• Julie went into this World Championship race with high hopes of finishing on top of the podium, and she executed a brilliant race which landed her there
• Weather conditions dominated how athlete fueling and hydration strategies played out. Temperatures reached ~35℃/94℉ during the marathon and the ~12% humidity meant it was a very dry heat that provided a stern test for athletes
• Julie had a very good swim, exiting the water first in her age group. She continued this dominance onto the bike, where she set the fastest time in her age group by 30 minutes!
• She backed up these solid performances with the 4th fastest run of her age group, to take the world championship title by over 45 minutes
• Altogether, Julie was pleased with how her day panned out, saying it was “a dream come true”

Hydration

• Julie preloaded her sodium levels by drinking ~750ml/26oz of water with 2 x [PH 1500 (Tablets)]((https://www.precisionhydration.com/products/ph-1500-low-calorie-electrolyte-supplement/) the night before and the morning of the race. Whilst this is a greater relative sodium concentration than we typically recommend preloading with, Julie experienced no negative side effects, and began the race well hydrated and with optimal blood volume
• In total, Julie consumed just over ~10L/351oz of fluid throughout the race, averaging ~852ml/hr. Considering the first hour of the race was spent swimming (where hopefully she wasn’t drinking too much!), Julie averaged 943ml/hr during the bike and run. Considering in similar environmental conditions to St George, Julie has experienced a sweat rate of ~2L/hr, this may be below her required fluid intake. However, due to the cooler starting temperatures, it will have taken her longer to start sweating at this rate
• Julie’s total sodium intake was ~13,174mg, averaging 1,120mg/hr for the whole race, and a relative sodium concentration of ~1314mg/L. Considering Julie’s sweat sodium concentration of 1167mg/L, as measured by our Sweat Test, she did a solid job at replacing a large proportion of her sodium losses
• Julie didn’t get any muscle cramps nor did she experience any indicators she was overdoing the sodium such as craving plain water, disliking the taste of salt, or headaches, further suggesting she was hitting her numbers appropriately
• To hit these impressive numbers, Julie drank three ~750ml/26oz bottles containing PF 30 Drink Mix and a PH 1000 tablet, and picked up four ~750ml/26oz bottles of plain water on the bike. Julie supplemented these bottles of water by taking twelve Electrolyte capsules
• Julie planned to collect two additional bottles from the special needs aid station on the bike. She froze these two bottles overnight, anticipating the high temperatures on race day and hoping they would have a cooling effect by being partially frozen. Unfortunately when she picked up the bottles, the still entirely frozen drinks had caused the bottles to expand, and thus they no longer fit in her bike’s bottle cages. Subsequently, Julie was forced to discard these bottles and replace their contents using the on-course aid stations
• During the run, Julie hit her hydration strategy by picking up ~1.5L/52oz of PF 30 Drink Mix with two PH 1000 tablets in it, ~13 cups of water and ~6 cups of on-course electrolyte drink. Once again, Julie supplemented these drinks by taking 16 PH Electrolyte capsules

Fueling

Conclusions

• Overall, Julie had a great race and largely stuck to her hydration and fueling plan that she discussed pre-race with the PF&H Sports Science Team
• When speaking to Chris the day before the race, Julie mentioned that she had high expectations for the race, saying “I’m here to win”. She backed this up in dominant fashion, showcasing how her confidence was well justified
• Looking ahead to IM Alaska and the World Champs in Kona later this year, Julie may want to consider increasing her carb intake to be within the recommended ranges for a race of this length
• Julie rated her overall race satisfaction a solid 10/10, saying “As I finished the day Age Group IRONMAN World Champion, I would say it went pretty damn well!”