The Golden Rules
These principles come up again and again from experienced Wall finishers. They're not complicated, but they matter enormously over 70 miles.
Eat Before You're Hungry
By the time you feel hungry, you're already behind. Start eating from mile 1 - small amounts, frequently. Think a small snack every 20–30 minutes rather than big feeds at checkpoints only. The community mantra: eat before you're hungry, hydrate before you're thirsty.
Mix Sweet and Salty
After 8–10 hours you'll start to hate sweet things. Alternate between gels, jelly babies and sweet snacks, and salty options like pretzels, crisps, nuts and flapjack. Community advice: "After 10 hours you'll hate sugar" - so have salty backups ready from early on.
Train Your Gut First
Practice eating while running in training - not just in races. Your gut needs to learn to handle food at running pace. Try eating every 20 minutes on your long training runs so it's not a shock on race day.
Walk the Hills and Eat
The Wall has plenty of climbs, especially in the first half. Use the uphills as eating opportunities - your body can digest far better when you're not running hard. Walk up, eat something, run on the flat and downhills.
The Pit Stops
The Wall pit stops are famous. This comes up in every conversation about nutrition - don't panic-carry excessive food.
What runners report finding at pit stops:
Sweet options: Jelly babies, cake, flapjack, biscuits, Jaffa cakes, fruit, scotch pancakes
Savoury options: Crisps, pretzels, malt loaf, sandwiches, pizza (at some stops)
Hot food: Soup at Hexham - runners specifically mention the Hexham soup as outstanding.
Drinks: Fizzy drinks, water, electrolyte drinks.
What to Carry
What runners actually pack in their vests – tried and tested over 70 miles.
Gels
A useful concentrated hit of energy when you don't feel like eating real food. Don't rely on them exclusively - your stomach will rebel after several hours. Have a mix.
Buy on Amazon →Jelly Babies / Sweets
The most universally mentioned snack for The Wall. Easy to eat on the move, palatable even when you're tired, and provide a quick sugar hit. Keep some in an accessible vest pocket.
Buy on Amazon →Salt Sticks / Salt Tablets
Multiple experienced runners specifically mention salt tablets as essential - community members report taking one roughly every 5 miles, saying it helped them through and reduced soreness the following day. Prevents cramping and keeps sodium levels up over a very long day.
Buy on Amazon →Flapjack / Malt Loaf
Real food that sits well in the stomach during long efforts. Flapjack is calorie-dense and palatable. Malt loaf is moist, easy to eat and doesn't get crushed in your vest. Both mentioned by multiple runners.
Buy on Amazon →Pretzels / Salted Crisps
Salty savoury snacks become invaluable after several hours. The community is unanimous - salted crisps are frequently described as a lifesaver in the final 10 miles. Have some in your vest and pick more up at pit stops.
Buy on Amazon →Electrolyte Tablets / Powder
Keep electrolytes topped up rather than drinking plain water all day. Some runners use electrolyte tablets in their soft flasks.
Buy on Amazon →What to Avoid
Equally important: what NOT to put in your body during The Wall. The community has learned these lessons the hard way so you don't have to.
Fizzy Drinks
Multiple runners specifically warn against fizzy drinks during the race. Gas gets trapped in your stomach during running, leading to bloating, stomach cramps and severe discomfort. Even colas with gas are a problem. Stick to flat drinks - many runners specifically bring flat Coke in their Hexham bag.
Only Sweet Food
Pure sugar becomes repulsive after 8–10 hours. Many runners hit a wall where the thought of another gel or sweet is unbearable. Always have savoury backups. The community repeatedly emphasises mixing sweet and salty throughout the race, not just when you start feeling sick of sweet things.
The Carbohydrate Question
DIY Race Drink
The drink the site editor uses on race day. A homemade carb drink built around the optimal 2:1 glucose-to-fructose ratio for maximum absorption. Electrolytes can be added - see below.
Ingredients (makes 1 litre)
Maltodextrin
65g per litre. A glucose polymer that digests rapidly and mixes smoothly. The primary carbohydrate source - provides ~62g of glucose carbs per litre.
Buy on Amazon →Fructose
35g per litre. Uses a separate gut transport pathway to glucose, allowing higher total carb absorption. Provides ~35g of fructose carbs per litre.
Buy on Amazon →Bulk Electrolyte Powder
Add electrolytes to the mix if you want to combine carbs and electrolytes in one drink. See the electrolytes section below for guidance on how much to use.
Buy on Amazon →~98g carbohydrate per litre (~391 kcal) - 62g from maltodextrin (glucose) and 35g from fructose. This gives a 1.8:1 glucose-to-fructose ratio, close to the researched optimum of 2:1 that allows your gut to absorb up to 90g of carbs per hour via dual transport pathways.
This recipe is based on 1 litre of water. Drunk over one hour it delivers the maximum ~90-100g of carbohydrates per hour your gut can absorb - though many runners target a more conservative 60g/hr which is easier on the stomach, especially earlier in the race.
Sip regularly - roughly every 15 minutes - rather than gulping it down when thirsty. Regular small sips are significantly easier on the stomach than large infrequent drinks. Some runners find 1 litre sloshing around uncomfortable - if that's you, try the same carb ingredients in just 500ml of water and sip that over the hour instead. Adjust the recipe to your own needs and taste.
Many runners prefer to keep these separate - carrying plain water in one flask and gels or solid food for carbs, with electrolyte tablets or powder added to a second flask. This gives more flexibility to adjust each independently during the race. The recipe above is simply one approach that combines everything conveniently.
This recipe is shared for informational purposes only and is not medical or nutritional advice. Everyone responds differently to fuelling strategies - what works well for one runner may not suit another. Always test any drink recipe in training before race day, and do so close to home in case it doesn't agree with you. Use is entirely at your own risk. If you have any health conditions or concerns, consult a qualified professional before race day.
Electrolytes & Hydration
Electrolytes are minerals - primarily sodium, potassium and calcium - that carry electrical charges in your body. They keep your muscles contracting, your nerves firing and your brain functioning. On a long effort like The Wall, getting this wrong can be as serious as running out of energy.
Why They Matter
Sodium is the most critical electrolyte during endurance events. Losing too much without replacing it causes hyponatremia - low blood sodium - which produces symptoms that can easily be mistaken for fatigue: confusion, headache, nausea, and in serious cases it becomes dangerous. Staying on top of sodium throughout the race is more important than most runners realise.
It Depends on Your Sweat
Unlike carbohydrates - which are targeted based on effort and time (typically 60-100g per hour) - electrolyte needs are driven by how much you sweat and how salty that sweat is. Both vary enormously between individuals. A heavy, salty sweater racing on a hot day needs far more sodium than a light sweater on a cool night. There is no single right answer.
Because electrolytes are lost through sweat rather than effort, the right amount to consume is best thought of relative to how much you are sweating - not how many hours you have been running, and not simply how much you are drinking. Drinking more fluid than you are sweating out is itself a risk, as it dilutes blood sodium and can cause hyponatremia even in runners who are taking in electrolytes. This is why electrolyte concentration per litre of drink matters - but the goal is always to match sweat losses, not to hit a fixed hourly number.
Sweat sodium concentration varies enormously between individuals - general guidance suggests most people fall somewhere between 300-1,000mg of sodium per litre of sweat, but individual needs can differ significantly. This means no single electrolyte recipe works for everyone. Sweat tests are available - either lab analysis or sodium patch tests - that can give you a personal figure. Signs you may be a particularly salty sweater include heavy white residue on skin and kit after long efforts, sweat that stings the eyes, or skin that tastes strongly salty. Muscle cramping may also be a sign, though cramping in endurance events has multiple causes including neuromuscular fatigue - electrolyte depletion is one possible factor, not always the primary one.
This is exactly why many experienced ultra runners carry water, carbs and electrolytes separately rather than combining them in a single drink. When everything is mixed together, adjusting one means adjusting all three. Keeping them separate - plain water in one flask, a carb source such as gels or maltodextrin mix, and electrolyte tablets or capsules independently - gives you the flexibility to drink more water on a hot climb, take an extra electrolyte capsule if you are sweating heavily, or back off carbs if your stomach is unhappy, all without compromising the others. Given how much individual electrolyte needs can vary, that flexibility can matter a great deal over 70 miles.
If adding electrolytes to the DIY drink above, start with 2 scoops per litre (517mg sodium) as a baseline. Add a third scoop if it is particularly hot or you know you sweat heavily. General guidance suggests 300-600mg sodium per hour for most conditions, rising to 700-1,000mg for heavy sweaters or hard, hot efforts - but treat these as starting points, not fixed targets. Test in training before race day.
Race Morning Breakfast
The Wall starts early. What you eat the morning of the race matters - energy for the first few hours without upsetting your stomach.
Community suggestions for race morning:
- Porridge or oats - slow release, well tolerated
- Bagel with peanut butter or jam
- Toast with your preferred topping
- Whatever you've successfully eaten before long training runs
Eat 2–3 hours before the start if possible. Avoid anything heavy, fatty or very fibrous. Hydrate well the day before rather than drinking huge amounts race morning.