So, question. Is there a way to fill up my water bottle at the water stops during Dopey? Could I just carry the Tailwind powder with me and fill up my water bottle along the course? I think I'd need at least 4 or 5 bottle refills along the way. This sound about right? @DopeyBadger
You can absolutely refill your water bottle along the way. I've carried a 10oz Nathan handheld and filled up when I needed to at Disney. There are 19 aid stations in the marathon and they're usually quite long. Sometimes on occasion they even have people who will pour directly into your bottle at the end of the aid station.
Could you carry the Tailwind on course and fill it as you go? Yea, you could do it in theory. I tried that a few times in 2014-2015 with other powder products and it does get quite messy if you don't slow down your pace that much. And then it ends up all over your hands with nothing to wash it off. Tailwind is sold in individual packets (25g carb per each). So you can do it that way, or package them yourself into a bigger vessel. The other option is to make a concentrated form of Tailwind in your 16oz bottle and then sip from it at scheduled intervals. You'd still need to drink the same amount of water from the aid stations though because the concentrated Tailwind needs water to be absorbed by your GI tract.
I suspect that isn't going to be enough carbs/hour in a race.
Let's say you're going for optimal performance in each race. The M would take you about 4:47-5:00 hours. Let's say 5 hours for math's sake. Let's also presume you decide to take in about 60g carbs/hr. So for a 5 hr race, that's going to be ~270g carbs (because once you hit about 30 min to go it isn't necessary to consume carbs anymore since they won't make it to the muscles by the end of the race)..
Tailwind should be mixed at 1 scoop per every 8-12 oz water. So that's 25g carbs for every 8-12 oz of liquid consumed. In order to consume 270g carbs from Tailwind, you would need 11 individual packets:
270 / 25g per packet = 10.8 packets (rounded to 11)
That means you need to consume about 88-132 oz of water:
8oz * 11 packets = 88 oz water
12oz * 11 packets = 132 oz water
If you were instead to make a concentrated Tailwind like I do (1 scoop in 2oz volume), then you could store ~8 packets worth in your 16oz bottle.
16oz bottle / 2oz per scoop = 8 packets of concentrated Tailwind
You would be ~75g carbs short (or three packets). You would still need to consume 64-96 oz of water with the concentrated Tailwind.
8oz * 8 concentrated = 64 oz water
12oz * 8 concentrated = 96 oz water
One trick is anything consumed within about 15 min of the start of the race is useful for in-race carb calculations. So you could in theory drink something like Maurten 320 (80g carbs in 17oz water) at the start line, and then you'd not have to carry anything in addition to your water bottle. So something like:
15 min prior to start - Drink 17oz Maurten 320
45 min into race - Start drinking from Tailwind Concentrate. Drink 1-2 visible oz of fluid every ~32 minutes.
45 min, 1:18, 1:50, 2:22, 2:54, 3:26, 3:58, 4:30
That's one way to do the math, but not the only possible nutrition strategy you could come up with. You could mix Tailwind intake with gel intake or chew intake as well. Still making sure that you're at about 2oz water for every 1 g carb consumed. So Tailwind liquid does not count towards water consumption for gels/chews. Whatever you do choose to do, make sure you practice it in these last few weeks to make sure your body tolerates your schedule. Be forewarned that the concentrated Tailwind tastes very very sweet.
