Three Peaks Fell Race

[Mike T]

Thankyou for the sensible advice Mr Bother! :thumbup:

Mike T...I'm slow...will be en route for approx 5 hours (hopefully a wee bit less!) so would feel naked without my water! :w00t:

Have done it 3 times - takes me 4 and a half hours - a drink at RH, another at HI - at no stage have I wished I was carrying water with me - I think for a lot of runners carried water acts as a security blanket rather than a physiological necessity.

[ratfink]

i did 4:48

i set off with no drink and really regretted not having one on the way to RH (to the extent of sucking an isotonic gel to try get some moisture)

Then at each stop i picked up a lucozade sport bottle (with ribena and a pinch of salt in) with a nutrigrain bar taped to it (at HI ditched the previous bottle)

think i had some jelly babies in my bum bag

ate a nutrigrain bar on every up

drink requirement might depend a lot on the temperature on the day

if you're really going for max race speed - no bottle til first stop and jettison in the stop areas when you've swigged a load (or carry with you if its hot or you feel you want to)

If i eat "pure" sugar (ie jelly babies) too soon in a long run i start on some crazy blood sugar rollercoaster - wher i have to keep eating sugar to avoid crashing, i always do better with something like nutrigrains (or elevenses bars) or geobars to start off with - then jelly babies at the end. this is of course as a plodder - if you are fit enough to be racing long distances eyeballs out - your stomach might be less tolerant - so only manage gels/jellies.

[AndyA]

All the above shows just how different we all are!

I'm definitely in the less water 'corner' and I'm fairly sure that carrying water is more of a psychological need than a physiological necessity to most runners. As others have pointed out; there's plenty of water on this course. You certainly shouldn't need more fluid before the first drink station, it's only 8 miles. As for calories, any simple sugars such as jellybabies will work fine as long as you stick to little and often.

[Will.Race]

All the above shows just how different we all are!

I'm definitely in the less water 'corner' and I'm fairly sure that carrying water is more of a psychological need than a physiological necessity to most runners. As others have pointed out; there's plenty of water on this course. You certainly shouldn't need more fluid before the first drink station, it's only 8 miles. As for calories, any simple sugars such as jellybabies will work fine as long as you stick to little and often.

It certainly does. I actually run most races with a bottle in my hand all the way and tend to drink every 2 or 3 minutes. 3 Peaks recce a few weeks ago I got through nearly 2 litres.

[Stolly]

All the above shows just how different we all are!

I'm definitely in the less water 'corner' and I'm fairly sure that carrying water is more of a psychological need than a physiological necessity to most runners. As others have pointed out; there's plenty of water on this course. You certainly shouldn't need more fluid before the first drink station, it's only 8 miles. As for calories, any simple sugars such as jellybabies will work fine as long as you stick to little and often.

I've lived in the Dales or thereabouts for 14 years now and I'd guess that for 80% of the time the weather in late April has been dry as a bone and warm, leading to the 3 peaks route being on rock solid ground and often bleeding hot! I think everyone is different but I certainly am very quick to heat up in warm weather (and cool down in cold) so I'm wary of not having enough drink especially when its warm. That said nowadays the race seems to have plenty of water stops, whereas the very first year I ran it I collapsed maybe a half mile from the finish with heat stroke and dehydration; the Sulber Nick water station would have been a god send that year There's also the stream that trickles over the shoulder of Ingleborough that is good to drink and the beck before going up Whernside, so all in all water is no problem at all, although I intend to just carry one small bottle of water in the race just in case.

[Mike T]

" ... I collapsed maybe a half mile from the finish with heat stroke and dehydration ......." - were these formal diagnoses, Stolly, or were you just thoroughly knackered and given a drip etc. as a precaution? From my reading more people become ill in long events these days from drinking too much, not to little. In the West Highland Way Race people are discouraged from drinking to excess - indeed they are told they can lose up to 4% of their body weight without coming to harm - and they have had no cases of exertional heat illness of any form. From the personal point of view I no longer drink or eat on my 20 mile runs, and have managed to persuade some previous "water addicts" to do the same, and my last 2 marathons were also intake free.

[Rob Furness]

I did a 22m recce myself the weekend just gone and took my inov hydration pack thingy with about a litre in. At the finish I had a little less than half left so I must've got through about 600ml of fluid over the course of 4 hrs. I don't think I'll need to carry any on the day unless it's very hot. I might carry a very small bottle (200ml) in my pack on race day as a back up but I doubt I'll need it.

[Mike T]

But 200 mls is only about 0.5% of your total body water - carrying that amount is purely psychological.

[No vice]

I used to hit most of the drink stations in races, till i figured I didn't tend to take water when training. When I did Newark 1/2 Iit was a hot day and I did hit them. Closest I've come to projectile vomitting at the finish line!

[Derby Tup]

But 200 mls is only about 0.5% of your total body water - carrying that amount is purely psychological.

If success in sport was purely physiological and there was no psychological element to it then teams wouldn't need managers, just coaches, and on a broader note psychiatrists, therapists, counsellors etc would all be redundant

I must have 10 to 15 pairs of running socks but only a couple of pairs for really important 'big days'