I have no issues with Mortal as a hydration and electrolyte source. It also probably tastes perfectly fine.

I do believe the vast majority of athletes depend on what’s served on course for their fueling/hydration needs. That’s just how things are.

Mortal sucks supreme ass when it comes to the calorie and carbohydrate side of things.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

This is clearly a lie. A humble opinion would’ve been posted in the existing thread.

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

I don’t disagree with you, mostly because I am not a Gatorade fan and use products that I bring with me on course.
But……. There is always a but. At Oceanside I wanted to try Mortal on course. During the run I was handed the super salty kind and it was more than awful. I spit it out and grabbed a water to rinse it out. I couldn’t taste a flavor, just salt.
I had bought the Mortal variety pack at the expo. I tried the berry flavored 1/2 as much salt packet and found it drinkable.
At Oceanside, the on bike the Mortal mixture seemed to be mixed in the one use plastic “water bottles “, but I didn’t grab one. I don’t know how they will be in the future races.
I would prefer Ironman not use any single use plastic.
On the run and/or bike will they have regular or twice the salt?
I will avoid Mortal like I did Gatorade.

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Team Zoot So Cal

...or maybe not

are you telling people that having spent aero optimizing their bike to plaster food buffet on top of their bike?

and what do you do for FULL IM tape some powerbars or cliffbars to downtube as well? wear a backpack - sorry thats banned

not offering a carb drink for IM half or full will result in many more problems

so MAYBE IM should think not only about their pocket but safety of their participants? ...jsut MAYBE

I had Mortal at Las Vegas Half Marathon and did not care for it. Did not taste good to me, and I didn't really know what I was drinking at the time which.

I always factor the carbs and calories from Gatorade into my fueling plan for IM races, so now I guess I'll need to tweak all that. Count me as one who's not happy about the change.

But caloric requirements for racing optimally stay the same.

What company do you work for again?

This is a classic case of the famous little book,

"Who Moved My Cheese?"

For the past 25 years, I've been going to races and eating the cheese (Gatorade) at Ironman races. However, the cheese has moved. The cheese is no longer available. As a smart mouse, you either quickly figure it out and come up with a "Plan B" or you sit around, groan and complain.

I'm a retired engineer and have no affiliation with Mortal Hydration. I've been on this web page since 2013 and have seen a lot of changes and there will be many more changes. I've done 34 Ironmans and am getting ready to do number 35 in Lake Placid in July. Thus, I have skin in the game just like others on this forum.

This is dumb only because Mortal is DUMB for Ironman.

Repeat after me, "Don't drink diet drinks in an endurance race."

Just don't.

Is there anyone, ANYONE?!? who ever said in an Ironman, "I would like my drink to taste even sweeter than it actually is with less carbs to go with it."

If you want less carbs in your drink, that's fine. I can see that case being made. But why in the world would you want to it to taste extra sweet?

And why would you want a substance added to your endurance drink that is effectively dehydrates you and make you want to avoid taking in more carbs?

If Ironman said their races were now all self supported and had no nutrition I'd deal with it. No big deal.

It's the complete tone deaf nature of this move. It makes no sense for Ironman to supply a drink like this.

I don't often criticize Ironman. Usually, I'm opposed to the rabid critics against IM. But IM just made a deal for a product to be supplied to their customers that's actually detrimental. Not because they think it's the best move for their customers. Not because they had no other options; but they are giving their customers a knowingly inappropriate product because they are getting paid. It's not a question of not being the best product. Not everything has to be the best. But the product is just wrong. Seriously, if IM said had a meeting with a potential new sponsor to replace Coke with Diet Pepsi, I'd hope the marketing people in the room would understand their product and customers enough to know that it's just the wrong thing to offer them.

This lacks integrity. I feel bad for Mortal as they are just trying to promote their product. But it's the wrong market. If anyone DOESN'T need a diet drink it's someone currently engaged in 4-17 hours of continuous exercise.

The fact that one could substitute "Clamato" for "Mortal Hydration" in your post without impacting the validity of any of the points is troubling.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

The fact that people will need to adjust their plans is pretty much the point of the initial post on this topic.

I guarantee you a lot of people won't know about this change until it hits them in a race. Others will learn about it because they read the details on a forum like this.

I just reached out to two people that have done a 70.3 each year for the last two decades and neither had any idea about the change and they are signed up for races this year. So many people are going to be caught off guard by the sweet drinks with no carbs on course.

Also, have you noticed the changes to special needs?

Over the last couple years' races, you had to request SN bags if you intended to use them. OK no big deal, save some plastic waste I guess.

But when I signed up for IM New Zealand 2025 about a week ago, you had to request the special needs bags as part of the checkout process and IM charges you extra. I think it was 6 bucks a bag or something.

Nice little racket when they're also not providing you with enough on course nutrition.

Shouldn't they be recouping enough $$ already by cutting Active out of the loop? /sigh

How long until this is true? They'll charge the same (or more) and just give water...

This is dumb only because Mortal is DUMB for Ironman.

Repeat after me, "Don't drink diet drinks in an endurance race."

Just don't.

Funny story from years ago at a half race that no longer exists. At the old Orillia Half Ironman, they had an aid station at the bike turnaround. The volunteer assigned to pick up the food and drink from a sponsoring local grocery store assumed that part of the order must be wrong, because there was Coke as part of the list. They demanded that the order be switched to Diet Coke, assuming that these endurance athletes surely wouldn't have sugar filled junk in their diet! So we all got Diet Coke, when looking forward to a good hit of sugar and calories. Funny story, and everyone laughed about it after, when the race director announced what had happened. Point is, we need the calories,...and only in ignorance should it be any other way!

Nobody liked the Gatorade or willing used it when not forced to by IM. Yet they managed to make people miss it with how badly they botched this. Yet people will still give IM their money, so not sure their decisions will hurt them that much in the end.

North American IMs don't charge for special needs bags. The special needs bag situation depends on the country and their stance on recycling and pollution. It isn't a cash grab by IM...it's a way to limit environmental impact of the race. (ex. Challenge Roth doesn't even have a special needs bag option).

Mortal goes against purposeful liquid nutrition for an endurance event. So no, it will never be good. Gatorade was literally created to solve this purpose and has scientific facts that back up usage of it or similar products. Products like mortal are purely a moneygrab and solving a use case of people that want to drink something with less calories than sports drinks because they are fat. Those products does not belong in sport.

Replacing gatorade with mortal is like replacing gels, bananas, and other food options with romain lettuce.

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My Strava | My Instagram | Summerville, SC | 35-39 AG | 4:41 (70.3), 10:05 (140.6) | 3x70.3, 1x140.6 | Cat 2 Cyclist

Keep in mind no one knows why Mortal was selected. But Gatorade forced the hand of Ironman by discontinuing their Endurance formula. Global product availability, supply chain, packaging, ingredients, etc. I'm sure there's complexity around being a hydration/nutrition sponsor for events around the globe which extends beyond just how many grams of carbs your product contains. Personally I think Mortal is a dumb replacement for Gatorade Endurance and it could very well be a band-aid until a better option pans out. Maurten comes to mind? NeverSecond would be another great option (inoffensive taste and good carb/sodium content). But I can't think of another company that actually bottles their product besides Gatorade, so it seems whatever the long term solution is would require the vendor to bottle it themselves or Ironman just puts that burden on the volunteers.

It'$ obviou$ why Mortal wa$ $selected.

Are they actually discontinuing their Endurance formula? As in I should go stockpile some from Amazon?

I'm thinking it doesn't bode well for us in regards to the new CEO. I'd be surprised if he wasn't aware of this so perhaps the leadership is a bit unaware.....

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Kiwami Racing Team

That's a fair point. I can't imagine the new CEO is so clueless about his customers that he thinks selling them a diet drink is a good idea? But if he does...then it reflects pretty poorly on him. At the end of the day, that's what's happen, so I guess it's the case.

Either he was/is clueless about this, or he knows and just didn't care. Reflects poorly on him either way, I'd say.

Love Gatorade, hate Maurten with a passion.

Gatorade is the product that everything else chases to be like. They're the giant in sports hydration. Would say the population of people using Scratch, Tailwind, LMNT, etc in training vs Gatorade is probably 50/50. But they they get on course that shifts to like 80/20 and only gets smaller as those people use their nutrition.

Now we have a hyrdration beverage that has 400 followers on instagram? How do they event have the manufacturing capacity to meet the demand of Ironman let alone their actual sales?

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Looks like it. Just heard that Gatorade is out as the "Official Hydration Drink" of the UF Gators and if the Gators can't even get Gatorade...

Yes.

Seems like Gatorade's business is a bit of a mess right now. No sympathy on my end given how much they raised prices and shrinkflated their containers (32oz -> 28oz) over the past few years.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

I've always been confused by Gatorade's sponsorship of Ironman. They have an
activation booth with staff and samples at a tradeshow where people are buying stuff.

And they aren't selling their own product. Multiple times I would have been happy to buy a few tubs.

If Gatorade feels their sponsorship of IM wasn't worth it, they should have been selling product there. I'm sure at every event they could be selling multiple pallets of the stuff with some event specials etc.

I'm sure everyone wants to talk about this still...


But the CEO discussed concerns here:
https://open.spotify.com/...bucLRGSUyRbGNrmsOZPA

Their approach is basically that you should fuel with Maurten and hydrate with them.

Fair enough if that's your strategy, but leave out the stevia.

Then she says the stevia makes you want to drink more of it so you don't dehydrate. Hmmmm, hard pass.

So Stevia, a known dehydrator, that only contributes to sweet-mouth fatigue is added to make you want more?

If she wants to make that claim, better back it up. I can back up the opposite:
"To date, there is no strong evidence that low- and no-calorie sweeteners, including stevia sweeteners, enhance appetite or cravings in humans,26,43 and some randomized trials have demonstrated the opposite effect—including a decrease in hunger52 and reduced dessert intake among those who drank low-calorie-sweetened " (citations at url)
https://foodinsight.org/...Dcalorie%2Dsweetened

No the reality is apparently Ironman and she thinks no one should fuel with their hydration and just grab 4 maurten gels at every aid station.

And I thought I was ambitious in what I stuff I my pockets already!?!

She does break down some math that suggests you should only need 2 extra gels to make up for what you lost not having Gatorade. I didn't do the math to check that out.

As I've said before, I do feel sorry for the minefield they've stepped in. I'm happy that IM is about to get a sponsor and I want every business to succeed in its market. But I'm just confused at how anyone thinks this is that market.

The guy with his Stanely mug in a forklift outside all day might be the ideal market here. Sitting, sweating, but not needing a crazy amount of calories.

I still can't wrap my head around any activity more calorie intensive than Ironman and match that with an intentional calorie reduction strategy.

Good luck Mortal. I won't turn my nose at the cup if I grab it by mistake, but when my gel flask runs out as I'm hitting the aid stations, I'll be back to water.

By the way, I was also a bit miffed a few years back when I jumped on a Black Friday sale of First Endurance Pro based on some pro recommendations and I noticed the damn thing had Stevia in it. Never again EFS I said. An I did just notice that First Endurance actually stopped adding Stevia at least in some brands. Good. But by then I've been making my own science concoction and not looking back.

I seem recall doing that race. 🤦‍♂️

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@rhyspencer

Lurker4 wrote:

She does break down some math that suggests you should only need 2 extra gels to make up for what you lost not having Gatorade. I didn't do the math to check that out.

The front-page post from Alex suggests a scenario where you'd need 90g of carbs on the bike for a 6 hour 70.3. If we're assuming a 3 hour bike, then...if you're taking Mortal, then you're missing 80g per hour or 240g total before you need to add gels. Each Maurten 100 is ~25g of carbs, so you'd need just over 3 Maurten gels per hour or 9 gels total to make up the deficit.

Compare vs Gatorate Endurance and based on the same math, 900ml fluid per hour, and if you're out there 3 hrs on the bike, you need 2.7L of fluid. If you're taking that as only Gatorade endurance, that's 3.8 bottles at 52g of carbs each or 198g total carbs from drink. If you need 270g total, then you're short 72g, or just under 3 gels total.

The difference is 2 gels per hour, not total, for a 70.3.

Who else feels this is like a dystopian scene from the movie, Idiocracy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAqIJZeeXEc

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

I'm not going to listen to her entire podcast, but you can twist the numbers around to get whatever answer you want. She probably said something like each athlete takes 1 Gatorade and 1 Maurten on the bike and run, so you just swap out the Gatorade for the Maurten. The athlete that pounds 6 gatorades tho is gong to need more Maurtens to replace that.

Either way, it's a obfuscating claim. She needs to paint it in a positive light but there's not much positive light to be found.

Also it's completely absurd to suggest that in a race, where the point is to finish as quickly as possible, that athletes should eat AND drink to meet their nutrition needs, when countless commercial products are available to just drink your nutrition.

The Maurten gels wouldn't be so bad if they had sodium. And I'm not sure you could even hit 700-1,000+mg of sodium per hour relying solely on Mortal? Is it that salty? I plan on completing the run at IM TX only by relying on aid stations for water/ice. I'll carry gels/salt for my carbs and sodium. Same with the bike, only water from aid stations.

Everything old is new again...... :)

Worked for Taylor Knibb 😜

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Let food be thy medicine...

We need Nick Bare and BPN nutrition to step in here and start supplying their G1M sport product.

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blog

I see both sides of the argument in this discussion, but this comment seems specifically interesting. The primary complaint is that there are (basically) no calories in Mortal, and your solution is to drink water, which both has no calories, AND no electrolytes? Surely a drink with some sodium is better than just straight water.

You don't really needs Special Needs bags at Roth as you can have someone give you your items directly as long as they are within 100m of the aid station on the bike and run.

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IG: NCGregory8778

This line alluding to sugars as the enemy is a glaring admittance that you know absolutely nothing about this topic.

Agree. But not one with stevia. Salt tabs and/or my previous salt intake from the gel bottle will have to cover it.

But where are you going to get your calories?

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

That's what he's saying. All of the calorie-containing options also have sodium. So if you're trying to fuel/hydrate/maintain sodium balance then you're either going to be over-hydrated or underfueled...or eschewing Mortal.

A small part of me hopes that IM see's pallets full of unused MORTAL HYDRATION ENDURANCE FLASK bottles after every race. I know that's not how sponsorships work, but a man can dream.