A question for
@DopeyBadger or anyone else who might know. Pardon the longish setup to the question.
I did an Atlanta half in '09 and was maybe a mile or so from the finish when here came the marathon leaders with the motorcycle escorts. So they were running a little over 2x as fast as I was and finished in a little over 2 hours. I remember looking over and the one runner had a "beard" of foam down his front. And since then, marathon times have continued to drop, even though it seems that for some of the 2-hour attempts, there have been pacers to block the wind and people running alongside with drinks. Regardless, running that fast for 2 or even 2.5 hours is still amazing to slow me.
I say that to say that as I was reading through all of DB's links to fuel and glycogen replenishment (thank you!) a lot of of the depletion thresholds seem to be time-related. So are some of these elite runners finishing so fast that they aren't hitting the time-dependent thresholds? Or are they managing to take in enough carbs during the race while maintaining those insane paces? If so, how do they manage to consume enough? Gels like Maurtens? Other stuff? Otherwise I picture spilling more water/electrolyte than they drink.
I've been looking online, but haven't found good answers. (Why am I asking? Just curious as to the nutritional physics of it all.) Thanks.
A final note. I didn't feel much like eating after the MW full, but it looks like I ought to be making myself eat a bit more than I did. On the one hand, I was hungry, but just didn't feel like eating all the much. In the future, I'll make sure to do so as part of recovery.