Ask a group of ultra runners how they fuel and you'll get more answers than there are miles in the race. The question always comes back around: do you actually need gels to run an ultra? The truth is no — but they're still one of the most effective tools available.
The Basics: What Your Body Needs
Fuelling long distances is mostly about consistency. Most runners need around 40–60 grams of carbohydrate per hour in training and 45–90 grams on race day, depending on pace and intensity. At walking or very slow pace, fat oxidation is higher and your needs drop toward the lower end of that range — around 30–50 g/hr. Alongside carbohydrate, you need sodium and steady hydration to keep digestion working. You can hit those numbers with gels, potatoes, bananas, wraps, rice, fruit, or homemade pouches. What matters more than the format is whether you can digest it and keep eating consistently.
Gut training matters enormously here. Start practising with your race-day foods and quantities during long training runs — begin with small amounts and build up gradually over 8–12 weeks. Your gut adapts with repeated exposure, but only if you give it the chance to. Never try anything new on race day.
Isotonic vs Standard Gels: An Important Distinction
Not all gels are the same, and the difference matters in practice. Isotonic gels (such as Science in Sport Go Isotonic) are formulated so they can be taken without water — they match the body's fluid concentration and absorb quickly without needing additional fluid to process them. These are a good choice for runners who struggle to coordinate eating and drinking simultaneously, particularly on technical terrain.
Standard gels (including brands like Maurten, GU, and many others) are more concentrated and must be followed with approximately 150 ml of water to aid absorption and avoid GI issues. Skipping the water with a standard gel concentrates sugar in the gut, slowing absorption and significantly increasing the risk of stomach cramps, bloating, or nausea — especially later in a race when digestion is already under stress. Always chase standard gels with a proper swig of water, not just a sip.
The Case for Real Food
In the early hours of a long race, real food often feels grounding. It's comforting and satisfying, and tends to sit more gently on the stomach than a long run of sugary gels. Real food delivers slower, steadier energy and helps avoid that familiar "sweetness overload" many runners experience late in an ultra. It also provides a mental lift — a feeling of being fed, not just fuelled — which can be surprisingly powerful when you're many hours in and your motivation needs support.
But real food has its downsides. It's bulkier, messier and harder to chew when fatigue catches up. Foods that taste great in hour one can feel impossible in hour eight. Digestion slows down as effort continues, and chewing genuinely becomes more of a task than you'd expect when you're tired and out of breath.
Where Gels Still Shine
They're quick, predictable and require no chewing. They absorb fast, slot into any pocket, and work even when your appetite disappears. In the late stages of a race — when terrain gets technical, your brain turns foggy, or you simply can't face the idea of eating anything solid — a gel is often the one thing you can rely on. They're not perfect (stomachs need training, and the sweetness can become overwhelming), but they do their job extremely well when you need them most.
Caffeine Gels: Use Them Strategically
Caffeinated gels (typically 25–75 mg of caffeine per gel, depending on the brand) are one of the most effective late-race tools available. Caffeine reduces perceived effort, blunts fatigue signals, and sharpens focus — all things that become increasingly valuable as hours pass. The evidence-based dose for performance is around 3 mg per kilogram of body weight.
The key is timing: don't reach for caffeine in the first half of the race. When you start with high caffeine intake, you burn through your tolerance early and the effect diminishes precisely when you need it most. Hold caffeine gels back until the halfway point or beyond — the final third of the race is when they earn their keep. For a race like The Lap around Lake Windermere, that might mean saving caffeinated gels for after Troutbeck (the halfway drop bag point), supplementing with Coke at later aid stations.
The Best of Both: A Practical Rhythm
Most runners eventually settle into a rhythm that uses everything: real food early, a mix of real food and gels in the middle, and mostly gels towards the end when chewing feels like too much work. It's a flexible, forgiving way to fuel — and it's how experienced ultra runners tend to structure their nutrition without even thinking about it.
How to Carry Real Food Effectively
Real food is only useful if you can actually access it without faff. A few practical tips that make a genuine difference:
- Pre-portion everything the night before. Don't leave yourself unwrapping bars or cutting food mid-race. Zip-lock bags of pre-portioned snacks are far easier to manage on the move.
- Soft foods go in vest pockets; harder foods in a hip belt. Soft wraps, pouches, or banana chunks compress well in a vest chest pocket and are easy to grab. Harder items like rice balls or cereal bars sit better in a waist belt where they won't get crushed.
- Keep the most accessible pocket for what you'll eat most. Whatever you plan to eat every 30–40 minutes should be in the easiest-to-reach spot on your vest — not buried at the bottom of a pack.
- Label your drop bag clearly. At halfway drop bag points, know exactly what you've packed and where it is. Fumbling through a bag when you're tired costs time and mental energy you can't spare.
Homemade Fuel Pouches — A Game Changer
My own approach shifted dramatically thanks to something completely unrelated to running: feeding my children. When my youngest was a baby, I made everything from scratch — purées, soups, mashed vegetables — and stored them in reusable baby pouches. Years later, ahead of a long fell run, I opened a cupboard and saw those empty pouches. The idea hit instantly: why wasn't I using these for my own fuel?
I tried it. Mashed potato, sweet potato, a banana-and-honey blend. Out on the run, they were perfect. Soft, gentle on the stomach, easy to swallow and deliciously familiar. No sticky hands, and full control over carbs, salt, texture and flavour.
It also made me realise something: the way my kids ate — small portions, soft textures, gentle flavours, frequent feeding — was exactly how my body preferred to take on fuel during long runs. We tend to overcomplicate ultra fuelling, but the body often responds best to simple, child-like nutrition delivered often and kindly.
⚠️ One thing to avoid
Store-bought baby food pouches aren't designed for athletes. They're deliberately low in salt — exactly the opposite of what long-distance runners need — and often contain just 8–12 g of carbohydrate per pouch. Homemade pouches give you full control and are far superior.
Food Safety for Homemade Pouches
Homemade pouches are excellent — but they need to be handled safely, particularly in warm weather. A pouch sitting in a warm running vest for eight hours is a food safety risk, not just a fuelling one.
- Make them fresh the night before and refrigerate overnight. Don't make them days in advance.
- Keep them in a cool bag until race start. Transfer to your vest as close to the gun as possible.
- Don't leave pouches in a warm vest for more than 4–6 hours in temperatures above 15°C. If the weather is hot, consume them early and switch to commercial gels or aid station food for the second half.
- Avoid dairy in warm conditions. Yoghurt, milk-based, or cream-based mixes can spoil quickly. Stick to fruit, potato, oat, and honey-based recipes when it's warm.
- Stick to cooked or pasteurised ingredients. Raw egg, raw meat, or unpasteurised dairy have no place in a race-day pouch.
Real-Food Fuel Pouch Recipes
| Recipe | Ingredients | Approx Carbs |
|---|---|---|
| Savoury Potato | 150g boiled potato + 50g broth + pinch salt | ~26g |
| Banana + Honey | 120g banana + 15g honey | ~38g |
| Sweet Potato + Maple | 150g sweet potato + 20g maple syrup | ~43g |
| Rice Pudding + Jam | 120g rice pudding + 30g jam | ~36g |
| Oat + Banana + Maple | 80g cooked oats + 80g banana + 10g maple syrup | ~34g |
Add a small pinch of salt (100–150 mg sodium) to each savoury pouch to help with electrolyte intake. For sweet pouches, consider adding a small pinch of sea salt or electrolyte powder — the sweetness masks it and the sodium is important.
Classic Ultra Snacks That Work
Pouches are just one option. Ultra runners have long been known for pulling out wonderfully odd snacks mid-race. Here are the classics that work:
- Aid station staples: Bananas, salted potatoes, sweet potato chunks, watermelon and oranges — especially on hot days when fresh fruit is both fuel and hydration
- Portable solids: Wraps with peanut butter or jam, rice balls with soy sauce and sesame, soft cereal bars, fig rolls, malt loaf slices
- Savoury saviours: Cheese bites, broth (a stomach-settler and sodium source), mini sandwiches, quesadilla wedges, ramen at later aid stations — essential when sweetness becomes unbearable late in a race
- Sweet treats: Dried mango or apricots, jelly babies, homemade flapjacks with oats and syrup
Lessons from the Trail
I still remember a miserable winter long run where I'd packed only gels to "be disciplined." By hour three, the sweetness was unbearable. Stopping at a stone wall, I found nothing but more gels. I would have traded them all for a cold potato.
Around mile 30 of a mountain race, tired and queasy, I was handed a tiny wrap filled with mashed potato and salt. It grounded me instantly. Another time I watched a runner spoon cold rice pudding into a soft flask. He grinned: "Gels are for survival. Rice pudding is for joy."
And then there was the day I shared half a homemade pouch with a runner deep in a calorie crash who couldn't face another gel. He perked up within minutes. Ultra fuelling isn't just nutrition. It's comfort. It's connection. It's looking after each other on difficult miles.
The Bottom Line
You don't need gels to run an ultra — but they're a useful safety net when chewing becomes impossible, terrain demands fast energy, or you need a caffeine hit to get through the dark miles. Real food keeps you comfortable and mentally fed. Gels keep you consistent when everything else feels too hard. Homemade pouches blend both strengths beautifully — with the added bonus that you know exactly what's in them.
Practise all of it in training. Carry variety. Never try anything new on race day. And add a pinch of salt to almost everything.
Ultra running is an eating event disguised as a race. Feed yourself well, and the miles take care of themselves.