OK so seriously, how about you just adapt. You got used to using gatorade over the years, now get used to doing something different. Maybe your first two bottles have gatorade, and after that you grab only water, and use gels for your sugar? How is this such a big deal?

The Gatorade & gels will have different types of sugar, presumably................wont that be a surefire way to get GI distress?

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Surely you can comprehend that racing a half or full Ironman is not the time to be using a diet drink.

This isn't a question of whining about Maurten vs Gu or something. It's literally a low calorie diet drink being served as "nutrition".

On the run you have a little more time and opportunity to grab gels. On the bike, if you lose your concentration mix or if you depend on the oncourse mix to top off what you carry on the bike you're not really getting any caloric benefit from this drink.

It would be a very smart move for this company to create an additional "pro sports" formula or something that doesn't rely on zero calorie sweetener.

Instead of having hordes of Ironman fans mocking it and complaining, they'd have Ironman fans buying their product. Hopefully, they figure out that for an Ironman athlete the goal is stomaching more carbs not less.

I wouldn't want to be from this company reading all the people I'm paying for the privilege of giving my product to destroying the utility of my product.

I’m pretty sure I’ve never bad talked Ironman; but, this one, this one is a terrible decision. :(

Personally, I'm going to do my normal bottle setup on the bike, only take water after they are gone, and do a bottle swap in special needs. Will make up the calories w/ more solids/gels. I'm actually looking forward to fewer bottle hand-ups and not having to use those horrible Gatorade bottles anymore. On the run I may run with a bottle and also swap during special needs, though I think I'd be fine w/ water, coke, and gels.

The drink is lame as hell, pretty easy to predict that this will be short lived, but it shouldn't be the end of the world to not have it. The problem is that none of the quality sports drinks are likely to pay Ironman for the privilege of supplying their product to everyone globally, that's an incredible expense. There's just not a ton of money in sports nutrition to begin with. The companies that are able to do it are huge companies with deep pockets like Gatorade (coke/powerade could do it if they wanted, but they don't I'm sure) or some VC backed startup with money to burn like Mortal (or LMNT), but none of the latter are going to match what Ironman athletes want/need.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

Two things. 1) it seems reasonable to complain that Ironman is making a huge mistake by basically removing an energy source you can get during the race. On course “nutrition” is now realistically limited to solids/gels as the only option 2) While this can be somewhat resolved by personal nutrition strategies and using special needs, what happens if you lose bottles on course of your nutrition? What happens if there is a mix up at special needs? What happens to the thousands of participants that aren’t on slowtwitch that don’t understand what’s in mortal and how it differs from an actual sports drink? These are the larger concerns.

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My Strava | My Instagram | Summerville, SC | 35-39 AG | 4:41 (70.3), 10:05 (140.6) | 3x70.3, 1x140.6 | Cat 2 Cyclist

I sorta agree with you to an extent. I think people should be more self reliant: use a concentrated mix and top off with water from aid stations or pickup bottles at special needs.

My only complaint is it’s going to be more difficult/complex to substitute nutrition needs if I drop one of my own bottles. It was pretty damn easy with Gatorade to get the Cho I needed if I dropped a bottle. With this new drink, it’s going to require multiple products to get my necessary Cho.

I haven’t looked at all the nutrition labels so I’m assuming it’s doable. It’s just more complex.

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blog

Losing your nutrition on course - well that gets back to being self sufficient and being responsible for what you need.

I'd argue that the on course nutrition is a 'perk' and you should have a backup plan. Have spare bottles in special needs. Have a few salt tabs on your bike in case you drop your own electrolyte drink and need to switch to feed station plain water. Or plan to use the new on course drinks and again, have a few salt tabs to swallow and an extra gel.

I was kind of sort of joking with the cry baby comment, but seriously.....

You're about to have a breakdown of this on the front page.

Hint: you're gonna need to bring a lot of shit with you.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

I carry a few extra (1-2) gels typically and my plan B has always been to use special needs with another bottle ready to go or Gatorade from aid stations. Obviously, if I drop my bottle super early in the bike or after special needs (which I’ve done before after riding over some rumble strips), I’m going to have to use on course nutrition.

All I’m saying is that my plan B is now a little more complex. Let’s hope I never have to use it again but I still have to plan for it.

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blog

If you plan on using Mortal -- you're looking at needing to make up 80G per hour on the bike.

That's...a lot of carbs. You're needing 3-4 Maurten gels an hour at that rate.

https://www.slowtwitch.com/...tion_World_8936.html

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

Endurance sports: "The modern wave is taking in as much carbs as you can physically handle per hour"

Ironman:

That's all well and good. I'll take my own nutrition on self supported rides. But Ironman is a $1,000 per entry event, and now they're saying it's nutritionally self-supported? Kindly get f*%ked. A large part of what people pay for is the availability of what they need when and where they need it. I can go out and do my own Ironman at any pool/lake/road.

What's next?
"Please upload this .gpx file to your computer prior to the race as the course will be unmarked".
"As this is a looped bike course there will be no aid stations. Personal drop bags may be picked up outside of transition between loops 2 and 3".

Based on an analysis posted here at ST, this is not about adapting, this is about another of those dumb decisions by IM in detriment of the performance of the athletes. To quote the article: "For carbs: 9 * 22 oz per serving (derived from the adequate carbs scenario) gives a whopping - and totally impossible- 198oz per hour" (this is in the context of what to consume to get 90g of carbs on a 70.3 with a target of 6 hours).

Not that Gatorade Endurance was the greatest thing since sliced bread but at least much better in terms of carbs (not great on the gut for me and super sweet). This new decision of partnership will be a disaster for people trying to live off on course hydration (now i'm wondering if this is a move from IM to actually have to procure less for races, because presumably less people are going to race off their hydration, and overall cut total event costs, wouldn't be far fetched to think this came into the decision)

Terrible decision. Why not keep Gatorade on the course as well? They typically have Coke and IM doesnt have a deal with Coca-Cola, at least give everyone some options.

I'm sure the decision to bail on Gatorade was probably 100% a business decision.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

To be clear, it's a decision by Gatorade to get out of endurance sports.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

Capture the market then cut your costs and increase your prices. Tale as old as time.

Was Gatorade providing the drinks to IM at no cost or reduced cost or paying for the right to be the hydration sponsor?

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

My understanding is that the answer to that is "yes."

But, long story short -- Gatorade is killing the endurance formula, and is focusing all their marketing / events model on "traditional" sports marketing as opposed to anything in the run / triathlon world. That and new products, such as their Gatorade water. So they exited, stage right.

I am extremely leery, on a personal level, of Mortal as the replacement. But I also don't think IM would have changed had Gatorade still been an available alternative partner.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

"Gatorade WATER?"

Gee, I wonder which brand they're afraid of in that segment?

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

In theory, Ironman could still supply Gatorade on course but they'd have to pay for it and it wouldn't be an event sponsor. We can't have that! :-)

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Wonder how this guy would feel about it.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

Just as an order of magnitude calculation: 1000 entries per IM/ 2000 per 70.3, 4 bottles/IM and 2 bottles/70.3 entrant ~=~4000 bottles per event. On Amazon these Gatorades are just under $2/bottle. I'm going to guess buying 4000 of them comes with a substantial discount. Let's just estimate it would cost $5000 per event.

An IM at $1000 per and 1000 or a 70.3 at $500 per and 2000 both round out to ~$1,000,000 entry fee per event. $5,000/$1,000,000 = 0.5% margin erosion.

That's also completely discounting the 100 other actually calorie-containing sports drinks brands that are either cheaper, willing to sponsor, or both.

rrheisler wrote:

But, long story short -- Gatorade is killing the endurance formula, and is focusing all their marketing / events model on "traditional" sports marketing as opposed to anything in the run / triathlon world. That and new products, such as their Gatorade water. So they exited, stage right.

Bingo. *triggers knee jerk to leap up on soapbox*

We're coming for you there, too, Gatorade. Settle into your role for now; the convenience store lifestyle beverage for serving at birthday parties and to the guy watching (but not playing) football and grilling cheesedogs with his buddies or eating chips watching the Final Four.

I so look forward to bringing the combo of software, hardware, and education to bear on Gatorade's enormous market cap in that arena, too.

*stepping off soapbox and takes off evil villain mask*

Y'all can enjoy this vid we just did on Gatorade Endurance, if you're curious what exactly you're about to be missing out on. Just posted it.




We'll do Mortal next.

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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