Ultra Trail Snowdonia (UTS) 50K - My worst UTMB event so far!

[@markg99]

Sounds like a traumatic experience! Hopefully it hasn't put you off and you can make adjustments for future races. All the best 👍🏃‍♂️

[@bennyytube]

@@markg99 thanks for the comment! No, it was only a learning experience I don't want to have again! Swiss Alps 100k is up next!

[@scottmacdonald5813]

I saw you in that 2nd aid station with your fiancée and I was considering DNFing myself, but seeing how upset you were really put it in to perspective and gave me the kick to carry on. The heat played a massive factor on the day and I was a bit surprised they didn’t enforce the heat mandatory kit. Glad you made it out in good health and all the best in future races

[@bennyytube]

Glad my DNF'ing helped to spur you on haha! Hope your race went well afterwards. A lot of people were telling me it was the heat, but I knew it was something worse than heat exhaustion or heat stroke, which I've actually had before! I think the heat kit would of helped a lot of runners, from my experience, I think there is a big difference in event management and level of mountain and running experience in the runners at this race. Hope to see you at a race soon 🙏🏻

[@timeonfeet]

Great recap Benny, good to hear your thoughts on both the positives and negatives of the event. And that is a really good way to put it that the terrain 'attacks the body' - definitely agree with that!

[@bennyytube]

Cheers Ben! It's a hard one to explain, so happy it came across well 😃

[@eric-running-to-chamonix]

Sorry for your unfortunate race experience. It's a bit of a heads-up for me because I have a race (two actually) in a week where the amount and balance of water to sodium is in question (high altitude, sun exposed, vert-heavy). It is possibly a cautionary tale on "preloading". It's too late in my training to do a "salt test" but I will do so in the future. And consider my salt intake during the race. Again, sorry it went badly for you. But thanks for sharing.

[@bennyytube]

@@eric-running-to-chamonix hey! Thanks for the message. Yea, it's a real fine line and unfortunately I overloaded. Be careful not to take too much, check your ingredients before consuming and have a great race!

[@madisonzurbrugg3704]

Definitely not enough water station! Especially considering de heat on that day.

[@jamstaa69]

It's more to do with a runners ability to read the weather, and take enough water with them. Just because they didn't enforce the hot weather, you can see most of it was needed anyway. Cap, sunglasses, sunscreen and extra water. I made the same mistake of not taking enough water from cp1 in 2023, took the next climb for granted, it's longer than expected, and warmer because it's enclosed. This year I filled up 2 litres from cp1 and it was fine. Used a litre to 1 and half on the climb, 500ml left for top and decent.

[@martinlambourne7880]

Sorry about the race. Am a bit confused because you put a thing up for hyponatremia then you were talking about having too much sodium?? Having DNF the 100km that day I was definitely hyponatremic. Having crusty white marks is a sign you have a reasonably high salt concentration in your blood which actually means you need to replace more than you think. E.g. i have 1500 night before and morning of race to load up then have to have 1000 per 300-500mls of fluid to keep electrolytes as balanced as possible. It was super hot that day so I do think you may have actually lost too much sodium through sweating. Have you considered getting sweat tested?

[@bennyytube]

@@martinlambourne7880 hey, thanks for the comment! The topic is a bit confusing to me also as I read and spoke to some people that the inverse can be true also, having too much sodium. I took a sweat test and they said I have high levels of sweat and need to use the 1500mg. But every time I did, I head I had this 'drunk feeling' and would have the crusty white lines as a sign. So, I'm still doing some searching to find out all about it!