Had to pay extra for the flasks and you are right, they aren’t cheap
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You’ll be finished much quicker than me 
I tested with one every 30 mins on Sunday and found that was too infrequent. Going with every 25 mins for race day.
They’re extra with a lot of vests except some of the really expensive ones. I went with the Kalenji ones and they’re ok. The new plastic taste has finally worn off.
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I think I went through about 7 when I did Manchester. Can’t remember what I did for London, but was thinking something like one every 20 odd mins. I had them all tucked into the waist band of my shorts, and a whatever I could cram into the small pocket at the back.
That’s a lot. Maybe I’m underestimating my carb requirements in standalone maras
If they’re around 23/25g carbs per gel, 3 per hours is only 69/75g carbs. Maximum most people can absorb is in the 90g range.
If you only take 3 over a whole mara you’re well short of what you’re burning but then if you don’t bonk what does it matter.
My understanding was your muscles store enough glycogen to get you approx 2hrs/18 miles at marathon pace assuming you’d trained properly for that pace. Then you need to find energy reserves from elsewhere. So consuming gels for the first 60/80 minutes is pointless as you are just messing with insulin levels as they are absorbed by your (hopefully) empty stomach so quickly. Yes you need to start consuming before you bonk but really this is only necessary after halfway, 10 miles at the earliest. Jibberjim please shoot me down here…
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I may have it wrong but I think you burn up to 250g carbs per hour (at MP) and can store around 500g which is consistent with booking at 2 hours. You can only replace up to 90g per hour. So you’re putting energy into a bucket with a hole in hence starting earlier than the 2 hour mark.
My plan has me starting gels 1 hour in and going up to 3 per hour. Given I’m expecting to be around 3h45m that is a total of 8.
I suppose it depends how much fat you’re using for energy also. Don’t many good mara runners (presumably because they already have a great fat burning engine) hardly need energy gels?
Certainly this worry that you need to have loads of gels seems to be more prevalent among tri people when compared to runners. Probably a marketing thing.
That being said, there’s probably a cause/effect thing here. If you need to have 8 gels in a mara probably points to an adaptation you could make to be better at using fat as a fuel?
For example, I’ve done the Ballbuster duathlon (> 3 hour effort) twice. The first time I had loads of gels, second time I did lots more long training runs (upto 25km) in the mornings and noticed I was not really needing any nutrition so only needed a couple the second time round and went much better. I really felt I turned a corner in the training there to not need as much food to run at a reasonable/mara pace.
Maybe (I’m just figuring this stuff out for my own needs and definitely not an expert)
I think the elites get energy from their bottles which are available on course, we don’t have that luxury.
You see cyclists use a lot of extra energy (gels/food/etc.) whilst racing.
I’m yet to execute a standalone marathon at a level anywhere near what I would classify as “well”.
I use GU generally, at those appear to be only 21g per pack. And they “recommend” one every 45mins.
The difference with cycling is the level of stress on the gut. It’s a lot less, simply because you are generally working at a lower level, and you aren’t pounding your stomach quite so much. Hence the traditional approach for long course tri of getting as much nutrition is as possible on the bike.
That said, I probably took on my least ever nutrition in Nice, yet on an effort level worked harder on bike and run than I ever have. Run wise, I had a gel out of T2 and one at 11-12k. And had by far my best ever run. I’d normally have one at 7ish and 14ish.
Nutrition definitely seems to be an art, not a science
HOW VERY DARE YOU! 
You’ll have the sports nutrition scientists chasing you with their pitchforks sharpened and hay bails burning. You’ll be lucky to get out of London alive
You say that, it was interesting to hear Andy Blow saying exactly the same thing in the Trainerroad podcast. He was very frank with saying companies who say their products will certainly solve problems, or have an ingredient that is game changing are often all spouting BS. He said the whole approach of PH is accepting the fact that some trial and error might be required, and that they’re more than happy to field personalised questions and give some bespoke advice.
I’d never thought of contacting them directly before, but may well do. His suggested question along the lines of PH interaction with certain type of gels is of interest.
Have a read of this…
So after struggling to 20 miles again on Saturday, I belted along the seafront in the wind and rain last night at 4.02/km for 15km and felt comfortable. I’m either better suited to biblical weather or I just can’t run early mornings…
Nearly there now, going to try and run marathon pace (4.10/k ??) for another 10 miler on Thursday and a 20k at the weekend, then start reigning it in…
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I find early mornings hard going despite it being when I do most races.
There is a train of thought that mid afternoon or early evening I think is one of the best times due to our sleep rhythms.
Jeff
I’ve been slowly reading Why We Sleep, its not the easiest read but fascinating and references quite a few studies.
Bottom line is the more you sleep the better you’ll perform at most things in life and probably live longer.
There are a few genetic exceptions to this going on recent findings but I think they are quite rare.
Jeff
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Snap. i can do easy runs no bother, but always struggled with anything harder than that in the mornings. I’ll always take an evening session over any other time of day!
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Agreed… but sadly most of my available time is early doors… or later once the kids are in bed…ergo 75% at least of my training has been pre 9am
So… am I getting the same benefit/ effect for slower paces or am I missing out on faster running later in the day?
I guess I’ll find out soon enough