Western States® 100-Mile Endurance Run

After a tough Western States (WSER) debut in 2024, Lotti spent the last 18 months working with PF&H on her fuel (and hydration) strategy. She has continued to train her gut to tolerate more carbohydrate whilst refining how she fuels; this came to fruition at Gorge Waterfalls earlier in 2026 where Lotti maintained ~90 grams per hour for 100km. Using a combination of PF 90 Gels, PF 30 Caffeine Gels and PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix, Lotti once again nailed her in-race fueling strategy, sticking to her plan and averaging ~90g/h across the ~16 hours of intense racing. She kept her intake consistent across the race, with a high of ~112g/h at five hours into the race, and a low for the last hour where slight flavour fatigue meant she didn’t want any more gels. More varied options such as Coca Cola at aid stations may help counter this, but Lotti had done enough to front-load her fueling before this last section. There is no doubt that this high average intake supported her performance and allowed her to take 2 hours 49 minutes off of her 2024 WSER time.

As a salty sweater, Lotti built her WSER hydration strategy using PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix as well as PH 1500, Electrolyte Capsules and plain water. Though she averaged a relative sodium concentration close to her 1,290mg/L losses, this wasn’t perfectly spread across the day. The very cold early miles saw her drink less than planned whilst continuing to take capsules, this meant she consumed a higher relative sodium concentration over the first five hours (~2,000mg/L). Though a more consistent intake would be recommended, Lotti experienced no negative effects of such a high concentration and brought this concentration down as her fluid intake increased to keep up with her increasing sweat rate, with highs of ~793ml/h between mile 56 and 62. Lotti’s fluid intake in this edition of WSER was lower than we’ve typically seen other athletes consume at the same race, a reflection of the lower-than-normal temperatures, which subsequently will have reduced her sweat rate, so was still likely enough to keep her adequately hydrated.

Lotti has previously shown a high tolerance for caffeine, having taken well over 6mg/kg in past races without any negative side effects. At WSER, she took a total of 1,080mg from caffeinated gels and a small amount of Coca Cola, equating to ~16.1mg/kg. This is considerably above the standard 3-6mg/kg recommended by science, but when spread over 16 hours of races it’s likely this high dose was sufficient to keep her circulating caffeine concentration within optimal range. The current scientific literature is not targeted at ultra-marathon events over 5 hours in length, where caffeine can be fully metabolised during the race.