Gu Energy Gel Review

If you read my review of the Garmin 305, then you may remember me saying that I loved the GPS but I am not a marathon runner. Well, Meatwad has stepped up to the plate since then and decided he was going to hash through his first mid-life crisis by way of completing a marathon. I am not a runner and never have been, but in the tradition of Anthony Hopkins in “The Edge” I repeat the mantra “What one man can do, another can do.” Ok, maybe not, but I’m a couple of months into my training and have not yet been injured and have pulled my personal lifetime best run of 12 miles just last weekend. I’m probably on my way to a miserable failure, but I’m trying to disprove the myth that fat people can’t run. Yup, I plan to drag this Buddha belly 26 miles down the highway a jiggling and a bouncing the entire way.

Not unlike my first trip to the local sex shop, my first trip to a real running store set my mind ablaze at the ridiculous selection of lotions, potions, lubes, and well…nipple guards. Like most of my hobbies, I walked in with a credit card and walked out with some serious debt and a Hefty bag full of all my marathon running needs. Amongst the spoils, I was roped into buying some Gu packs. These are basically nutritional gels that you can down on the run to keep your energy up for the hours of knee pounding ahead. They come in little foil-like packs of which you rip off the top and suck out the life-juice never breaking stride.

They come in all kinds of flavors and are very handy for the fanny pack. Honestly, I bought them because they were recommended by the clerk… and I always buy everything a hot…I mean knowledgeable sales clerk recommends. The surprising part, these little packs really do pack a whollop. Real runners, a class that I don’t pretend to be a part of, usually only take these Gu packs for runs over 10 miles and use them pretty sparingly. I am a big ol’ fatty and need something in my guts at all times, so I hit my first Gu pack at mile 4 and then hit another one at mile 9. It really does boost your energy and I find myself running a faster pace than when I started.

Mind you, it takes “the trudging thunder” (as I affectionately call myself) almost 2 hours to run 12 miles, so I am running for a while. I should also mention that it takes everything I have to go 12 miles, so the little burst of carbs and energy that these provide may be exaggerated by my pure exhaustion. That being said, they do everything they claim and don’t taste bad either. I find the berry ones easier to swallow than chocolate unless you have a fair amount of water to chase them, but overall I am completely surprised at their effectiveness.

Scaling this to the marathon might not work at my current consumption frequency. I don’t know how my stomach will do with 4 to 5 Gu packs inside, so I’ll have to give you an update when my kankles allow me to go a little further. Overall, I have to say “Well done Gu”. I am going to deduct one star however for not having a bacon flavored gel for the runners of my body type…..bacon grease in a ziplock….I’ll save that one for race day.