Can anyone put it quite simple how many calories I should be taking on per hour in a 4 hour race like the gorricks?

Pretty certain I don’t take on enough, normally a bar and a gel per hour. Usually spend the final hour in quite a dark place, pretty certain as its due to running out of fuel.

Any tips for how much I should be trying to shovel down?

It’s generally reckoned that, on average, you can digest about 240 cals glucose and 120 cals fructose an hour. You’ll be expending way more than that, so the rest has to come from body stores. So you need to eat well, straight after a bit of exercise, for a few days before to stuff your body’s stores.

So that is 3 to 4 gels per hour? I’ve tried eating that many once and I ended up with really bad stomach cramps (SIS) and why I’ve now gone back to one an hour which seems ok

Does that mean I can’t take on that amount of gel or that I should try other brands? Don’t really like experimenting at events but it is the only time I really push myself

Each to their own but I never use gels. I stick it all in the energy drink at recommended dilution and keep sipping works for me.

To encourage the body to use fat I train fasted, can usually go about 3 hours before needing food, so if racing and sipping from the start I’m fine. Note, this works for me, you may be completely different.