• Robbie laid down a dominant performance at the Anglo-Celtic Plate 50k and crossed the finish line more than 21 minutes ahead of second place. The North Norfolk Beach running club member was due to run the Milan marathon before a late change of plan led to him entering this tough ultra-marathon race at the very last minute and said his performance “couldn’t have been much better”. Proudly one of only three “accurately measured 50k races in the UK”, the 21-lap race saw Robbie catch the leader with just 12km to go, which makes his substantial winning margin even more impressive
• Whilst Robbie didn’t completely execute his normal pre-race fueling strategy, he more than made up for this during the race and clearly fueled excellently to finish strong
• Overall, Robbie said he felt “Pretty chuffed” with how his fuelling and hydration strategy played out

Hydration

• Robbie preloaded with 500ml/16oz of PH 1500 ~2 hours prior to the race start which ensured he began racing in an optimally hydrated state
• During the race, Robbie made use of his personalized aid station each lap to ensure he consumed his PH 1500 frequently, managing to consume ~1.3L/44oz through regular, smaller doses across the whole race. This gave Robbie an average relative sodium concentration of 1,500mg/L, which is a solid consumption and will have gone a long way towards matching his total sodium losses. Robbie describes having a particularly high sweat rate and he knows from his Advanced Sweat Test that he has a moderate-to-high sweat sodium concentration (1044mg/L), but as the weather was fairly cold (~8℃) and windy, his fluid and sodium intake would likely have replenished his losses adequately
• During the last hour of racing, Robbie’s fluid intake fell slightly from ~500ml/hr (16oz/hr) to ~300ml/hr (10oz/hr). At the same point he felt he had to slow his pace slightly in the last 3-4 miles as he was cautious to avoid muscle cramps in his hamstrings and calves. He attributed this to a lack of race-specific conditioning in the lead up to the race, not his fluid-electrolyte balance
• Robbie was really pleased with his hydration strategy and said he wouldn’t have changed anything if he had to do the same race again

Fueling

Conclusions

• Robbie said he was “pretty chuffed with the whole race execution” and as a last minute change of plan, it couldn’t have gone much better. His high-carb fueling strategy was excellent in the first two-thirds of the race and tailed off slightly towards the end, but caused no major issues for Robbie
• In Robbie’s future ‘A’ races, he will dial in his training more specifically, therefore his risk of cramp-like muscle pains will likely be reduced