It's now become an annual ritual for me to run around Payette Lake (20 miles, 5,000 ft above sea level) in northern Idaho every summer when we go there. Last time I very nearly bonked. This time I breezed it, AND did it half an hour faster than last year. Was it because I had a PowerGel with me? Was it because maybe I am just in better shape this summer than last? Perhaps I just dehydrated the last time. Maybe it was the caffeine and nothing else. Who knows?

I bought this powergel because I thought I would be going on one of the Portland Marathon training runs and I thought it would just be cool to have one, since I'd be running with folks, and I'd feel left out if I didn't have one when everybody else broke out their gel. It cost me $1.29 at my local sports store. I ended up being unable to do the training run so I decided to try the gel my next long run.

Last year I carried nothing and drank water from people's sprinklers. This time I carried half strength gatorade, 1 tangerine powergel with extra caffeine, and a wad of toilet paper. (Maybe that last was too much info for the casual reader, but serious runners should always be prepared!!) I just carried all three things in my little hand, which after all, was not doing anything else much useful.

I'm still skeptical that the pricey little glob of goo (not to be confused with GU, which is a competing product) was the thing that did the trick for me. I had always figured that they were more hype than anything and that your performance on something like this depended strictly on what shape you are in. However, I do recognize the body's need for carbs in an endurance event and also the possibility that you will deplete during something as long as a 20 mile run and could use a boost DURING the working phase.


I started at 6:00 a.m. (I don't suffer heat gladly.) I had eaten nothing. After about five miles I decided to rip open the gel and see what it tasted like. It was not all that easy to open while carrying a bottle as well but I eventually managed it. After all I wasn't really doing anything else except running. How can I describe the taste? Kind of a gelatinous frosting only not quite so sweet and overlaid with this tangerine flavor. It didn't TASTE so horrible per se, but it really made me thirsty. You are supposed to wash this stuff down with water anyway to get the effect of it, so that's probably a good thing.

I apologize that I didn't save the wrapper and bring it nearly 1,000 miles home for this review. I'll be sure to update when I get another one I promise. But it might be a while because I want to try "GU" first. The primary ingredients of this concoction are pretty much what you would expect: carbs in the form of glucose syrup etc. The more interesting ingredients are a couple of amino-acid-y looking ones which you won't find in a Snickers bar. I assume they are there to either aid in absorption or fix some chemical imbalance that comes as a result of glycogen depletion. Hence the high price, otherwise you might as well stick some Duncan Hines canned frosting in a plastic bag with the tip cut off and suck on that!! No, no, don't really do that! The other reason to go with Power gels is that unlike frosting, they do not contain any fatty ingredients which could cause you stomach problems if you ingest it while exercising heavily.

[Edit 21 Aug: Here are the ingredients as promised:

Maltodextrin
Water
Fructose
Natural flavor
Citric acid
Powerbar amino acid blend(tm):
leucine
valine
soleucine
potassium chloride
powergel booster blend(tm)
caffiene
kola nut extract
ginseng
salt
sodium citrate
sodlim benzoate & potassium sorbate (preservatives)
ascorbic acid (vitamin c)
tocopheryl acetate (vitamin e)
]



Power Gels are the largest of the various similar products I have compared. I was unable to eat more than a small swallow of this stuff at a time. At North Beach (just a little more than halfway through the run) I took a potty stop and had me a good swallow. I then decided I would just have a little tiny swallow at each of the remaining landmarks. I had more than enough gel to get me through the run. When I felt that home stretch feeling coming on I just bolted and ran and felt great at the end. But I'd need much more scientific proof before I'd attribute all the resounding success of this particular run to Power Gel.

Recommended: Yes