Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 114, January 2019 | Page 24

ROAD RUNNING
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To run a good race, you need to get your nutritional intake
right on race day. Taking the wrong supplements, or trying
something new during the race that doesn’t agree with you,
can lead to disaster… or seeing double! – BY GUILLAUME SMIT
W
henever I think about serious athletes, I tend to imagine long-distance
runners who complete one Comrades after another, with great ease. When
they run a half marathon, they call it a “warm-up jog.” They know their stuff
– and in short, they’re in a league of their own. I admire them. I aspire to also become
a serious runner. Admittedly, I am not in their league, yet.
Still, this past year was to be my year. My training run averages upped to almost
50km per week, and my times got better and better. I even got the distances on
my legs: Festival of Running; Cape Town Marathon; John Korasie 30km. I was
convinced that a qualifying time for the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon was
within my grasp, so next up was the Winelands Marathon in November. My plan
was to do that and qualify, then do long training runs at the Cango Marathon and
the Peninsula Marathon early in the new year.
You can imagine my surprise when one of the serious runners in my running circle
contacted me the week before Winelands, inviting me to run the race with her.
Let me call her the Doc, as she is a treasure trove of good medical information
pertaining to running, among other things. She had an injury and cannot run her
usual times, she explained, so could we run Winelands together? Of course, I
said yes. I really wanted to impress her, and when she asked me what my goal
was for Winelands, I nonchalantly said I wanted to qualify for the Two Oceans. I
conveniently failed to mention the fact that to date my fastest time on a marathon
is 50 minutes slower than the qualifying time for any ultra-marathon. Now the Doc is
a very serious runner – she normally runs times less than 4:15 – so the ‘Big Leagues’
were beckoning…
THE RIGHT STUFF
On long runs, I used to drink glasses and glasses of Coke at each watering point, until
I discovered that the huge amount of caffeine I was consuming made my heartbeat
go woozy. Henceforth I stocked up with a hydration pack filled with energised water.
I was soon to discover how much I still had to learn about running nutrition, though:
The Doc not only taught me about pacing and planning a race, she also educated me
on consuming the right stuff during the marathon.
The first five kilometres of our race went well. We talked non-stop. We paced
ourselves nicely. And we discussed running tips. That’s when I discovered my
approach to nutrition was all wrong. A hydrapack filled with Energade? I’m going to
mess up my kidneys, she advised. Only two paracetamol tablets for cramps? I’ll be
crashing way before the 30km-mark, she said. However, it was when we reached
the first water table that I discovered the Doc’s secret to running faster and more
efficiently: Brandy!
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ISSUE 114 JANUARY 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za
One thing I did not take into consideration, though, was the importance of running
with the right supplements. If you are a serious athlete, you run with nutritional
sachets sporting impressive names. You know where in the marathon you should
refuel. You have your own concoction of proven energy sweets. And you swear by
certain ‘secret additives’ that will give you the edge in achieving your best time yet.
The Doc knew all about that, but I didn’t.