197 cm.
103 kg.
87 kilometers.
Around 6,000 meters of climbing.
That’s a lot of body to carry through a lot of mountains.
The 2026 영남알프스 9 Peaks starts at 2 PM.
The first hours will be hot.
Then darkness.
Then sunrise.
Nine mountains between the start and the finish.
간월산.
신불산.
영축산.
가지산.
운문산.
천황산.
재약산.
고헌산.
문복산.
This time, I’m not treating nutrition as a collection of gels.
I’m treating it as a system.
The Starting Line
My basic targets:
70 g carbohydrate/hour
600–750 ml fluid/hour
500–600 mg sodium/hour
The numbers aren’t commandments.
Heat will change them.
Climbing will change them.
My stomach will change them.
But I need a starting point.
The biggest change from my previous races is that I’m thinking about hourly fuel, not individual products.
A gel is not an hour.
A bottle is not an hour.
Food is not an hour.
Everything contributes to the same hourly target.
The Fuel
Tailwind
My main liquid fuel.
1.5 L CamelBak.
Six scoops of unflavored Tailwind.
I chose unflavored deliberately.
After enough hours, I don’t want every calorie coming with another hit of sweetness.
The bottle gives me a consistent baseline of carbohydrate, fluid, and electrolytes.
Then I build around it.
GU Roctane Cold Brew
My concentrated carbohydrate source.
And caffeine.
I’m saving it.
I don’t need caffeine at 2 PM to convince myself I’m awake.
The race will eventually become dark.
Then long.
Then difficult.
That’s when I want another tool available.
Amino Vital 5000
I’m also carrying Amino Vital 5000.
It’s part of the system, but it isn’t my carbohydrate strategy.
The main fuel remains carbohydrate.
Real Food
This becomes increasingly important as the hours accumulate.
Salted potatoes.
주먹밥.
Pretzels.
Rice crackers.
Simple.
Salty.
Easy to understand.
At hour 12, another sweet gel can feel very different from how it felt at hour 2.
I don’t want to discover that on the mountain.
The First Mountains
The first section is not where I want to spend my matches.
I’m going through the early peaks with one question:
Am I protecting the athlete who will reach the final mountains?
That means fueling early.
Drinking consistently.
Walking steep climbs.
Running what is runnable.
Keeping heart rate under control.
The nutrition should become boring.
That’s a good thing.
Every hour:
Fuel.
Drink.
Move.
Repeat.
The Sodium Problem
This is where things get less simple.
I’m targeting roughly 500–600 mg sodium/hour, but I’m not going to blindly add salt on top of everything.
Tailwind already contains sodium.
Gels contain sodium.
Real food contains sodium.
So I need to think about total sodium, not just added salt.
I’m preparing measured salt portions rather than relying on random pinches.
A half tablespoon of table salt is roughly 9 g of salt, or around 3,500 mg sodium.
That’s several hours of supplemental sodium, not something to take all at once.
The goal is controlled intake.
Not guessing.
The 54K Reset
By 54 kilometers, the race should feel different.
I’ve gone through heat.
Darkness may already be here.
The body has been climbing and descending for hours.
This is where I reset.
Fuel.
Fluids.
Sodium.
Stomach.
Legs.
Heart rate.
Movement quality.
Then go.
No unnecessary lingering.
The first 54K is about protecting the future.
The next section is about finding out what survived.
68K
This is the number I care about.
If I reach 68K:
fueled
hydrated
mechanically functional
within the heart-rate plan
then I can change gears.
This is where the Cold Brew becomes more interesting.
This is where I can use the fitness I’ve spent months building.
This is where I can stop protecting the future and start spending it.
Now we’re racing.
If the body agrees.
What I Learned From Geoje
Geoje taught me something I don’t want to forget.
I had a nutrition plan.
I had fuel.
I had a bottle.
But somewhere between CP2 and CP3, I stopped executing.
The bottle emptied too early.
The nutrition problem became a physiological problem.
Then the physiological problem became a mental problem.
At CP5, the race ended.
The lesson wasn’t that I needed a more complicated nutrition plan.
It was the opposite.
I needed a system that was simple enough to execute when I was tired.
The System
So I’m going into 9 Peaks with a few numbers in my head.
70 g carbohydrate/hour.
600–750 ml fluid/hour.
500–600 mg sodium/hour.
And one larger number:
87 km.
The products can change.
The terrain can change.
The weather can change.
My appetite can change.
The system adapts.
But the objective stays the same.
Keep supplying the machine.
The Finish
197 cm.
103 kg.
Nine mountains.
87 kilometers.
I don’t need perfect nutrition.
I need consistent nutrition.
Tailwind.
Roctane.
Amino Vital.
Real food.
Salt.
Water.
One hour at a time.
One mountain at a time.
One decision at a time.
Eat.
Drink.
Move.
Adapt.
Just keep swimming.
Long horizons.
One Way Grit 