During my last few full marathons, I noticed that I got tired more easily during the races. I wasn't sure why. I suspected I participated in too many full marathons in a short period. I participated in two full marathons back to back in January, one full marathon and an ultra marathon in April, and two full marathons back to back in June. Crazy huh?



NUUN - electrolyte enhanced tabs

To pull me through my last full marathon in Hatyai, Thailand after a disappointing Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon a week before,  I decided to try out NUUN's electrolyte enhanced drink tabs. 

In fact, NUUN's electrolyte enhanced drink tabs was my first ever purchase of an electrolyte enhanced drink tablet. Before this, I only drank Isotonic drinks (i.e. 100Plus, Revive) provided by race organizers during races.

Fueling is something new for me to learn. And having NUUN's electrolyte enhanced tabs was a good start! 

The electrolytes found in NUUN (sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium) will help:

  • alleviate cramps
  • help muscles function
  • communicate and burn energy efficiently.

With no proper hydration bottle for running a full marathon, I reused my isotonic drink's bottle instead.

There were twelve (12) tabs inside my NUUN tube. 

According to the clear and nice graphical instruction stated on NUUN tube, I just needed to put one NUUN electrolyte enhanced drink tab into every 16 oz (473 ml) of water.  

Cool! Just nice with my regular isotonic drink's bottle with the capacity of 500 ml.

But then I got a problem - NUUN electrolyte enhanced drink tab was too big to insert into my reused isotonic drink's bottle. 😊

Like MacGyver trying to solve a mystery, I broke my NUUN electrolyte enhanced tabs into half. This way, I could easily drop NUUN tabblet inside my water bottle. Bingo!! I got the problem solved! 

 I also did some calculation on how many NUUN tabs I might need to run the full course of 42 km. Since I usually drank about 500 ml of water for every 10 km distance, I decided to bring along three (3) more NUUN tabs readily broken into half with me. I stored them in a small zip lock bag and put inside my pouch.


Hence, I consumed four (4) NUUN electrolyte enhanced drink tabs added into water for my Hatyai Marathon. I really loved the tropical flavor of NUUN tablet, making me feel so refreshed despite the torturing distance. I felt rather good throughout the whole course, fully hydrated with no muscle cramps.

I was so glad that I finally overcame my stubbornness of trying new products, new fueling. 

 NUUN's electrolyte enhanced drink tabs really helped me to complete my sixth (6) full marathon which happened to be a back-to-back marathon as well. 

If you would like to find out more about NUUN product, you can visit their website by clicking here.




Written by Vincent Khor on July 26, 2017.