In my earliest races I carried M&Ms, Gummi Bears, or generic jelly beans. Later I switched to a more sports oriented carb source, Jelly Belly Sport Beans. I had tried a gel, but the taste was disgusting. But as I have gotten faster, my walk breaks have gotten fewer and shorter. I just can’t eat the Sport Beans during a 30-45 second walk break, and they are too difficult to chew while running. I also tried Clif Shot Bloks, but again they took too long to chew.
So I decided to try gels again. I bought a variety of them, and began to taste test them.

These are my own opinions of them:
Carb Boom-Vanilla Orange (with caffiene): Taste 9/10
Carb Boom-Vanilla: Taste: 9/10
PowerBar Gel-Vanilla: Taste 9/10
Carb Boom-Apple Cinnamon: Taste 8/10, (tastes kind of like applejacks)
Carb Boom-Banana Peach: Taste 5/10
Carb Boom-Strawberry Kiwi: Taste 5/10
Clif Shot Energy Gel-Strawberry: Taste 5/10
Carb Boom-Chocolate Cherry: Taste 1/10 (disgusting!!!!)

I do have a few more packs that I have gotten free at races in my goody bags. There are many other brands, and flavors, but I can’t afford to try them all. I suppose if the companies sent me some free trial packs, I could give them a shot.

I downed a Vanilla flavored PowerBar gek during my long run last weekend, and it seemed to do okay. I belched a little bit. I am going to try the Vanilla Orange flavored Carb Boom tonight when I do my tempo run, just to see how it sits.

The gels will be much easier to take during a race. I plan on using them in my upcoming race at the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach, VA. As I approach a water station, I can just pull one out, rip the top off, and squeeze it into my mouth. The I can chase it with some water. I figure I will take one before the race, and then another one each hour.

Posted by Rob in Whatever on March 5th, 2008 |