• Ruth had an awesome race at IM Mallorca becoming an IRONMAN champion for the first time! She finished in an impressive sub-9 hour time (08:59:15) and executed a solid fueling and hydration plan
• Ruth’s carb, fluid and sodium intake was well dialled throughout the race. She used a pre-made carb-rich energy drink mix on the bike which front loaded her carbs and sodium ahead of the run where she made use of the 3 available aid stations across the four-loop course to meet her needs and finish strongly

Hydration

• It was fantastic to see Ruth preload ahead of IM Mallorca using PH1500 as per our recommendations. This will have ensured she was toeing the start line in a well-hydrated state. On average, she drank ~495ml/hr (~16oz/hr) across the race, which broke down into ~423ml/hr (~14oz/hr) on the bike and a higher average of ~770ml/hr (~26oz/hr) on the run
• Ruth felt she did a good job with her hydration strategy in this race, sticking to her planned strategy which was to use her pre-mixed bottles on the bike plus some water from the on-course aid stations and picking up cups of water, coke and red bull on the run. Other than the very first aid station which she planned not to stop at, Ruth picked up bottles from all aid stations. For Ruth this was a very effective strategy, only getting caught out once, in the final 15-20 minutes of the bike where she ran out of water
• Ruth told us she only peed once on the bike in the final half an hour but noted peeing a lot on the run, up to as much as twice per lap (there were four laps in total). This is suggestive of over-drinking as it’s far more frequent peeing than would be expected for an event of this length whereby some degree of dehydration is to be expected (therefore the body tries to conserve water and doesn’t urge us to pee too often). This frequent peeing is in line with Ruth drinking a much greater volume on the run versus the bike
• To be clear, whilst ~770ml/26oz isn’t an excessive hourly fluid intake per hour during a race in hot conditions, Ruth is a smaller athlete and therefore it should be noted that this is a relatively greater fluid intake than an athlete of bigger body size
• Ruth’s carb mix on the bike was sodium-rich and meant she took in plenty of sodium in this time which front loaded her intake ahead of the run. Here her sodium intake dropped off significantly but between preloading before the race and a good intake on the bike this is a fine strategy. Ruth reported no issues with cramping

Fueling

Conclusions

• Overall, Ruth said that this was ‘the best I have felt throughout a whole race’ and that bar the one less aid station that they were promised on the run, nothing that Ruth planned changed on race day. We agree that Ruth did a fantastic job at meeting her fueling and hydration needs and this was reflected in her brilliant race outcome
• The only tweak to Ruth’s strategy we would suggest is to dial back her fluid intake on the run to avoid excessive peeing but that said if this volume of fluid was Ruth listening to her body and drinking to thirst then no changes should be made