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June 27, 2007
Investigation Concluded
First of all, thanks to all of you who wished me good luck before and good recovery after last weekend's race. I appreciate the support!
Secondly, my stomach is still not well. Better, but not well. I've been on a few runs since that awful Saturday, and they've left me having to stop several times to get a grip on stomach cramping.
And now, for the main event of this blog entry. I can safely say that I've completed a full investigation regarding the "popping gel" phenomenon that I had previously refered to. While I appreciate and am flattered by the comments regarding my leg strength in gel popping, I would like to announce that I didn't actually pop any gels!
Instead, the gel packages were, in fact, defective. Specifically, I bought a box of 12 vanilla-flavored, single-serving Hammer gels. The bottom corner of each of the 12 gels wasn't sealed shut. Under a bit of pressure, gel would ooze out the opening. Under some more pressure, the seam would open wider and gel would flow forth. So, my woodsy squatting only applied the appropriate amount of pressure to get the gel to ooze out from the already open corner of the gel package.
I figured this out last Saturday when I was trying to eat my one-and-only gel of the race. As I squeezed (squoze?) gel into my mouth via the top of the gel package, a long train of gel deposited itself on the front of my shirt from the open bottom corner seam. Luckily the gel was vanilla, and, thus, light-colored. However, by the time I finished the race, this gel dribble had manged to catch things like dust and bugs, making it a brown-ish, dirty, dried gel dribble down the front of my shirt. In addition to feeling like pooey, I clearly looked like pooey as well. On all fronts, it just wasn't my day. However, I was able to conclude my "popping gel" investigation once and for all.
Posted by Meghan at June 27, 2007 12:38 PM
Comments
Interesting gel story. Did you return it? I am a hammer gel user and have never encountered this problem. I hope it was just a fluke. Hope you are feeling well soon.
Jenny
Posted by: Jenny at June 27, 2007 1:37 PM
Interesting gel story. Did you return it? I am a hammer gel user and have never encountered this problem. I hope it was just a fluke. Hope you are feeling well soon.
Jenny
Posted by: Jenny at June 27, 2007 1:37 PM
I know somone who had a stomach/intestine problem like you're describing. It lasted a week for her. It never got severe, yet it didn't want to go away either. And it was hard for her to figure out if she should run or not. then I ended up feeling the same way last week, but it went away after three days. Hard to say if it was nutrition-based imbalance or viral.
I hope you figure it out. Being incessantly queezy is not fun.
Posted by: JeffO at June 27, 2007 1:48 PM
Thanks for bringing (some of) us closure on the gel-popping issue.
Posted by: Roslyn at June 28, 2007 11:19 AM
Hi Meghan,
You and I have never "met", but I linked to your blog from a comment that you posted on JeffO's blog. I have been reading your blog since you ran in Costa Rica. I enjoy reading your insights into running, etc. It gives me a fresh perspective on things and your adventures often make me chuckle. Thanks.
Anyway, you should definitely contact the manufacturer about the packaging defect. I work in the packaging industry and this defect could very possibly be much bigger in scope than just your one case of gels. They should definitely be made aware of the problem so that they can perform a thorough investigation into the cause. We take every complaint that we receive very seriously.
Kevin
Posted by: Kevin Shaud at June 29, 2007 5:26 AM
Hmmmmm... now you've got me wondering. I had a chocolate Hammer gel in my backpack for Eric - inside a ziplock. It popped (I'm not sure how) and oozed out all over the inside of my pack. I'm not sure how it got through the baggie as well. I was suspecting altitude changes, but now I'm wondering.
Posted by: backofpack at June 30, 2007 11:28 PM
So how's the trail-rash from your fall during Bridger? I hope you recovered.
Posted by: JeffO at July 2, 2007 2:45 PM
So how's the trail-rash from your fall during Bridger? I hope you recovered.
Posted by: JeffO at July 2, 2007 2:46 PM
So how's the trail-rash from your fall during Bridger? I hope you recovered.
Posted by: JeffO at July 2, 2007 2:47 PM