That whooshing sound you hear is my head spinning

I mentioned the other day that my runs are getting long enough that I need to start investigating sports gels and drinks for on-the-go refueling. I've never even tasted a sports gel, so my knowledge in this area is non-existent. I innocently asked for help on such matters on the Team in Training list I'm on, and wow, there is so much to think about!

On a short run, you sip a little water, maybe, and that's it. But on a long run, you have all of the following to worry about:
1) Hydration - yes, sipping some water (but not too much!) will take care of this, but there's also
2) Glucose/carb replenishment - after an extended period of time (I've seen everything from 45 minutes to 90 minutes mentioned), your body runs out of readily-accessible carbs to fuel your run with, so you have to swallow some fast-acting, easily-digestible carbs to keep your engine running smoothly.
3) Electrolyte/sodium replenishment - sweating will deplete you of key minerals and substances and make you more vulnerable to muscle cramping, so to combat this, you need to throw some electrolytes into the mix. Furthermore, if you drink too much water and lose too much salt during the course of the race, you can experience a life-threatening condition called hyponatremia when sodium levels in the blood get too low.

So you have three components to balance, and to make it more interesting, if you wash your energy gel down with some sports drink, the combined amount of glucose will most likely give you the trots. Just what you need in the middle of a race! And many sports drinks and gels don't have enough sodium to replenish what you've lost, either, so now you also have to remember to take a mini-packet of salt or two, like the ones you see at fast-food joints, and eat that at some point. On the other hand, some products do have added electrolytes, such as Clif Shot Bloks.

Then you have to decide what brand or brands of products you want to use. The Cleveland marathon is using Powerade as the official drink and Hammer as the official gel. Of course, there is only ONE gel station along the half-marathon route, and it is just past mile 8. I don't think I'm going to make it that far without outside assistance, so I might as well just bring my own carb products and ignore the gel station at the race. Some people can't or won't use gels because of the texture or what they do to the person's GI tract. They've been compared to cake frosting. I don't like cake frosting.

I think I need my own personal fueler to run with me, because I have no idea how I am going to juggle all of this stuff.