Best Energy Gels for the Aussie Marathoner

Eight gels compared on the three numbers that decide whether one suits you: carbohydrate, sugar and sodium per sachet.

Your gel choice matters as much as the long runs you logged to get here. It decides whether you fade at 30km or hold your pace to the line. This guide skips the marketing and gives you the numbers, the timing, and a way to test both before you race.

Best energy gels for runners compared

Per-sachet figures come from each manufacturer's published nutrition panel. Carbohydrate load, sugar content and sodium are the three numbers that decide whether a gel suits your gut and your conditions.

Figures are per single sachet, taken from each manufacturer's published nutrition information. Formulations change, so check the pack before you race. Treat the table as a starting point, because two runners on the same pace can need completely different gels.

How energy gels fuel your run

A gel is concentrated carbohydrate in a form you can swallow while running hard. Deep into a long effort your stored glycogen runs low, and glycogen is what your muscles reach for first at race pace. After roughly 90 minutes those stores are well down. That is where the wall comes from.

Gels top up the tank. Most deliver carbohydrate to your bloodstream within five to fifteen minutes rather than instantly, which is why you fuel ahead of fatigue instead of in response to it.

What is actually in the sachet

• Glucose and maltodextrin. Fast-acting fuel. Your body absorbs these through the SGLT1 transporter, which saturates at around 60 g per hour.
• Fructose. Absorbed through a separate transporter, GLUT5, which is why gels combining both can push total intake past 60 g per hour without overwhelming the gut.
• Slow-release starches. LIVSTEADY, the corn starch carbohydrate in UCAN EDGE, breaks down gradually rather than arriving all at once. It carries no added sugar, which is why runners who react badly to sugar-based gels tend to end up on it.

Two transporters instead of one is what makes 90 g per hour possible. Whether your gut agrees is a separate question, and the only way to answer it is a long run.

How many energy gels do you need per hour

Current guidance sits at 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour. Well-trained athletes on high-carb protocols push towards 120 g. The old 30 to 60 g figure still circulating online reflects research from before multiple-transportable carbohydrate blends were common.

Most gels carry 19 g to 30 g. At 60 to 90 g per hour that means two to four gels an hour depending on the brand. Your own number moves with three things:

• Pace. A 3:00 marathoner burns more per hour than a 4:30 marathoner, and needs it for less time.
• Body weight. A 90 kg runner burns more than a 60 kg runner at the same relative effort.
• Duration. A four-hour marathon needs more total carbohydrate than a three-hour one, even at a lower hourly rate.

A starting plan you can test this weekend

1. One gel about 15 minutes before the start. Your carb loading over the previous two to three days set your stores. A gel here lifts circulating glucose so you are not drawing down from the first kilometre.
2. Next gel at 30 to 45 minutes. Fuel ahead of fatigue rather than chasing it.
3. Then every 30 to 45 minutes. Set a recurring alert on your watch and stop thinking about it.
4. Carry one spare. Gels get dropped, and aid station supplies run out.

Best energy gels for marathon running

A marathon changes the maths. You are out there for three to five hours, which means eight to twelve sachets rather than the two or three a half marathon asks for. Volume becomes the problem before energy does.

Two things decide your pick at that duration. The first is how much sugar your gut will accept over four hours, not over forty minutes. A gel that goes down fine at 10km can sit in your stomach at 35km once blood flow has moved to your legs. The second is sodium, which compounds across a long race in a way it never does on a shorter one.

• Chasing a carb target with fewer sachets. Precision Fuel PF 30 and Koda both carry around 30 g, so you carry eight instead of twelve.
• Gut trouble in the last hour. UCAN EDGE carries no added sugar, which is why runners who react badly to maltodextrin and fructose late in a race move to it.
• A humid start line. Compare sodium per sachet. It ranges from 10 mg to 200 mg across the brands above.

Energy gels and stomach comfort on long runs

Gel thickness changes how you use it on the move. Thicker gels are more concentrated, so you want a mouthful of water to wash one down. Taken dry they pull fluid from elsewhere in your gut, and that is where the cramping starts. Isotonic gels are pre-diluted to sit near the concentration of your own fluids, so they go down without water, though a 60 ml sachet takes longer to swallow than a 40 ml one.

Maurten, SiS and UCAN all state their gels can be taken without water. Thicker sugar-based gels from other brands generally cannot.

Most runners who report gut trouble have never practised at race intake. Gut tolerance is trainable. Work up to your target hourly number across three or four long runs rather than discovering it on race morning.

Natural energy gels for running

Runners searching for a natural gel usually want one of three things: a shorter ingredients list, a carbohydrate from a recognisable food source, or no synthetic sweeteners and colours. Australia has no legal definition of "natural" on a sports food label, so the word tells you nothing on its own. Read the ingredients panel instead.

• Honey and maple gels. Honey Stinger and Untapped use a single food-source sugar. Carbohydrate arrives fast and the sugar load per sachet is high.
• Fruit and chia gels. Huma and similar brands use fruit purée with chia. Thicker texture, and you will want water with them.
• Corn starch gels. UCAN EDGE uses LIVSTEADY, a carbohydrate made from non-GMO corn starch, with no added sugar.

None of these performs better on the run because of where the carbohydrate came from. Your gut decides that, and the only test that counts is a long run at your target hourly intake.

Energy gels with electrolytes for Australian conditions

Australian racing is less about heat than most people assume. The Gold Coast Marathon runs at 9°C to 22°C with low humidity, which is part of why so much of the field sets a personal best there. Sydney and Melbourne are both mild on race morning.

Where Australian runners meet real heat is in training, and in humid events like the run leg of Ironman Cairns or Noosa Triathlon. That is where sodium starts to matter. When you sweat you lose water along with sodium, potassium, magnesium and chloride, the minerals that carry the electrical signals your muscles and nerves run on.

Sweat sodium concentration varies enormously between people, from around 200 mg to over 2,000 mg per litre. If you finish a run with white salt marks on your cap you sit at the high end, and a 10 mg gel will not keep up. Gels range from 10 mg to 200 mg of sodium per sachet, a twenty-fold difference that rarely appears on the front of the packet.

• Humid conditions. Swap one gel per hour for an electrolyte version.
• Heavy sweaters. Alternate every second gel, or pair standard gels with an electrolyte drink.
• Early warning. A twinge of cramp or light-headedness means take the next one now. Once you are cramping you cannot fix it on the run.

Caffeine in energy gels

Caffeine reduces your perception of effort, which makes the last 10km feel more manageable. Doses across the market run from 45 mg to 100 mg per sachet, so check the number rather than the word on the front.

Mixed Berry EDGE is the outlier in the range. It carries 34 g of carbohydrate in one 53 g pouch with 0 g sugars, which is more carbohydrate than any other gel in the table above, alongside 45 mg of caffeine from green tea extract.

If you are chasing 90 g per hour and want fewer sachets in your belt, this is the one to test first.

If you have never raced on caffeine, do not start on race day. Take one caffeinated gel in the back half of a long run first and see how your stomach and your sleep respond. Our guide to caffeine gels for endurance covers timing and dosing in more detail.

Mistakes runners make with energy gels

Where to buy energy gels in Australia

UCAN EDGE ships from our Dandenong South warehouse in Victoria, dispatched the same day when you order before noon AEST. Standard delivery takes up to five business days. Choose Express at checkout and your order arrives within two business days, so a Saturday race means ordering by Wednesday.

Frequently asked questions

Generation UCAN Australia is the official Australian reseller of UCAN. EDGE energy gels are powered by LIVSTEADY, a non-GMO corn starch carbohydrate delivering 19 g to 34 g of carbohydrate per sachet with no added sugar. Stock is held in Dandenong South, Victoria and ships Australia wide.

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