There’s a saying in ultra-running which goes something along the lines of, ‘ultra running is actually an eating competition with a little running thrown in,’ and for sure its not all that wrong, if you’re going for big distances expect to eat A LOT and if you don’t get the eating part right; don’t expect to be too successful at the running part.

Although I’ve completed several ultras now, I would say this has been despite my nutritional choices than than thanks to them. In general, my nutritional care has been pretty poor, I basically just focus on eating as much as I could swallow down. However, this weekend at the Peaks Sports Last 1 Standing there was a clear turning point in my running nutrition and it came about both by careful planning and some really good luck.

Last season I relied on gels, sweets and basically whatever looked good at the checkpoints, and while this did keep me moving, it was obviously not an optimal strategy.

For example, during the last stage of the 50km GOAT I was retching a lot, not actually sick, but certainly felt it. Added to this, in pretty much all my races I would be mentally spaced by the end… plus there was the fact it often took my stomach significantly longer to recover after an ultra than it did my actual muscles.

And its just never sat well with me that for my normal life I really care about my nutrition, cooking healthy meals, sourcing great quality ingredients, plus fermenting, baking and experimenting.

So, I decided to remove gels from my life and I’ve been training with a mix of fruit, dates and homemade muesli bars, and, its been great.

I ran a really strong Tryavna Trail Marathon in July placing fifth in my age-group, again with no gels, but I did have some sweet stuff along the route.

Packing for the recent L1S I took only dates, sugared pineapple, salted nuts, homemade sweet potato and parmesan mash, bananas, apples etc.

Twenty-four hours is a long time, and maybe I would have stuck to it, maybe I wouldn’t have… but then I was (luckily for me) placed under the care of Sabrina who would be managing the crew area for the race, and with her many years of experience supporting Guinness World Record Holding long-distance runner (and husband) Nicky in his training, racing and runs, there’s very little she doesn’t know about successfully fuelling a trail runner.

Her no nonsense approach kept me completely on track, she knew just what to eat when, how much, how hot, how cold and how salty.

I think we can all go off track when we’re fatigued and not feeling like eating what we actually need to eat, but having someone literally sit you down and tell you EXACTLY what you’re going to eat and why, I’m not going to lie is at first- a little full on, but seriously I think it was via Sabrina that I reached pretty much peak fuelling.

Across the 24 hours, I didn’t retch, or even feel sick. I didn’t lose mental clarity and today 2 days later my stomach is completely unbothered by its recent exertions.

Race fuelling is an art and it needs constant tweeks depending on so many factors, but knowing what works for you and more importantly- sticking to the plan takes fuelling from a what often feels like a bonkers sugar-ladened buffet to something you can truly trust to power you through the race.

Of course every race is different, climate, temperature, ascent, distance and food availability, but I really feel after working with Sabrina, that I not only understand my body a whole lot more, but will continue to focus on enjoying more ‘real’ foods.