How Toby Gualter FLYCARB Fuelled a Record-Breaking Auckland Marathon

Josh Elston-Carr Josh Elston-Carr

On Sunday 1 November 2026, FLYCARB athlete Toby Gualter lined up for his first ever marathon in Auckland. Two hours, 15 minutes and 29 seconds later he crossed the line at Victoria Park, taking 2 minutes 14 seconds off the 2006 course record (2:17:43) and finishing roughly seven and a half minutes clear of the field.

To put that in context, it's 3:13 per kilometre for 42.2 km, and he achieve this on his debut as a solo effort. Impressive stuff!

It's also a great reflection on the breadth of the FLYCARB nutrition range now.

1. Loading in the days before: Anthosystem

Toby used the Anthosystem, our five-day anthocyanin loading system, in the build-up to race day. This tasty drink mix combines anthocyanins with 20 grams of carbs. Anthocyanin loading has been shown to improve race day performance, and the carbs all help toward fully saturating glycogen stores.

2. Race morning: a 6 am race start

A 6 am gun means an early wake-up. Toby's race morning timeline looked like this:

  • 3:00 am, wake up: one ITC Shot in 100 ml of water, three hours before the start.
  • About 3:30 am, breakfast: two slices of honey on toast and a quarter-cup of oats. Familiar, simple
  • About 4:20 am, 100 minutes before the start: Peach CAFCARB (12 g variant), which combines sodium bicarbonate with 120 mg of caffeine.

Toby Gualter's race-morning stack: Anthosystem, ITC Shot and Peach CAFCARB

3. On the course: bottles of HICARB

On the course Toby used HICARB as part of his carbohydrate fuelling strategy.

  • Four 50 g sachets of HICARB (Mango and Peach) were split over 8 bottles. Toby used slightly less liquid than we normally suggest, as he found this works better for him.
  • The bottles were placed at drink stations at 4, 8, 12, 17, 23, 29, 34 and 37 km.

The idea was simple: consistent carbohydrate over the course with a goal of 100grams/hr.

FLYCARB HICARB Mango and Peach sachets

The stack matters

Just like training consistently with a variety of sessions will lead to the best long term performances, each of the products in the stack has its own purpose toward the race day outcome. Stacking them gave Toby the best possible chance of the race day result he was after.

The FLYCARB race-day range

Our range now covers more of the race-day picture than ever before: HICARB for carbohydrate, BICARRB and CAFCARB for bicarbonate (CAFCARB adds caffeine), Anthosystem for loading, ITC Shot, and Beta Alanine for your training block. Everything is designed to work together, so you can build a plan around you rather than around one product.

Build your own race-day stack

You don't need to run 2:15 to benefit from a plan like Toby's. Whatever your target, the process is the same: decide what you will take, practise it in training, and write down the timings.

Practise everything in training first. Race day is not the time to try something new.

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