Walking Fuel

There were all sorts of concoctions lined up on the aid table at the 50km Championships in Chula Vista. I saw everything from flat cola (shake until the fizz is gone) to a small bottle of tequila--though I don't think that was consumed on the race course!





It would be great to have everything prepared ahead of time and have someone pass it to you, but in the races I'll be doing it will be water or Gatorade in paper cups. Usually half of it sloshes out of the cup before gulping it down. Last time (and only time) I did a marathon they had bananas, oranges and other goodies, but by the time I got there they were all gone. It was questionable if there would even be water. I'm not kidding, here is a blurb from the 1993 L.A. Marathon report:

"The weather played a major factor in the race with a high of 87 degrees on race day, creating a temporary water shortage at water stations."

I can't weigh myself down by carrying all the water I'll need, but I do plan on taking at least a small bottle of Hydralyte aka, Gookinaid. I used it during the long workouts and found it is easier on the stomach than other sports drinks. I tried all their varieties, none were overly strong tasting, but I settled on their original citrus flavor. A few things that closed the deal for me was that Philip Dunn mentioned Hydralyte in his online journal, they were serving it at the Chula Vista Championships and Curt Clausen wrote a testimonial for it.

2004 ATHENS OLYMPIANS:

Just forwarded media releases from my last two weekends of races. I have been using the Gookinaid Hydralyte every day and in both those events with great success. Almost all my workouts I've been using the drink during and also weighing in and weighing out and then replacing my sweat loss with Gookinaid. My recovery and ability to train has greatly improved and my muscles feel much better. I've also started really monitoring my carbo intake so the combination of monitoring fluid and carbs seems to have really done the trick.
The best part is that in the last 50km I had no stomach distress at all. In the race at about 17km I was feeling a bit out of it and figured I had not kept up on fluid intake so took in 17 oz on one lap with no problems at all and felt better by the next lap. The Gookinaid Citrus Drink has worked great as it really goes down easily. I just wanted to forward you the latest results and let you know how well things are going. I am drinking a lot of the product, so after this weekend's race I am almost out of powder. Oh, which also reminds me -- two cross country flights and no illness - drinking 32 oz plus of Gookinaid onboard each flight segment has also really helped the last two trips.
Anyway, thanks so much for all your help and for the helping me get back on track. I plan on making Gookinaid Hydralyte a permanent part of my training/racing strategy as it has worked wonders for me.

Curt Clausen,
U.S. Olympic Race Walk Team
U.S. 50 km Walk Champion
U.S. 15-km Walk Champion

In addition to liquids, there are gels, candies, bars, bananas and other more substantial foods that help with endurance events. I tried a few different brands and flavors of gels and settled on probably the most boring of all--Just Plain GU. It has some caffine along with the usual postassium, carbohydrates, etc. and taking one packet just before starting then one per hour worked for the long workout I did a couple of weeks ago. For the marathon I will be putting in more effort so I'll go with their recomendation of one every 45 minutes. As for my choice of flavor, the others just tasted too strong and I want results, not a gustation moment. There was lots of GU on the aid table at the 50km Championships and I'm pretty sure I saw Curt Clausen sucking down a packet.

Anyway, that's how I made up my mind on what to eat and drink during the marathon.