• Sarah produced another stellar performance at IM Western Australia to remain unbeaten at IRONMANs in Australia for 2022
• The consistent execution of her fuel and hydration plan no-doubt helped her command this race with the third fastest swim and run times, and the second fastest bike split to beat 2nd place by almost 5 minutes

Hydration

• As someone with a low sweat sodium concentration, coupled with a fairly low sweat rate, Sarah often drinks much less than some of her opposition, whilst continuing to perform extremely well
• Preloading her sodium levels before the race helped Sarah start the race optimally hydrated, and then regularly topping up her fluid and electrolyte levels through meant she avoided any hydration related issues such as muscle cramps, headaches or nausea later in the race
• With that being said, Sarah did feel like she was quite dehydrated when she crossed the finish line, partly due to the extremely windy conditions which made it difficult, and a little dangerous, to pick up additional fluids from the on-course aid stations
• Sarah still managed to drink ~621ml (21oz) on average per hour across the entire race, which is very much in-line with what we’ve seen her drink at previous IM races
• By averaging ~557 milligrams of sodium in every litre (32oz) of her drinks, Sarah will have replaced a good proportion of her electrolytes lost through sweating. We know Sarah has a low sweat sodium concentration from her Sweat Test
• Once again, this is a very similar, if slightly higher, sodium concentration in her bottles to what we saw her consume without issue at IM Kona, IM Cairns, and IM Australia earlier in the 2022 season. With the high winds affecting her access to the aid stations in this event, Sarah was unable to pick up additional fluids, which would have diluted the sodium concentration
• Sarah felt like she finished quite dehydrated as a result of her lower-than-planned fluid intake, but this clearly didn’t affect her performance too much. PF&H Founder Andy Blow has written a blog post about how dehydration affects individual athletes differently, and why it isn’t necessarily a bad thing, in moderation

Fueling

Conclusions

• In all, Sarah displayed an excellent ability to replicate a well-rehearsed nutrition strategy to support her journey towards yet another IRONMAN victory in 2022
• Rating her overall satisfaction an 8 (out of 10), Sarah can take great confidence that even when racing within her limits, a sub-9 hour IM is still perfectly achievable
• She summarised her season by saying “It takes a whole team for me to race like this, and I can’t thank my team enough, especially the guys at Precision Fuel & Hydration who make sure I’m completely dialled with nutrition no matter the conditions”