given minute, but I could down a 17 ounce coconut water in about five minutes of walking. The mango protein smoothie was quite a bit more thick.  I probably started drinking it around mile 60 or 70 and then drank the last half of it after mile 100 when I took a few minutes to walk. 

For sure one of the challenges of ultra running is how to take calories. In other words, do you take a few sips and keep running? Do you walk to get a few ounces or a cup or two of liquid but risk drinking too much in a few minutes? Do you actually stop and eat, maybe even sit down? I am actually pretty stunned how well my stomach handled this first ultra race. My trails runs have always been much more low key than any race, just walk and eat, or sit down for awhile to figure something out. I just wanted to share specifically what worked for me. I assure you the four drinks I mentioned, plus Gatorade, will make an appearance at the next ultra I run. Of course, I am open to other drinks.