Five Maurten Gels During a Marathon

WorkingHarder wrote:

Exactly. Seems what people are missing is that it's Maurten gels which are engineered to be digestible at much higher consumption volume than standard gels, thus why they are better. If you are taking them as you would a Gu or any other gel then you're doing it incorrectly.

Yes, but a few caveats:

There's no evidence that you need 90+ grams of carbohydrate per hour. Yes, if you use Maurten and you train your gut, you can probably take down that much, but it's absolutely unnecessary IF you carboload. The research shows that carboloading and carb intake during competition improve performance, but doing both doesn't help you any more than doing just one or the other. I do both, to be safe, but based on the actual research and my own anecdotal experience doing unfueled long runs, I don't think it's necessary. People make too much of a big deal out of marathon fueling. You can totally mess up your race with inadequate fuel, but fuel is a solved problem: Carboload, have a few gels, and fuel availability is a non issue.

Also, Maurten isn't valuable just because it lets you take more carbohydrate. For a lot of people, Maurten is the only way to get ANY carbohydrate while running. I can't have traditional gels during a race without getting violently sick. Maurten sits pretty well as long as I don't have too much. Incidentally, my hack in the pre Maurten days was to carry a tiny 5 oz bottle in my hand, filled with a 400 calorie, super concentrated sports drink that I mixed from powder. Because it had a resealable nozzle, I could take a tiny swig every 5-10 minutes, and the more frequent but smaller intake was something my stomach could handle.

OP, five is not too much if you've tested it. If you haven't tested it, then one could be too much.

Personally 5 In under 3 hours is too much. But you should have already thought about this PRIOR. That’s sorta why a training block is so long. So you can see what works. I can’t even imagine your body can process 5 in that time.

I don't think 5 gels is too much. I usually take a gel ~20min before the start, and then 5-6 during the race, as close to every 4mi as I can get with water station placement. Definitely practice that rate of consumption, with Maurten, in at least one long run or long tempo. The only two marathons that I've had nausea issues in have been the ones I used Maurten gels. That's not a great sample size, but it's enough to make me go back to what I know has worked.

As a general note, even though it's great to train with the fuel you plan to race with, race day digestive systems are often compromised by race day nerves. And running at race effort also makes it much harder to digest what you would in training. Best to practice in a half marathon when you are running hard and have the race day jitters!

I use the Maurten drink mix as it's much easier to digest and does pretty much the same thing. I drink it 3 hours pre race and then I carry it with me.

They are a different consistency, thicker so you don't really need to wash them down. I also find taste wise the Gu or something like that leaves a gross sugary residue, whereas Maurten doesn't stick around your mouth.

Last time I used them was for a trail 50k with about 8,000 feet of vert, so every 6 or 7k's alternating caf and normal (with a few Gastro-Stop tablets before the race to jam up my stomach and avoid issues). Got through it no problems, and was able to avoid refilling bottles because the bump from the gels was enough. Had just over 1ltr of fluids (2 flasks each with drink 320) over 50k.

OP's plan seems fine.

For a marathon I usually take one gel in the start corral and then one every 5 miles, for a total of 5:

0-5-10-15-20.

Being in Canada I have also gone by kilometers as some of our races are marked that way.

0-10-20-30.

I am out there in the 2:50s and every 30-40 minutes is about right.

Disko Eric wrote:

Personally 5 In under 3 hours is too much. But you should have already thought about this PRIOR. That’s sorta why a training block is so long. So you can see what works. I can’t even imagine your body can process 5 in that time.

As many have already said - it's all about what your stomach can handle during the race. Personally I can't do more than 3 gels in a marathon - and I'm typically out there for 2:50-3 hours, so longer than many here. Last 'thon I put down 3 Muartens and had to toss the fourth (was planning to take it at mile 22 or so) as I just couldn't do it; the last 2.2 miles of that race were my fastest - also negative split - so fueling didn't seem to be an issue.

Another note - if the weather is decent and you properly eat/drink in the weeks prior there is no evidence that you need more than 300 or so calories during the race.

Just hopping on this thread:

How much does everyone take in for their race day breakfast? I was going to try and get 1000 calories down, which I can do with porridge with some syrup, plus a maurten 320. I'm thinking this precludes the need for a gel on the start line

I don't think 5 is that much. 500 calories over 26.2 + whatever else you have in liquid form. I think the inverse plays out far more often in the marathon where people bonk because they don't fuel enough. If you're fit, turn the marathon into an eating competition. The more you can get in within reason, the longer you can maintain.

So, if you take 5 gels during a marathon, do you also only drink water at stations, or do you drink energy drinks at stations?

High hopes wrote:

Just hopping on this thread:

How much does everyone take in for their race day breakfast? I was going to try and get 1000 calories down, which I can do with porridge with some syrup, plus a maurten 320. I'm thinking this precludes the need for a gel on the start line

I've never heard of trying to hit a certain number of calories during the pre-race breakfast. Once again, the answer is whatever works best for YOU. Me personally I have a piece or two of white bread toast (super bland, low fiber) with almond butter and a banana. And a little coffee to get the bowels moving of course. Then maybe a few sips of sports drink or just water at the start.....

You are safe. Recent research says you can actually take upwards of 4 standard gels per hour: +100gr CH / 400cal.

I took seven gels for my 2:29 marathon at about 10-15-20-25-30-35-40(k).

Actually I did that for 2x2:29 + 2x2:30 marathons in the last four years.

Never bonked. No stomach issues.

I alternated Maurten with other brands a couple of times.

It is probably too late for Boston this year, but for your next marathon cycle, try UCAN. Seriously, I love it.

SECNO wrote:

High hopes wrote:

Just hopping on this thread:

How much does everyone take in for their race day breakfast? I was going to try and get 1000 calories down, which I can do with porridge with some syrup, plus a maurten 320. I'm thinking this precludes the need for a gel on the start line

I've never heard of trying to hit a certain number of calories during the pre-race breakfast. Once again, the answer is whatever works best for YOU. Me personally I have a piece or two of white bread toast (super bland, low fiber) with almond butter and a banana. And a little coffee to get the bowels moving of course. Then maybe a few sips of sports drink or just water at the start.....

I try to get in about 500 calories 3-4 hours before the race (which sometimes means waking up to eat then trying to nap a little longer), then another 200-300 in the hour before the race. This has meant 3 packs of instant oatmeal early, then most or all of a Clif bar + some Maurten drink close to the start. Coffee too of course.

Handing out Maurten, wow that's classy. Good work, BAA.

It depends on how good you can carb load and how successful your carb load is for this particular race, and how good you can digest gels (which is a bit less of a concern with Maurten which is super digestable but still an important concern!). Most people would carry 3-4, and you may have to miss some of the gels on the course due to whatever reason, so carrying 2 with you is a good idea. Whatever your race kit is, that won't be too uncomfortable, worst case you carry one in each hand.

As for 'too much', there's no such thing as too much carbs during the race. It might not be necessary but don't worry, nobody ever got fat from taking redundant gel at a marathon.

My anecdotal experience is that as a completely recreational runner in 3:15-3:30 range I always had to crawl few final miles until I started taking 6 gels, that brought me solidly under 3:10 without any significant increase in mileage. I still had to start running more to qualify for races and later found out I don't need more than 4 for a confident sub2:40, but before that taking more carbs definitely helped.

my body cant handle gels, i ran 2;46 and 2:47 no gels, only water. For a marathon unless its brutally hot I dont take nutrition in. My stomach cant handle it. Everyone is different. I have never "hit the wall" not taking gels but then again my stomach cant handle it. I can only sip water when I run. Every ounce counts - Alberto Salazar

Disko Eric wrote:

Personally 5 In under 3 hours is too much. But you should have already thought about this PRIOR. That’s sorta why a training block is so long. So you can see what works. I can’t even imagine your body can process 5 in that time.

Do people actually run 3 hour long runs eating several gels in training? I don't think so. Some people do use gels on long runs, but even that doesn't seem all that common tbh. Normally you use one gel on one of the long runs to know it doesn't make you vomit, or if you already raced with that fuel you don't even need any during training. Isn't that so?

n9 wrote:

Do people actually run 3 hour long runs eating several gels in training? I don't think so. Some people do use gels on long runs, but even that doesn't seem all that common tbh. Normally you use one gel on one of the long runs to know it doesn't make you vomit, or if you already raced with that fuel you don't even need any during training. Isn't that so?

Really depends on the person. Some people have iron stomachs and can take down a two pound steak twenty miles with no issues. Some people need to train their bodies to ingest gels while running, and need to continue practicing it to stay "acclimated" to ingesting nutrition during runs. Some can take nutrition early with no issues, but encounter distress while taking nutrition later as the body starts to reroute blood flow from the stomach to other areas. Definitely something that should be practiced at different points during a long run to figure out how one's body will respond during the actual race.