Chester Marathon

James ‘Ricky’ Hatton is a pivotal member of the PF&H athlete support team and had trained hard in preparation for his debut road marathon in Chester. After a carb-load the day before and a carb-rich breakfast, he increased his circulating blood glucose with a PF 30 Chew in the final 30 minutes before. This will likely have helped preserve some of his stored glycogen for later in the race. Coming from a background of ultra running, where the pace and intensity is generally lower, James said increasing his carb intake from the ~67 grams per hour he hit in Chester would be a good move for his next race. We agree, for a marathon at this pace, we would typically recommend working up to a carb intake closer to 90g/h+ to further support his high energy turnover. Increasing carb intake would take some structured gut training, and is a change from his long distance racing, where a steadier intake is the focus due to the lower relative intensity when exercising for longer.

Taking on ~1.5 litres of fluid during the marathon is strong work (above our case study average fluid intake), and will have meant that James likely finished within 2-4% dehydrated which wouldn’t have compromised performance. James preloaded with 4 PH Electrolyte Capsules and ~650ml of fluid in the morning which would have increased his fluid retention, increased his blood plasma volume and optimised his hydration status before he started running. However, from that point on he didn’t take on any more sodium. Having experienced some cramp twinges in his quads later on in the race and the fact he’s classified as a moderately salty sweater, he might want to consider taking a couple of Electrolyte Capsules alongside the plain water he picked up from aid stations, as this would’ve increased the relative sodium concentration of his intake slightly and avoided over-diluting his blood sodium concentration. Whilst we know the causes of cramp are multifactorial, this may have helped prevent any cramping.