Marathon runners using Starburst for fuel?

Marathon runners require a lot of endurance to run the 26.2 miles required, and there are all sorts of training tricks. There is a new concept that is helping runners get a long, keeping and eating Starbursts, the popular candy, during the race. The Starbursts provide specific sugars to help you get through the second half of the race.

From the Cleveland Plain-Dealer:

"Kenyan runner Eliud Too packed a pouch of Starbursts on his hip for an extra sugar boost during the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon on Sunday. Believe it or not, his coach said he didn’t eat enough of them.Too said he took Powerade at one aid station in the first half of the marathon, and he ate a total of two Starbursts. Walters said that doomed Too, along with his setting too fast a pace as a co-leader for much of the race."

His coach, James Walters, elaborated and explained his specific condition: “Metabolically, Eliud is not in shape for the marathon. Compared to these other guys who have been doing marathons for a while, he’s not very efficient at metabolizing glycogen and fats. Powerade has one type of sugar and glycogen has another that give us 90 grams per hour he needs. It’s very important that he get that in so he wouldn’t bonk, or run out of glycogen.

“When he was coming over the bridge on that incline, his hamstrings were locking up from glycogen depletion and dehydration.”

Too was leading for most of the race, but lost the lead in the final two miles. Kenyan Philip Lagat passed him and won ther ace in 2:13:35.