Gorge Waterfalls 100km

Having placed 6th at CCC by UTMB seven months earlier, Lotti arrived at Gorge Waterfall 100km ready to take on her first race of the season following a wrist injury. She implemented a smart racing strategy alongside her highest carb intake to date, averaging ~90g/h across the 9-hour effort. This was a ~16g/h increase from the ~74g/h she consumed across 12 hours of racing in Chamonix. Breaking down her intake, she demonstrated impressive gut tolerance by sustaining ~97g/h for the first 5 hours of the race, ~104g/h for the middle section, before dropping down to ~57g/h over the final two hours. Looking ahead to her A-race of the Western States Endurance Run, where it will be a longer and hotter challenge, she should look to maintain a more consistent intake to the finish to protect against any dips in energy.

Racing in the mild conditions of Oregon in April, Lotti's fluid needs were low-to-moderate and drinking close to ~400ml/h across the race was likely sufficient given her correspondingly lower sweat rate. She consumed a very similar volume to what worked well for her in the equally mild conditions at CCC in 2025. Lotti’s soft flasks alternated between PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix and plain water paired with Electrolyte Capsules to replace sodium in line with her high sweat sodium concentration. There was a slight reduction in her sodium intake for an hour in the middle of the race and for the final two hours, although this didn’t lead to a detrimental deficit in these conditions. In the hotter conditions at Western States, she should look to carry additional Electrolyte Capsules to maintain her relative sodium concentration throughout each section of the race.

Lotti has high day-to-day and in-race habitual caffeine use, and Gorge Waterfall was no exception. Along with her pre-race PF 30 Caffeine Gel, Lotti spread another 13 caffeine gels across the race to bring her total to ~1,375mg. Whilst this sits over three times the general recommended dose, those guidelines are primarily based on shorter efforts, and across a 9-hour race, the goal shifts to maintaining effective circulating caffeine concentrations throughout. Though this would not be the recommendation for everyone, Lotti is used to high doses and experienced no negative side effects here.