Dragon’s Back Race 2012 nutrition study

Ultra-distance running in the mountains creates a unique challenge in terms of achieving energy balance. The action of running often makes eating difficult due to loss of appetite, lack of palatability or gastrointestinal discomfort. Add to this the challenges of carrying your own food, with minimal support points, and making decisions about weight versus calories.

The main aim of this study was to measure the energy and nutrient intakes of competitors and compare these with performance. It is not possible to draw conclusions about the effect of nutrition on performance from this kind of observational study, but it may be interesting to see how the nutrition strategies of the faster competitors compared with those of the slower competitors.