To fight my way through the post-marathon depression in 2009 I’d booked myself into the BUPA London 10,000 to keep busy. The race was a month after the end of the marathon so I’d managed to retain a bit of the fitness I’d had. Wanting to get a good time, 5 minutes before the start I opened up a carbo gel and started the horrible process of forcing the goopy syrup down my lughole.

The wave of nausea that hit me was quite unexpected. It immediately brought back the latter stages of the marathon and it took me 4 gulps get the stuff down.

I’ve never enjoyed taking carbo gels. Firstly, the taste and sensation takes some getting used to. I’ve tried out quite a few different types of gel while training for the marathon, each with varying levels of viscosity. I simply can’t get used to the process of squeezing a sachet of runny, bitter-sweet goop down my throat without feeling the urge to regurgitate.

But if you are going to get through that dreaded wall, then you need to fuel yourself sufficiently to stop your body’s glycogen stores from depleting and turning to fat as an energy source. In 2010, Lucozade Sport will, for the first time, be providing carbo gels to London Marathon runners at miles 14 and 21 to help runners with that extra fuel they need to get through the final stages of the race. While I’m sure that this is a welcome introduction for a lot of you, I’ll be trying something different.

I’ll never forget the rush I felt at mile 22 of last year’s race when I grabbed a jelly baby from a helpful kid at the side of the road and wolfed it down. The effect was almost immediate. So, a few weeks ago I tried out some PowerBar Gel Blasts on my last long run to see how they’d fair against carbo gels. These gel blasts are like large Haribo sweets with a gooey filling.

They’re quite big and need a bit of chewing so consuming them can affect your breathing. I took one every half an hour, which meant I had to carry 7 with me. Unfortunately, the website recommends you take 1-3 every 10 minutes! Which, would have meant that I’d have to consume 18 of them on my run! I’d barely have time to breathe!

Last week Lucozade Sport sent through some sample sachets of their Jelly Beans and I tried them out on a 12.5 miler on the weekend. I have to say, the results were pretty spectacular. Admittedly, the distance wasn’t quite as long as the week before, but my split times were better than ever! I set a new PB.

I’d taken a sachet half an hour before the run and had another sachet while I was out. Once I’d washed them down, I felt a hell of a lot more sprightly. Rather than just being sweets, the jelly beans are packed full of carbohydrates and are a welcome alternative to the gels.

But again, they advise you to consume quite a lot to obtain the same amount of energy you’d receive from a gel sachet. Having no pockets in my shorts, I simply carried a sachet in my hand while running. So at one stage I was running with a water bottle under my arm, tipping the sachet into my right hand and consuming half the packet in one go to try and get it out of the way. With a mouth full of jelly beans, my breathing was obviously affected.

On race day I’ll empty a few packets of these into a pouch on my arm and consume them gradually over time. This, coupled with a bowl of pasta for the previous three nights running, should see me to the finish line. Just over a week to go now!

Let me know if you have any tips on how to get through the wall and how you’ll be carrying your fuel to cross the finish line.

If you fancy winning some of these jelly beans to run the marathon with then make sure you enter the competition to win a Lucozade Sport marathon race packs.

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