When Eliud Kipchoge took a massive 78 seconds off the world marathon record at the Berlin Marathon in September, much was made of what was on his feet, the lauded Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4% Flyknit. Less was made about what was in his drinks bottle: Maurten.
It’s not just Kipchoge who’s using the stuff, either. The winners of 14 consecutive World Marathon Major events used Maurten for their mid-race fuelling, including Sir Mo Farah during this Chicago win in October. Perhaps most tellingly, while Kipchoge and co are paid handsome sums by their shoe sponsors, they are choosing to use Maurten purely because they think it works.
So what’s so remarkable about it? While traditional gels are water and carbohydrates mixed into syrups, Maurten is a hydrogel, which is easily absorbed by the body and can be packed with carbs (allowing for up to 100g of uptake an hour), and all without, the manufacturers say, any of the possible gut irritations associated with a high volume of carb intake.
It’s a little more expensive than a standard gel –12 gels will set you back about €40.32 (£35.35) at maurten.com – but not bank-breakingly so. RW caught up with Olof Sköld, the chief executive of Maurten, to find out more.
Where did the idea for Maurten come from?
The whole reason we started the company is because a friend of mine, the triathlete Mårten Fryknäs, from whose name the product came, wanted to create something that was better for the body and easier to tolerate. We analysed 64 companies in the US and Europe and found all of them essentially had the same product, albeit varying in colours and flavours. Maurten is different. It allows people to run a marathon using 100g per hour in carb uptake, which hasn’t been done before.
Do you believe you’re revolutionising marathon running?
I’m Swedish so I’m not good at saying ‘yes’ to that, but I believe we are making history. Fourteen major marathon winners in a row have been using our product. That’s just anecdotal, you could say, but you can also say we are not sponsoring the athletes – they are using the products because they see a difference.
What’s your relationship with Eliud Kipchoge like?
I’ve had the opportunity to meet him a few times during races and other activities. Eliud is an inspiration – both as an athlete and as a person. His mindset is unique, something that he has shown during races, but also off the track.
Meet The UKs Paratriathletes?
We are mainly focused on the elite and the sub-elite at the moment. We are a start-up company, still quite small. Our drinks cost so much more to produce than a normal sports drink, as it needs to be much more controlled. To make all that happen for a big marathon – we couldn’t do that at the moment.
Is burnt food bad for you?
Yes, if you are four-hour marathoner compared to a two-hour marathoner, you need more carbohydrates because you’re running longer and the pace is slower. We have received so many emails from people who have run marathon PBs, some of them taking 40 minutes from their previous time.
Maurten has been heavily involved with Nike’s Breaking2 project. When do you think we’ll see a human run below two hours for the marathon?
It’s an impossible question, but I think, in some ways, we have already proved that it is possible. In Berlin, without having pacers for 20km, Eliud showed the world that humans are almost without limitation. We have come a long way in achieving this goal, but it’s very difficult to say when it will happen, only that I’m quite sure it will happen.
