Robin Hood 100: What My Nutrition Plan Actually Looked Like on Race Day
Updated: Sep 28
Sub-24, second lady, and everything I got wrong along the way
Despite being a nutritionist, I don't often treat myself as a client and really invest the time in building a plan. This year, I did — for the Robin Hood 100, 100 miles along the Chesterfield Canal and through Sherwood Forest, and a last-ditch attempt at a sub-24-hour finish after a couple of near-misses in previous years.
I've been running ultras since 2015, so I wasn't starting from scratch — but I started work on this plan early, and it's probably been a year's worth of effort. Each month, I sat down the way I would with a client: reviewing what worked, what didn't, and what still needed attention before race day.
Building the plan: a season of race-day nutrition testing
Race nutrition isn't something you get right by reading about it once — it has to be tested under real fatigue, real pressure and real weather. This year's build gave me three chances to do that.
In January, after a year spent trying to regain some speed, I ran the Arc of Attrition by UTMB 50km. Not an ultra distance because it was actually 42km, but three named storms hit Cornwall that winter, adding challenging underfoot conditions to an already hilly course. It gave me a good early-season test. I was the first proper carb-load I'd done in a while (there's a point in every carb-load where you don't want to see food again, and I definitely got there) — and I felt strong on race day as a result.
The hottest summer on record exposed a real weak point early on in my training: hydration. Part of what I love about running is the freedom of it — I don't like loading up my race vest for a long run, and I know my routes well enough to rely on shops and water fountains along the way. This year, that wasn't enough. I addressed it deliberately: going back to Tailwind, which handles carbohydrate and electrolyte needs together rather than as two separate products to manage mid-run, and freezing my bottles on the hottest days for extra cooling. I even swapped my usual flat white for an iced latte, finishing long runs at the café with the best one nearby and using the walk home as extra time on feet.
The Centurion South Downs Way 50km let me test fuelling under pressure. Because it was shorter than my target race distance, I could run faster than my planned race pace — a useful way to find out how your stomach responds when you put pressure on your digestive system. It was hot, the watermelon at aid stations was very welcome, and it was my first time trying PH Nutrition's watermelon chew — good flavour, but it was a reminder that you can't breath hard while trying to power up Butser Hill and chew and looking ahead to the terrain and profile of the race is important.
Threshold Trail Series Race to the Stones Weekender was where I tested the full race plan in earnest, and where the value of good recovery nutrition became obvious. 50km on Saturday in a heatwave followed by another 50km on Sunday, still in that heatwave. Running on tired legs on day two, after a night of imperfect recovery in my tent, was some of the most useful training I did all year.
I always encourage my athletes to keep a log of their nutrition and how they felt, in training and in racing. A single race tells you less than a season of data does — the same principle behind the PACE framework I use for first-time ultra runners.
What I actually ate at mile 90
I'd planned the first 70 miles of my nutrition closely, confident I'd stick to it, and built in more flexibility for the final 30 to see what I fancied — being crewed meant I had could pack lots of options.
Apart from a craving for mini cheddars at halfway, and an unplanned aid station stop when my crew got forced onto a detour and missed me at mile 70, everything ran like clockwork. I got lucky with that aid station: it was stocked with ultra-runner staples — malt loaf, dark chocolate, crisps — none of which posed any risk to my stomach. Flexibility and problem-solving are as much a part of ultra nutrition as the plan itself.
This year's nutrition looked similar to past attempts — more gels than before, but the Jaffa cakes, cheese sandwiches and crisps stayed.
Cheese isn't a textbook ultra-running carbohydrate, but sandwiched between plenty of bread it earns its place, and more importantly, what you're looking forward to eating at mile 70 matters more than the textbook does.
I also built a more deliberate caffeine strategy this year — more on the evidence behind that in Caffeine for Endurance Athletes: Does It Really Improve Performance? In practice: three coffees combined with a couple of Veloforte caffeine gels kept me alert through the night leg. Coffee isn't a precise way to dose caffeine, but there's a real psychological lift from a warm drink at 3am on a wet, dark canal path that has nothing to do with the caffeine content at all.
The one big failure
For the final 20 miles, I put all my snacks — sweet and savoury — into a single bag, thinking I'd be too focused on the canal path to sort through separate pockets, and that I could just dip my hand in when I needed to, or when my pacer told me to eat. In my head, this meant salted peanuts, raisins and chocolate drops.
In reality, it meant pulling out a cheese biscuit with a fruit pastille stuck to it somewhere around mile 90.
In reality, it meant pulling out a cheese biscuit with a fruit pastille stuck to it somewhere around mile 90. It was disgusting. I spat it out with my crew's "you're an animal" ringing in my ears.
It's a useful, if undignified, reminder: even sound nutrition principles can fail under fatigue if the logistics haven't been tested too. Planning what to eat isn't enough — how it's packaged and accessed at mile 90 needs testing as well.
Planning what to eat isn't enough — how it's packaged and accessed at mile 90 needs testing as well.
Recovery: the part that didn't go to plan
One thing I've struggled with far more this time is getting my appetite back. Recovery nutrition matters as much as fuelling — it's what allows your body to rebuild after a big effort — and I know that.
I forced food down anyway. But it took a full week before I actually felt hungry and wanted to eat, rather than doing it because I knew I should.
It's a reminder that recovery doesn't always follow the plan either, however much you know about why it matters.
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Why this matters — for me and for my clients
My second ultra was half this distance, and I was sick repeatedly and didn't think I'd make the cut-offs. This time, I came in at 21:16:20, smashed my sub-24 goal, and finished second lady. Crossing that line, I took a minute to appreciate how amazing my body is — and far my own nutrition has come.
Nutrition takes work. You never get it perfectly right.
It's something I'm keen to underline with clients, and something we'll come back to time and again on Fuel the Story — episode 1 is here if you missed it. Nutrition takes work. You never get it perfectly right. What works for one race might not work for the next, and even athletes who finish on the podium still have work to do.
If you want help building and testing a nutrition plan that holds up for your race, get in touch. |
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