Mary Denholm Crushes JFK 50 Ultra
By Carson Beckett
Writer, Pro Cyclist
HPT Athlete Mary Denholm shares her experience and fueling logistics employed to take silver at the JFK 50 and break the previous women's record.
HPT Athlete Mary Denholm tackled the oldest ultramarathon in the U.S and claimed silver, ahead of the current record pace by almost a minute and a half.
More than 1,000 runners — representing 45 states of the U.S., as well as the District of Columbia, and 11 other countries — started [the JFK 50] Saturday morning looking to complete a 50.2-mile route comprised of the rugged Appalachian Trail, the flat C&O Canal towpath and rolling, paved roads. (The Herald-Mail)
Here's her race breakdown and personal insights from a nutrition + fueling perspective for this iconic ultra.
Mary: I've trained myself to be a high carb and high sodium/fluid intake athlete. For years I have successfully taken in 100-115g of carbs per hour during everything from road half marathons to marathons and this past year on trails from marathon to 100 mile ultras. A sweat test earlier this year informed me that I lose 1,242mg of sodium per liter of sweat so I aim to take in up to 1,600mg of sodium in 1,000ml per hour if it's a warmer day/minimum of 800mg sodium in a 500ml per hour if a cooler day. For trail races I like to get most of my carbs from gels and electrolytes from drink mixes - I use Precision 30g Gels and with a timer set on my watch to take one every 20 minutes and in a 500ml handheld bottle I have a combination of Skratch Hydration (20g carbs & 400mg sodium) and Skratch Everyday Hydration (no carbs & 400mg sodium). For road marathons I love Maurten 320 drink mix (80g carbs, no sodium).
JFK 50 Mile is a unique ultramarathon because the first 15.5 miles are on the Appalachian Trail, then you hit the C&O canal path for a flat 26.2 miles, then finish the final ~8 miles on rolling asphalt roads. I knew I needed to fuel differently for this race. In training I practiced during combination long runs where I ran the first half on trails and second half on flat/rolling roads to do Precision gels with Skratch in bottles, then transition to two handhelds (1) with two scoops of Skratch Everyday Hydration (unsweetened) to give me 800mg sodium and (2) a second bottle with Maurten 320 where I added 2 scoops of Skratch Everyday Hydration to it to give me another 800mg of sodium and 80 grams of carbs and have Maurten 160 gels to hit my carbs per hour goals.
I knew when I hit the C&O it would be warmer than the trail section (thankfully still a cooler day) and I would be grinding for ~4 hours at a higher intensity steady for 35 miles so I would need to take in more fluid/sodium than on the trail where I wanted to get through the rocky technical parts with no ankle rolls or falls.
Fueling was going according to plan but a caffeinated gel at ~mile 30 did not sit right. I trained with caffeine this training cycle during some long runs and I thought with the cooler day it would be tolerated but it was not. I am caffeine sensitive and I do not take it on warmer race days due to my high sodium loss. I have been able to successfully incorporate caffeinated gels during cooler road marathons which are over much quicker/higher intensity than I was running at JFK and late into the Leadville 100 (mile 80 taking half a gel at a time spread out).
Unfortunately during JFK I got sick miles 32-35 stopping to throw up several times and slipped back from ~90 seconds behind first place female to ~8 minutes back during that stretch. It was like my body needed to get it all out and then once I did, I was able to rally pretty quickly back to running just off the splits I had before that which surprised me. I could not fuel for several miles but by the late 30s I told myself to try again and I was able to start sipping Skratch again first then start sipping Maurten 320 again and slowly re-gained confidence in my stomach to start pushing the pace.
When I hit the final section I was able to return to fueling as planned and dug deep to run some of my fastest miles over the final 8 miles of rolling roads to close strong and make up time to ultimately run under the prior CR and finish within 6 minutes of first place.
It was a massive rally and one of my best race experiences ever to stay calm, problem solve, and ultimately be able to turn my entire race around and finish as fast as I did.
The Plan:
Max carbs/sodium per hour:
115g to 108g carbs per hour
800mg sodium in 2 bottles per hour/1,600 mg total.
Minimum carbs/sodium per hour:
80g carbs from Maurten only/64g per hour (working through being sick & returning to race splits)
800mg sodium per 1 bottle per hour/800mg total.
Photo Credits: The Herald-Mail