What I learned by running Thailand’s North Face 100

I made a few mistakes during the race which I would like to share here as a record for future reference.

I purchased 30 gels from here in Thailand called Ammo natural gels. I had only used a single gel during a one hour training session the week before the race. After starting my Garmin Enduro 2 bleeped every 20 minutes alerting me to eat one gel (100 calories). After about 2 hours I started to feel sick and reduced my intake to one gel every 40 minutes. I continued to feel my stomach getting bloated and eventually even the thought of the gel made me feel nauseous. From after the 50k distance to 60k I was unable to eat any more gels. I continued on until 65k upon which my energy started to fade due to no energy intake. I stopped just before and at checkpoint 4 stting down for 45 minutes to gather myself. To bring myself back from the edge I ate a pot noodle and lay on my back. To my left were 3 checkpoint helpers all sleeping. After this I got up deciding not to quit and continued walking not running.
I used the Gatorade at checkpoints instead of relying on my own electrolyte drink. The result was these drinks contained way to much sugar and upset my stomach even more.
I only had 6hrs sleep in the two nights leading up to the race, but I never felt tired, just a missed opportunity to begin fully rested.
This was my first race in four years, even though not a mistake it’s definitely a reason why I could not handle 10hrs of gels.