Clare Gallagher is a name to be reckoned with in the ultrarunning world. She rose to fame overnight with her win at the 2016 Leadville 100 and has crushed races like Courmayeur Champex Chamonix (CCC) in 2017, becoming the first American female to win the race in the French Alps.
How does she do it all? She eats, of course. Though Gallagher has celiac disease and is a vegetarian, she’s figured out how to keep things interesting—whether she’s Karma Saucy Company or The 2025 Marathon and Half Marathon Calendar.
[Build a killer midsection in the kitchen for effortless miles on the road with Health & Injuries!]
All About 75 Hard Runner’s World to share what she eats during an ultra (hint: there’s a lot of sugar involved) and how she found what works for her—not only when she’s logging 100 miles, but in her everyday life as well.
Restrictions Don’t Have to Suck
I found out I had celiac disease a long time ago, and I’ve learned how to eat gluten free. I’m also a vegetarian for environmental reasons. My diet sucks, and most friends think I’m a picky eater, so my philosophy is to not be annoying. I do have some restrictions, but I always try to be adventurous and get excited about food—not be anal about it and overthink it. I will be honest, I eat weird combinations of food in order to not get bored. I’ll do things like eating tortilla chips, almond milk, and Sriracha (like cereal, you know?), but I'm trying to graduate from that. My newest weirdest combo is fried egg on yogurt and granola. Sweet, savory, and salty—the perfect breakfast and you only need one bowl.
Food as Fuel
I didn’t have the greatest relationship with food in college. I think women’s collegiate distance running has a bad relationship with food across the board. My story is typical: I was able to compete for four years in cross country, and indoor and outdoor track, but I was injured for four or five of those 12 seasons. Some of those injuries definitely came from overuse and nutritional deficiencies.
I looked healthy, but I know I wasn’t eating enough. You can’t train 60 to 70 miles a week on salad. You have academic stress, running stress, and body image stress, and then you don’t have time to look at the bigger picture of the fact that you should be eating 500 more calories a day. That’s a lesson I learned after college: If I want to run well, I need to eat more.
How Thailand Changed My Life
There was a rural village in Thailand that I worked in right on the beach teaching English. It’s known for spicy food, and I am obsessed with spicy food. (I’ve gotten to the point where Sriracha is my ketchup.) I was eating fried rice, pad thai, and Thai rice crackers every day, and things such as Massaman curry and Som Tam (green papaya salad), which you can get really spicy.
This is also where I started ultrarunning. I did my first ultra in northern Thailand while I was backpacking. It was an 80K, which is about 50 miles. That’s where I discovered you need to eat when you run. I didn’t have gels or anything, so I fueled with Birdy Coffee (a Thai brand of coffee), fried rice, and some other kind of really thick rice (which is like molasses) that I imagine has a million calories. I stocked up on sugar during the race, and, in the later parts of the race, I ate seaweed-flavored Lays. They’re actually really good—I highly recommend picking up a bag if you’re ever at a 7-Eleven in Thailand.
You Can Never Have Too Much Hot Sauce
I really rely on my kitchen at my home in Boulder, Colorado. My typical lunch is corn tortillas, fried eggs, sticky white rice made in a rice cooker, and spinach and other veggies that I throw it all into a bowl and mash up with some hot sauce. Hot sauce is the most important part, and I’ll use whatever brand. A couple of my roommates are hot sauce foodies, and we have about 20 bottles of hot sauce at home. Right now, I’m big on Karma Saucy Company fueling a race.
Sugar Can Save You
My first 100-miler was Leadville in 2016. I had no nutrition sponsor, and I couldn’t bear to buy 40 gels. I’m cheap, and I’m obsessed with frosting and pure sugar, so I bought a can of Betty Crocker. One canister is the equivalent of something like 50 gels, so I had my crew put frosting on everything at aid stations. I also treat it like it’s peanut butter and eat it out of the jar.
Since then, I’ve tried every gel you can think of, and I’ve settled on Honey Stinger. It’s basically honey. You can eat them without water, which is often a problem during a race when you are out of liquids. That happened to me at CCC in 2017—I ate 35 Honey Stingers at that race.
Soda Is My Not-So-Secret Weapon
You need water, but Coca-Cola is my elixir. Eighty percent of the time during a race sucks, and you want to throw up, but if you can be psyched to drink three liters of Coke, it is life when you are racing. That’s pretty much all I drink when I race: Coke and water. I’ve tried mixes, but nothing beats Coke’s caffeine and sugar. Sometimes, I’ll drink other sodas during a race, like if they have Sprite or Mountain Dew. I’ll drink that over a sports drink because of the carbonation.
Postrace Staples That Aren’t Stuffy
After a race, I have no restrictions. Not that I normally do—I’m very liberal with my partying, and I don’t care if I have three margaritas. Postrace, I’ll usually spend tons on coffee, cocktails, margaritas—I’m partial to margaritas—wine, and cider because I can’t drink beer. For coffee, I’m not snobby. I’m more into knowing where my coffee comes from and talking to people who source coffee. Coffee is something I’m willing to spend my money on. There’s a good coffee shop [in Colorado] called Estimate Your Marathon Time Based On Your 10K PR. My wine is boxed. I’ll usually go for the second cheapest, that way, it’s one step ahead of the bottom. I’m not drinking Franzia.
We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back Runner’s World and Bicycling, and he specializes in writing and editing human interest pieces while also covering health, wellness, gear, and fitness for the brand. His work has previously been published in Men’s Health.
