Ultima Sports Drink Question

I think I may have tried almost every electrolyte replacement drink made and the sad result is: some are acceptable depending on the flavor, depending on the concentration (or dilution), depending on chilled or cool, but never warm, some okay late, some okay only early, some ohkeigh only with mashed potatoes,...

The best thing you can do is get some of it and try it during a longish trainng run. If your head (and stomach) will accept it, you are ohkeigh.

Practice the mind-set that there are only x number of things that are going to keep you from finishing and Ultima is not one of them. There are some things you just have to put up with on that day: weather, crowd control, course offered drinks,...

1) If you haven't used it during training, don't use it in the marathon.

2) I'd rather eat owl vomit.

If you need the carbs/sodium replenishment during the race, just use the energy gels you use in training...assuming you use energy gels. Also, nothing wrong with running a marathon while only taking in water. Just do a solid 3-4 day carb-load to make sure your carb levels are higher, only having a pasta dinner the night before the race as your carb-load isn't that effective.

Read the book "Lore of Running" by Dr. Tim Noakes and read the section on carbohydrates.

You can try to use ultima during your training, but just remember comment "2)"

Rat piss has to taste better.

rat piss and owl vomit are not great reviews!

the gel they are giving out is called PowerGel. I am not real familiar with the gels, I have tried GU once and it felt like I was eating toothpaste.

PowerGel is not bad stuff. It's pretty thick (not completely unlike toothpaste), but if you can get past the consistency, it's bearable, tastes decent, and is effective.

You are still faced with trying it to see if you can cope with it (the taste of Ultima).

Almost all gels are the same consistency. If it is a warm temperature day, they will be a lot thinner (runny toothpaste?). PowerGel has several flavors, but then you have to worry about the aid stations having your preferred flavor.

You can run a marathon without gels. They have only been around a few years. I ran many marathons in the late '80s and early '90s just drinking water and no eating at all during the run (occasionally marathons had banana chunks or slices of oranges at aid stations).

You have time to do you long runs with only water (and some sort of salt replacement if you need it). Eat and drink well the night before, have a bite of breakfast and drink before heading out for your long run, monitor how you feel.

The marketing hyperbole for needing sports drinks and gels is just that -- marketing. Part of training for a marathon is doing it on your terms as much as possible.

Thanks Orson and others for the tips. Now if you could just help me learn how to drink on the run without getting the water down the wrong pipe, I would love it. I have tried bending the cup and taking sips, but most of the fluid either chokes me or spills all over me.

I ran a marathon once with this guy who had half a plastic drinking straw tucked into his hat (it was a cold day). He used the straw to suck down just a little bit of water/powerade at each stop. Sounds ridiculous, but it worked ok at 6.30 pace. For him, anyway.

I saw a guy sucking down beer at a football game in Tennessee with a straw so it left his hands free to eat hot dogs.

Ultima is the worst. Plan on having others give you your own drink or carry your own if you like those belt systems. Many threads on Ultima can make you barf, cramp, and ruin your race.

So if this drink sucks so much how do they get to be the exclusive drink on the California International Marathon, Grandma's, Marine Corps, Vegas and others, is it just good marketing or do they pay off the race directors?

I believe that's usually the result of a donation to the race (in-kind support, is that the term?).

Doesn't matter, though, the end result is the stuff sucks.

I guess I'd only have the mildest disagreement with the first replier: taking some horrid drink is one of the things that can keep you from finishing the race. Okay, maybe not completely finishing but certainly from finishing within 50% of your goal time :-)

My guess is the Ultima people can't sell their product the conventional way... being people enjoy the drink, buy it again, and recommend it to others.

It seems the only revenue they get is from selling it to marathoners who are training for a marathon that only uses their product, capitalizing on the old adage "use in the race what you use in training"... did you notice all the marathons they sponsor have bijillions of people? If only 10% of the runners use the product during training, that will likely make up the loss from the "sponsorship donation" made to the event.

Race directors agree to use it because they save money on having to pay for the sports drink out of their pocket. I imagine it costs quite a bit to buy sports drinks for 25,000 runners.

Don't forget, you can always carry your own gels quite easily by using safety pins or the little key pocket in your shorts. If you don't mind the bulk and aren't all that concerned with speed, you could carry your own drink also.

Your right but I think they have also lost some races because too may runners hated the drink. I can't think of why anyone would use this drink (rat piss & eagle vomit are not exactly inviting comments)other than if they felt forced to purchase it because it was on their race course. They used to do Rock & Roll Marathon but they now switched to Gatorade. I would think that Gatorade would supply their product if these race directors asked.

Actually I'm not, just read a flier on the stuff.

Ultima has NO simple sugars in it (glucose, fuctose, corn syrup, etc.), thus (in theory) it is better for your performance (i.e. provides the carbs you really need), but due to the lack of sugar it tastes like crap. Also it has less sodium than other sports drinks. The claim is that other sprts drinks have TOO MUCH sodium (so much that your body can't process it all). Sodium also adds to taste, so less sodium means worse taste.

Dont hate me but I love Ultima, it is my sports drink of choice. That is what I drank for 2002 Twin Cities and the 2000 Trials. I like the vitamins and it is not alot of calories 40 for 16ounces. It is better than the

sugar waters. Ultima has about 35 vitamins in there even iron. Check out their website

www.ultimareplenisher.com

. I have no problem with the taste, and it never made me

sick or puke. If it is on the race course, you should try it during your long runs before the race. No new things on race day. Good luck with your marathon.

You have to be joking because if you drink this stuff you will upchucking. Every expert urges you to find a drink you like the taste of so that you will drink enough fluid. Ultima far off the mark in the taste category, somewhere between rat piss and eagle vomit.

Simple nutrition reading tells you that the body needs 30-35 grams of carbs an hour. Ultima far off the mark with only 10 grams per 20 ounces. You will bonk.

The sodium level is way too low according to the recommendations of the American College of Sports Medicine or any other expert in the field. The 50 mgs. in 20 ounces is way too little.

Since when do we need the entire periodic table of elements in our sports drink. Some of those elements are heavy metals and there is no role for them in human nutrition that I have read about.

Stevia the sweetener they use is what causes that aftertaste that you can't even scrub off your tongue. The color they use is carmine which is made from crushed bugs.

Yummmmm. I will stick with the published research and avoid the marketing hype.

"I'd rather eat owl vomit."

yummmm, just makes you want to run out and get some.