Best sports drink during a run?

Powerade

Thanks--regular Powerade or zero-sugar Powerade? Or both?

Ice tea. Seriously. I like Nestea, but other brands may work well too.

Really easy on the stomach. Try it. Lemon flavoured ice tea.

You don't need to drink a sportsdrink. If you can't handle one, just drink water and get electrolytes from gels and/or salt tablets

Thanks for the responses. I was going along great in my last marathon and leg cramps hit me at the 19-mile mark. Has anyone tried using potassium supplements in the week leading up to the marathon?

It depends on what you are looking for. Hydration? Electrolytes? Energy? For a marathon you're going to want a mix of all three. Zero sugar means zero energy--just water and electrolytes.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean when you say "regular" gatorade. The gatorade that is often offered on course at races is usually gatorade endurance formula which is different from the gatorade you buy in a bottle at the gas station. The "regular" gatorade or powerade that you buy in bottles only has simple sugar, and it is common to experience stomach issues with that (years ago before I knew about any alternatives I used to water down bottled powerade to get a drinkable mixture). The gatorade endurance formula that is what you usually get on course at a marathon has a mixture of both simple sugars and maltodextrin. The current science says it's best to have a mixture of different types of sugars because you can process them in parallel.

If you're having stomach issues then you probably want a mixture that leans towards more maltodextrin and less simple sugars, but you still want as much simple sugars as your stomach can handle. Note that simple sugars also process faster and give you energy faster whereas maltodextrin will process slower and give you energy slower.

So the first thing to do is to look for sports drinks that contain some mix of both maltodextrin and simple sugars rather than just simple sugars. If your stomach is still having issues with standard mixes (like gatorade endurance or gu roctance drink mix as just two examples), you can get a custom mix from a company like Infinit where you can choose exactly what ratios you want. Or you could go with Hammer which uses only maltodextrin with no simple sugars. It's also possible that you're just taking too much sports drink overall and should drink more water and relatively less sports drink. But I would not advise drinking zero sugar at all during a marathon if you are looking for optimal performance.

@glaukos - Thank you! Mainly I'm looking for electrolytes to avoid late-race cramping. The marathon I ran - I don't think they had Gatorade endurance formula--it tasted like the regular version of Gatorade to me. I am going to recommend they use the Gatorade endurance going forward. If not, I may try to carry it myself. Thanks for all your other tips as well.

h to 0

The theory that low electrolytes cause cramping hasn't held up, however. See Matt Fitzgerald's book about marathon nutrition. Cramping is just what happens under conditions of extreme fatigue.

Glutenburg IPA

Gatorade is not a good idea or at least not as good as Nuun or any other electrolyte wihout sugar. If I need calories then I drink something that has 300 calories per 16 oz and don't fool around.

Hammer heed or perpeteum. I’ve done ice tea before with no ill effects and the sugar gave me a little boost. Can’t go wrong with hammer products, though.

Disko Eric wrote:

Hammer heed or perpeteum. I’ve done ice tea before with no ill effects and the sugar gave me a little boost. Can’t go wrong with hammer products, though.

The Perpetum tables, however, taste like chalk mixed with talcum powder and dryer lint

my 2c wrote:

The theory that low electrolytes cause cramping hasn't held up, however. See Matt Fitzgerald's book about marathon nutrition. Cramping is just what happens under conditions of extreme fatigue.

Yes, I’ve read the same. The thinking is that marathon cramping is fatigue-related, not electrolyte-related. There were some experiments performed that basically concluded that the electrolyte theory didn’t hold because the time it takes to absorb the electrolytes is quite long (relatively speaking). A sudden dose of electrolytes isn’t going to take effect immediately. I wish I could remember where I read that... maybe it was the Fitzgerald book you mentioned.

hhfrujgt wrote:

Disko Eric wrote:

Hammer heed or perpeteum. I’ve done ice tea before with no ill effects and the sugar gave me a little boost. Can’t go wrong with hammer products, though.

The Perpetum tables, however, taste like chalk mixed with talcum powder and dryer lint

*tablets

Allsport, baby!

Carbonated Gatorade! What's not to like?!?!

I don't drink it during a run; however UCAN before a run has really been helpful for me. I have tried everything else during a run and they make my stomach instantly empty.

No idea why, as it should be well tolerated, but maltodextrin makes my stomach very angry.