What is easier to do - fasting (no food) for 48 hours or completing a marathon of 88km in 12 hours?

 

walking on the Ultra

What would you choose? Would you remain without food for 48 hours (you are allowed coffee and tea with milk, but no sugar and electrolytes) or would you run or walk 88km within 12 hours?

Running for 12 hours?

I managed to complete my ten Comrades Ultra Maraton on Sunday 11 June 2023. It seems easy if you type it in one line, but it was not easy.

I started off at a fair pace and kept up with the pre race plan. I took a huge shake with much extra carbohydrates in the mixture shortly before the race started. I had three more snacks to eat and then,,, the almost unthinkable happened... I could not stomach any of the supplies that I packed and that I carried with me. I started eating one chocolate protein bar and battled to chew it and battled even more to swallow it. The body just refused. I could not understand why this was happening. My nutrition the previous day was fine. I was used to the type of shake I took early. 

I was running out of energy and then forced myself to drink and chew a similar shake as I consumed just before the race. If ever my body was complaining, this was it. Now it was totally impossible to get in any food. I chewed on a salted jellybean. That was it - I managed to get that in, but then the body was in a big revolt. I could not eat anything or drink anything after that.

My energy dropped and it showed. We were getting slower and slower. My running partner tried to motivate me, but I could hardly run for 100 meters and then had to walk for longer. I could not get my rhythm back. We tried a number of different plans. I knew that I could continue for a while, but that I would have to abandon the race if I do not make the cutoffs in time (if you do not reach a certain distance in a certain time, you are not allowed to continue the race). I did not want him to blow his chance to earn his medal. His job was to make sure that I would make it, but now it was my decision to tell him to go on without me. He did that reluctantly.

I managed to get my energy stabilised. I was drinking Coke like it was water - I never drink Code unless it is an emergency in a race, like this evidently was. I managed to get my rhythm back and eventually ran fast enough in the last four hours to make it in time for my medal.

This was a tough day, but it worked out in the end. On this race I could not eat at one stage and I forced some Coke down later just to give me energy. 

Without food for 48 hours?

This was in sharp contrast to the 12 hour race which I finished on June 11. The week after race that I was eating like crazy trying to make up for the race and the emotional impact of the race on me. That lasted to Sunday afternoon at 4pm on June 18.

Then I started on a fast. The first 14 hours was easy - there was a "ton" of food in my body, at least that is how it felt. I was drinking coffee and tea during the day. I was never hungry or tired.

I have done fasts in the past as well. In the beginning the first afternoon was always very tough for me - getting hungry and getting tired as well. This time there was nothing like that. The evening I was full of energy after 26 hours of fasting. I decided to push for another day. 

Late afternoon I had a 6km run at a slow pace and I felt fine. 

The next morning I was 2kg lighter, admittedly some of this was water and then I got rid of the excess I built up the previous week. Initially I planned to lose 3kg in three days (60 to 72 hours of fasting). I knew that I would drop another 500 gram on the second stretch so I decided to stop the fasting after 48 hours. 

Which is easier? 48 hours fasting (or even longer) or 12 hours of walking and running?

I am fit enough to do the running and walking - not as fit as I should be, but fit enough. 

To do the fasting you also need a certain bit of fitness. The most important point is fitness of the mind so to speak. You need to know what to expect and then to handle it when it comes your way.

Then there is one golden rule as well - when you are hungry, you eat. There is a difference between hungry and just imagining that you are hungry where in fact you are only tasting or smelling the food which makes you want to eat.

When will you join me for the fast? That is easy to do if you know how!

Tuesday June 20, 2023