• After playing a crucial part in the French team who won the Marathon Des Sables in the Moroccan Desert in 2023, Pierre decided to take on a ‘shorter’ challenge at the RAT 100km (62.2 mile) event in the south west of England
• The terrain in Cornwall couldn't have been more different to the Sahara as the coast path offered up a muddy course, but Pierre nailed his strategy to finish in 2nd place in under 12 hours. Pierre was quick to praise his crew (who travelled ~650 miles / 1,050 km from Aberdeen) and he said that they were paramount to him achieving a position on the podium
• Hitting his carb and fluid targets meant Pierre was able to rate his hydration and energy as a perfect 10 (out of 10) for the majority of his run

Hydration

• As someone who's used to racing in temperatures north of 40ºC (104ºF), it was important that Pierre knew his sweat rate would be reduced in the windy and rainy conditions of this race, where temperatures were ~13ºC (46ºF) on average
• This in turn meant he was able to drink on average ~1L (32oz) less fluid per hour than at the Marathon Des Sables earlier in 2023 and still avoid the pitfalls associated with dehydration
• The vast majority of Pierre’s hydration strategy involved using PH 1500 mixed in plain water in his soft flasks, which he regularly topped up. He ended up drinking ~3.75L / 127oz in total
• Pierre chose to use the PH 1500 packets because the single serve sachets are useful for long and wet events such as this one, as they’re ready to mix in 500ml (16oz) of water, contain ~15g of additional carbohydrate, and are waterproof!
• The rest of Pierre’s strategy was made up of three 500ml (16oz) Soft Flasks full of Coca Cola, which he said helped him feel good heading into the final 20km of the race
• In total, Pierre achieved a relative sodium concentration of ~1,182 milligrams per litre (32oz). This was an appropriate concentration for him, as he loses 921mg of sodium in each litre (32oz) of his sweat, as determined by a Sweat Test, so he would have replaced a high proportion of his electrolyte losses

Fueling

Conclusions

• Pierre was happy to nail both his fueling and hydration throughout the 2023 edition of the RAT Plague 100km event, rating his satisfaction as a 10 (out of 10)
• He was very keen to highlight the importance of having a great crew and he praised them for managing to keep his morale high while saving precious time at each checkpoint