Just giving it away

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of the EFS Liquid Shot gel from First Endurance (as evidenced by past race reports). Unfortunately, it seems to be an endangered species in Canada these days - when I went to pick some up prior to the Vulture Bait 50k in October, I was told that my favourite local running store was completely out of stock and would have to order it in.

Hmph.

So I tried another outlet I've reliably ordered from in the past. 

Nothing doing.

I tried several other places - anyone I could find in this country that said they carried it - all of whom were out of stock.

In the end, I ran Vulture Bait on a hodgepodge of Gu flavours with some Endurance Tap thrown in. It went ok, but I really love the convenience of having my gels in a flask rather than individual packets (not to mention the reduced impact on the environment, particularly since I usually buy the 32oz refill jug), plus the way my body seems to process the nutrition without any issues.  

Since I was down in the US last month, I decided to order some supplies shipped to the friend's place so I could bring it back with me, since EFS Liquid Shot still seems to be in plentiful supply in that country. When I opened the parcel from First Endurance, I got a surprise: they'd included samples of new flavours of their Ultragen recovery beverage.

Vanilla and chocolate, oh my!

Unfortunately, my dairy allergy won't permit me to use these. I really wish I could, since I actually bought a tub of the cappucino flavour a few years ago and used it after big or intense training days. Whether it was placebo effect or not, I seemed to recover quite well when I used Ultragen, despite some nasty side effects on my gastrointestinal tract. 

Let's just say Tanker is pretty happy I don't use it anymore.

So, since 'tis the season for giving, I'm offering up these two samples to a lucky blog reader. Just comment below if you want a chance to win these sample packets, and I'll draw a name at random from the list of commenters. Please include some way to get in touch with you so I can get your postal address to send these out! I won't limit it to any particular geographical region, since as a Canadian I'm sick and tired of being disqualified from this sort of draw and won't engage in that sort of shenanigans. 

Good luck and good recovery to you all!