The extreme nutritional challenge of Marathon des Sables 🏜️
Physical, nutritional and psychological challenges.
Nutrition practices and race experiences of ultra-marathon athletes in the marathon des sables, a qualitative analysis
Study Details
This new study explored the nutrition practices and race experiences of 5 Marathon des Sables athletes across preparation, race participation and recovery 🔍
Each athlete completed 3 semi-structured interviews, giving insight into pre-race planning, in-race challenges and post-race recovery 🎙️
Here are the key findings ⬇️
Key Findings
🥗 Before the event, athletes generally favoured “clean”, minimally processed foods and a relatively consistent daily diet
⚖️ Athletes had to balance nutritional control with flexibility, as overly rigid approaches had previously created stress, restriction or unhealthy food behaviours
🍚 Carb intake was increased before the race, but approaches varied from broad “eat more carbs” strategies to highly planned mock race-week nutrition trials
🎒 During the race, food choices were heavily shaped by the self-sufficient format, meaning athletes prioritised lightweight, energy-dense and practical options
🥘 Dehydrated meals, energy bars, gels, nuts, seeds, powdered drinks and stock cubes were commonly used during the event
🧂 Hydration and salt intake were major priorities because of the desert heat, high sweat losses and risk of dehydration or sodium imbalance
🍲 Stock cubes were initially met with hesitation, but athletes later found them useful for salt intake, flavour variety and breaking up sweet food fatigue
🤢 Gastrointestinal symptoms were common and varied from mild discomfort and constipation to nausea, dizziness and vomiting
📉 In some athletes, GI symptoms directly affected race performance and contributed to reduced confidence, slower pacing or withdrawal
🔥 Heat, appetite loss, dehydration, salt intake issues and repetitive food textures all interacted to make fuelling harder during the race
🧠 Psychological strain was a major finding, even though it was not the original focus of the study
😵💫 Athletes reported boredom, food monotony, negative thoughts, cognitive fatigue and, in one case, hallucination-like experiences
🗣️ Coping strategies included distraction, self-talk, word games and breaking the race into smaller mental tasks
🔋 Recovery was relaxed and unstructured, with athletes shifting away from strict control towards eating freely, indulging and mentally resetting
🍕 Post-race nutrition often included foods normally restricted or limited, such as pizza, crisps, cookies and chocolate
Conclusion
This study highlights that ultra-endurance nutrition is not just about hitting carbohydrate, fluid and sodium targets ‼️
…but about managing the interaction between gut tolerance, appetite, heat stress, psychology and practicality ⚠️
Marathon des Sables is an extreme ultra endurance challenge and athletes need individualised fuelling plans that are tested in training, but also flexible enough to adapt when appetite, GI symptoms or environmental stress disrupt the original plan ✅
Reference
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42389155/
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