> I find gels much more compact and for the amount of time I need to run one - over 4 hours there's a lot of weight I need to carry. I can store a lot of them up front in my running vest and keep going.

I believe he had people from his staff handing him gels and water at designated point in his race. He wouldn't have to carry it all.

And I don't get why my solution of water + sugar is so bad. You're still going to drink water, you can't just eat gels during the whole race.

You might as well add sugar to the water that you are already going to drink anyway, this way you don't need to carry the gel.