Fueling For The Ring

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Planning on nutrition and hydration for The Massanutten Ring can easily be the same as planning for a 100 mile run. Although 29 miles shorter, there is also far less (but awesome!) aid stations for The Ring.


Milford Gap Mile 13.1
Camp Roosevelt Mile 25 5 hours
Crisman Hollow Road 34.3 3.10 hours
Moreland Gap Road 40.7 3 hours
Edinburg Road 48.7 3.30 hours
Woodstock Tower 56.9 2.25 hours
Powells Fort 62.7 3.15 hours
Finish Mile 71

I target 300 calories per hour, so I need to carry 5 x 300 calories= 1500 calories to get to Camp Roosevelt, for example. Yes, there will be limited aid at Milford Gap, but it's always much wiser to bring your own calories.

For the rest of the aid stations, it will take me approximately 3 hours or so between aid stations, so my rough estimation of food stuffs will be 900-1200 calories to carry.

For the record, I always seem to have extra food that I haven't ate when I come into the next aid station. I am going to try and focus on eating my calories, so I need to plan out what will taste good.

This is the tricky part. Rereading my old run reports and race reports, my stomach has been turning from my old "iron stomach" to becoming a bit more fickle after around mile 50. Last year, during The Ring, I was nauseated. Same with my Zion 100 Race.

Items I am going to try this year:

Tums on a schedule. I am going to take a Tums every 4 hours. That is not too much Tums. It's just calcium carbonate. I will also carry extra Tums for nausea, but I am hoping this Tums experiment will work.

Tailwind Nutrition: I bought a bag of this a few months ago. I've used it on shorter runs. I drank a bunch of it hanging out at the Ouray Aid Station at Hardrock. It's a bit salty, but that did not bother me. I am going to fill two of my three bottles with Tailwind to start The Ring. I am also going to put two servings of the powder-actually the caffeinated version-into my drop bag, for Woodstock. That will be easy calories, with a serving containing 100 calories and 35 mg of caffeine.

Ultragen: My recovery drink from First Endurance! LOVE THIS! I will use a half-serving (one scoop) in a water bottle, probably around Edinburg. I did this during Zion and I think it really helped.

It is more the savory items that I want to eat, late in an ultra. I will use gels for the first half of The Ring. They are easy to carry, I have less water to drink in the first 25 miles, and my stomach will still (hopefully) be good.

A new item I am trying: Epic Meat Bars

11 grams of protein, 200 calories. I ate one today. It tasted okay. It tasted like soft beef (or in this case, bison) jerky. I have them stashed in the drop bags also. In the case that the "sweet" foods are nauseating me, I can try out the savory side. It's not that many calories, but any calories can be good if they stay in your stomach!


Items in the drop bag:

Honey Roasted Peanuts
Cranberry juice
Nut Butter

Boost/Ensure
Payday Bar
Hot Tamales
Beef Jerky
Some assorted gels
Epic Bison Bars




Food I won't be carrying:

I tried this on my 20 mile run at Mohican. I guess I was expecting more pot roast flavor. No. Not so much. I did eat it on my run there, but this item won't be tempting me at mile 48 at The Ring. I guess I was expecting "Dinty Moore" type flavor, but it was pretty bland.

I will be sure and post how my nutrition and hydration plan works for The Ring 2014!