me too! That was soooo cute!

Glad I'm not the only one - team Ram Rod here!

Rod's Coach here. I can assure you that could not have taken in any more fluid stopping at aid stations or cooled down anymore by stopping and sitting. He brought on board an endurance nutritionist who, like myself, looks as ultra running and sees a ton of room for improvement on the commonly held practices. After months of testing, we had a spreadsheet outlining every ounce of water and every calorie he would need to intake over the course of 15 hours doing our best not be influenced by conventionality or what might 'feel' the best and instead listening to the research and borrowing from top coaches in other ultra endurance sports. I come from a triathlon background and lived through a similar era in that sport. When it had one or two athletes who were head and shoulders above everyone else and the common rationale was to sit in transition and take your time to cool off/hydrate(heck they even used to put on their bike shoes in t1 instead of doing it while already riding or completely stop during the bike ride to refill bottles and cool off instead of taking hand ups). Sport evolves, the time difference between the top 10 gets tighter and tighter, and with proper planning/practice, there isn't a single competitive pro taking extra time at an aid when they could be consuming the same things while at least jogging. There are many intermediate aid stations where ice and water are available(we even gave Rod empty bottles in each pack w/ calorie powder already in them so he just had to refill at intermediate aid and not think very hard about what he was consuming, just stay on schedule), and creek crossings which pros will quickly dip in. In addition, once the temps are high the pro's have picked up a pacer who dumps ice and water on them while on the move(I know, I know we're communicating with the race to make the rules more clear because it's a very gray area right now on the definition of muling and what is and what isn't allowed). Jim chose not to use a pacer, but still had people dotted on course who were cooling him off with water and ice, on bath road for example. Jim was also clearly having a rough go in the middle miles. He even threw up at one crew stations we were at. So he probably needed to take extra time early on given how he was feeling. Jim also swapped out shoes because he has some terrain specific pairs which is largely dependent on what a sponsor is willing to invest in prototypes for a runner. I talked to HOKA and Jim had two shoes in the race that aren't available to the public. In 5-10 years hopefully all the top guys will have access to this, but it's not the case right now. I'm not trying to throw shade at any other runners, if they want to take off a wet shirt, put on a dry shirt, then soak that shirt at every crew, that's their choice. But people and industry are often unwilling to change until their hands are forced. We certainly have room to improve, and we'll spend some time next year debating the pros/cons of using a vest instead of a waist belt +handheld, shoe changes, etc Let's put a pin in this conversation and come back in 2030 to see how many of the top 5 are still putting in 10-15 minutes of stoppage time during their race.

@@CoachMattPoweredwow great insights and info much appreciated! Super impressed by Rods performance and looking forward to see more of him in the future! ☺️

@@CoachMattPowered Thanks for the info! It's wonderful to be able to gain the insights from the coach himself! Much of that I was not aware of, so is especially insightful information. I only meant to imply, and theorize, that a minute here and there could potentially be minus 10 minutes down the road, depending on how that time is used. It seemed deliberate, in the eyes of the spectator, that Jim was just being patient and taking his time, but perhaps Jim really wasn't feeling well! He has been living in France, so maybe he is also not as heat adept as once was.

@@CoachMattPoweredThe vests are so horribly HOT; there's LOTS of room for improvement there! As far as the nutrition, are you saying you calculated his caloric/electrolyte/fluid needs for each segment and then gave him everything he was supposed to consume in the interim before he saw you again?

I’m doing an AMA on reddit/ultrarunning where some of this has come up, I’d rather have everything in one place. When runners swallow internal thermometers there is no measurable difference in core temperature between running w/ an ultralight vest vs without, a dry fit shirt vs without, or shirt color. Simple studies often measure skin temperature(remember when white shirts were cooler than black, spoiler alert, color doesn’t matter for core temp), but unless there’s a direct correlation between skin temperature and core temperature, then that’s not the data we’re after. In addition, the most important parts of the body to keep cool, as in the ones that have the most measurable effect on core temp are the head, ears, neck, armpits, hands, genitalia, and bottoms of feet. The hands are so easy to keep cool when they’re free, that we’ve prioritized keeping them free. There is no research to measure core temp when using handhelds, but anecdotally you’ll find a number of pro endurance athletes who feel hotter when holding a bottle vs wearing an ultra light vest. Not saying we will continue 100% with the vest, but the question is, does not wearing and needing one or sometimes two handhelds actually change core temp for the better, or could it make it worse? How valuable is having 100grams of carbs an hour at the right ratio of glucose/fructose available right when you need it vs relying on what’s at aid. Do your shoulders get exhausted after holding a bottle for 14 hours? Rod’s North Face vests are not your normal trail running vests, they make me really jealous of what I wear haha. Last thought, Rod and others have given me the feedback that having both hands free means they are more likely to eat and drink. At the peak of fatigue, the need to remove a handheld or switch it to another hand to grab food, open gels, get salt, means they just won’t do it or they’ll delay it. Rod has used just a handheld in a past, so he’s got experience with it. If I had to answer right now, I'd bet we have a few stretches of just handheld next year but they would be very limited. We also need to clarify the muling rules and what that really means. I was very apprehensive to break those rules as I interpret them with Rod this year because I wanted no controversy. Some guys had people on course dumping water on them and giving them aid outside of official stations. To answer your 2nd question. Yes, and that’s the primary reason we went with a vest strategy. We know Rod's sweat rate, and I today I learned another pro's who I think is the one of the primary reasons the hand bottle strategy is so popular. The numbers are pretty different.

LFG