: Minimizing Stomach Discomfort During Race with Caffeine I know if I have coffee or a caffeinated drink before a hard workout or running race that there's a clear benefit. I can tell - I can push faster with less effort.

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This is half an answer, but should help.

Drink water when eating gels (usually has caffeine I believe) during a race, and dont drink Gatorade. Alternatively, drink Gatorade when not using gels but still drink water. For any sugar or carbohydrates eaten you need water to help digest it and use it, so people usually talk about finding a balance.

From my experience, I try not to drink/eat too much during a race. For a 5k or 10k I would not eat anything during the race, and I think this is the common view for anything less than 90 minutes. One or two bananas before a short race is good for me. The GU packets recommend one gel before the race then one every 45 minutes, so that also supports this view.

See ultra running and race reports for example dealing with the stomach problem issue because it seems to happen often and can be overcome during a race.

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you could try caffeine pills, I know for a fact they do the exact same thing as caffeine in coffee

caffeine does dehydrate your body though, this may also have something to do with it as it pulls water from your digestive tract

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Part of my particular stomach discomfort is probably the acidity. Using small-volume caffeine shots like "5 Hour Energy" and generic equivalents worked much better for me.

I tested a few options during hard tempo efforts and smaller races before finding a solution that has worked well during multiple target races.

The moral of the story is to experiment a bit in hard workout efforts and test races.