London Marathon

Rachel followed a structured, well-practised fueling strategy that helped her maintain her energy and pace, ultimately achieving a personal best marathon performance. She alternated between PF 30 Gels and PF 30 Chews, stored in her vest and shorts pockets, every 30 minutes to hit the recommended carb guidelines. She tolerated this excellently, with no GI issues even in the hotter-than-anticipated conditions, which was testament to the months she spent training her gut in her long runs, including a half marathon in the build to London.

After preloading with PH 1500 beforehand, Rachel started the marathon with a hydration vest containing two 500ml soft flasks, one filled with PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix and the other with PH 1000 (Drink Mix). When she finished her soft flasks around 2.5 hours into the race, she switched to picking up 250ml bottles of water from aid stations roughly every half an hour to continue replacing her sweat fluid losses. On top of this, Rach maintained her electrolyte balance by proactively replacing her losses at a concentration close to her sweat sodium concentration initially with her drink mixes and then by taking one Electrolyte Capsule with every bottle of water, as temperatures rose. Anticipating a warm day, Rachel had also built a cooling strategy into her plan, using water from aid stations and the on-course water hoses to help keep cool.

Rachel chose not to take any additional caffeine during the race beyond her usual pre-race coffee, and it did not hold her back on the day from achieving her performance goal. Instead, it lowered the risk and fears of possible negative side effects from the stimulant. Whether or not an athlete chooses to use caffeine comes down to personal preference and tolerance, as it’s not one of the fundamental three levers of endurance performance. So, Rachel made the sensible choice here having not tested PF 30 Caffeine Gels in her training.