Athlete Testimonials
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While these people come from a wide range of backgrounds -- they all have one very important thing in common: A desire to rid themselves of cramps and improve their performance.

My E-Lyte story actually starts many years ago. I’ve been a mountain bike rider since the early 1990’s. I started racing in 1994 and helped invent my very own racing category – Clydesdale. A Clydesdale racer has to be at least 200 pounds. We big guys were tired of getting kicked around by the small guys and decided to unionize. Here in California our state championship series has had such a race category since 1995. I’ve won the state championship in ’95, ’96, ’97 and 2001. But since then the state series has fallen on hard times and I find I’m a competitor looking for a race.

Two years ago (2004) I pledged my support to a ultra-marathon cycling buddy just months before he decided to race a four man team in the Race Across America (RAAM). I was (initially) happy to help. The race turned out to be a miniature Peace-Corps – the toughest week I have ever loved. In November of 2004 I realized the same guys were going to race RAAM in 2005 and had to do some quick thinking. Should I submit myself to the torture of crewing again or pick the coward’s way out by actually riding on the team? When I considered the 22-hour days involved in crewing, the six hours of bike riding daily didn’t seem too bad.

After talking myself into riding I figured I’d better get myself ready for the kind of racing I would find on a four man team – 20 to 60 minute spurts at just below anaerobic threshold with short breaks. On my first day of training I ran through two 50-60 min time trials with not too much trouble. With an hour off between each effort I readied myself for my third and last time trial effort of the day. Everything was going my way as I hit a 5-minute hill about 40 minutes into this last race simulation. About half way up, as I poured on some gas, my right hamstring knotted up in a cramp so intense that I almost stopped. I managed to nurse myself up the hill and limp in with one very distressing idea – how was I going to manage a weeks worth of this kind of output if I couldn’t even make it through 5 hours of simulation? Up to this point I had trained myself for 90-minute mountain bike races and the idea of eating or drinking anything other than a standard breakfast and water was foreign to me.

As it turned out, a week later I was mindlessly looking through the pages of a cycling magazine and came across a small, simple ad that intimated no more cramping. I looked up the website and started reading about ElyteSport, Ed Kane, and the anatomy of a cramp. I was impressed enough with the literature to order a bottle and put it through some testing. The results have been favorable, to say the least. Most bike riders will tell you than cramps normally come with either more intensity than normal, more duration than normal or both. As I trained with E-Lyte I found that the “sparkles” that come just before cramping no longer occurred. A true test of the effectiveness of E-Lyte , though, was just around the bend. In mid-April of last year (2005) I was invited by my RAAM bike sponsor (Bacchetta) to race in the Bike Across Florida. This year’s route would be 133 miles from the Atlantic coast to the Gulf coast. I brought along my last bit of ElyteSport and used it all as I calculated a race time of five hours. My hydration policy was perfect – I had consumed all of my E-Lyte mix at the end of the 5th hour. Unfortunately the race lasted another hour. I was terrified to imagine what might happen to me as I put in my best effort in this last hour, but had no alternative but to go on as the race was upon us all. I’ll tell you now that I missed the winning break. The only glory I might salvage would be to win the race of the second group. As I considered my options I realized that racing in the pack had not served me well all day. I also knew that if I were to put in a solo effort the other racers might suck my wheel all the way to the finish line and come around me in a sprint. Nothing really looked promising so I chose my default position – put my head down and grind it out. With about 45 minutes to go I did just that. Up a small grade I started to roll away from the field. At the top only a couple of riders were able (or willing) to stay with me. To my surprise even those two started to fall off only a few hundred yards later. I knew that I would keep this pace to the finish; what I didn’t know is how my body would react after 115 miles and no more fluids. As I kept my effort high I realized my calves and quads weren’t sparkling, they were simply working to capacity. My great fear of paying for a hydration mistake was not happening. As I crossed the line (winner of the race in the second group) it struck me that my ElyteSport not only helped me when consumed, but saved me when I ran out. I have no doubt that a similar effort would be disastrous without appropriate electrolytic supplementation.

I have since ordered a case of ElyteSport and distributed it to my RAAM teammates. Favorable reports continue to accumulate and ElyteSport will undoubtedly be an integral part of our race diet and hydration plan. *

Phillip Plath

RAAM update 9/25/2007
 
As much as I needed ElyteSport for my 2005 4-man team, I can honestly say that I would have failed in 2007 as part of a 2-man team without the proper mineral supplementation of ElyteSport. During our 7 day and 26 minute race my teammate and I traded one hour pulls as we relayed our way across the nation. Even as I trained several times in 2006 (alternating one hour races with one hour off the bike for a 24 hour period) I doubted my ability to remain cramp free for the week that I would be racing. To my astonishment I didn't cramp once in 84 hours of racing! At the finish line I was incredulous that my plan actually worked. Even as I knew the science behind it, to ride that hard and that long without cramping was miraculous to me.

Thank you ElyteSport for providing the endurance athlete with undoubtedly the most crucial tool for our preparation.

RAAM update 10/16/2009
 
Good Afternoon. I wanted to give you this update/success story. Of course, I'm still using your product in all my endurance related training and racing. Last week I was up in Portland, OR for my 4th consecutive Race Across Oregon. It's a RAAM qualifier that has all the typical categories: solo, two man team, four man team. I've only raced it as a two man format (in my opinion anything over 200 miles is too long for solo racing, and at 516 miles I consider these races to be too short for four man).

I won it last year with a different partner and was taking a bit of a chance with a rookie team mate this year. He actually turned out to be a good rider and was integral to our victory. It took us about 33 hours to complete the course, and he started having cramping trouble after only 10 hours. He's no stranger to the long miles, I think his pills (whatever his mineral supplementation is) just didn't have what it took. To solve his problem we started adding E-Lyte to his water bottles and imagine: his cramping problems went away.

He finished strong and we won the two man overall. In fact, he was in better condition at the end than any of my previous three race mates. At the finish line he was drinking champagne and looking forward to a shower and post-race meal and celebration. Previously I had to put my partners on ice before they would consider a meal.

Thanks, again, for the superior product
Cheers,

Phillip Plath