Tokyo Marathon

This was the fifth World Marathon Major that Floris has completed, and with his sixth just seven weeks later, he was confident in a tried and tested fueling strategy. He has trained his gut to tolerate ~90g of carb per hour at high intensities in training, which meant he was comfortable for the vast majority of the race. The only discomfort he felt was right at the end of his three hours on course, which is likely as a result of being the most dehydrated he had been, as well as pushing at his highest intensity of the day at this point. Both of which can limit blood supply to the gut, and therefore the rate at which carb can be absorbed.

Floris relied entirely upon aid stations for fluid during this marathon, picking up ten cups of water along the way. The subsequent ~272ml of fluid per hour is very likely to have been enough to keep him from accumulating a performance-limiting amount of dehydration, especially in the mild Tokyo conditions. To hit his electrolyte target, Floris cleverly used painter’s tape to secure his Electrolyte Capsules to the PF 30 Gels in his shorts which enabled him to easily access them without having to fumble with any packaging. Given the low volume that Floris drank, he could perhaps have gotten away with slightly less sodium on the day, although we’d typically recommend going slightly over his sodium concentration (rather than slightly under) as the body is incredibly good at signalling for additional plain water, but not at craving ‘salty’ things when running 4:15 minutes per kilometre.

Floris nailed both the amount and timing of caffeine during this race. His pre-race coffee would have pushed him closer to the six milligrams per kilogram recommendation, and he spread his PF 30 Caffeine Gels evenly amongst his non-caffeinated ones to ensure he reaped the benefits for as much of the race as possible.