2 New Nutrition Partners Mean Healthy and Vegan Treats on Course

For Lawrence Colsell and the team at xact nutrition, taste shouldn’t be an afterthought when it comes to sport nutrition products. That’s why Run Ottawa is excited to announce it will be working with xact nutrition as its official nutrition partner for Tamarack Ottawa Race weekend, Canada’s largest running weekend.

xact nutrition’s products are rooted not only in providing the nutrients you need, but in the Colsell family’s deep love of both running and food.

“I tried gels for the first time after getting involved in trail running,” Lawrence explains. “That’s what you find on course and they do the job.”

But as Lawrence began to run more trail races, his passion for food and flavour left him wanting more.

“I thought, I am sure we can do something better than this, in terms of taste and texture without compromising performance,” he says.

Lawrence took his concerns to his family, where his wife, who has experience in food manufacturing and his father-in-law, who has a background in food chemistry, began to work together on a new product—one that would meet a runner’s nutritional needs, use all natural ingredients and, yes, taste amazing.

A new twist on an old tradition

Knowing that the basis of most running gels are sugars and carbohydrates, the xact nutrition team adopted the traditional French treat, pâte de fruits, which Lawrence’s wife and father-in-law remembered from their childhood.

“We basically took a traditional 450 year old recipe and repurposed it,” explains Lawrence.

xact nutrition partnered with a small scale fruit farmer and producer of pâte de fruits in France to create quality fruit gels designed for sports. Their unique recipe follows the French tradition while also containing the proper nutrients recommended by sports nutritionists.

This is where Alain, Lawrence’s father-in-law, really shines. His food chemistry background helps them balance the behaviours of the fruit and nutrients, ensuring the end product both tastes great and performs well. And sourcing their fruit from farms nearby the manufacture allows allows xact nutrition to create gels that use the freshest ingredients.

“It’s more than a sports gel,” says Lawrence, “It’s the same quality of fruit bar that you would buy if you went into a high end pastry shop.”

xact nutrition on-course and a Kronobar to finish

During Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend, runners will have the opportunity to refuel with xact nutrition on course. Each gel station will offer a portion of the FRUIT2 product in a paper cup, to reduce waste, for runners to take as they run by. These natural and vegan treats are soft and chewy. They melt easily in your mouth or can simply be swallowed.

To help runners recover at the finish line, xact nutrition has partnered with Montreal based nutrition company Kronobar. Just like xact nutrition, founder Rose Marie Jarry, a pastry chef by trade, was driven to create a high quality running recovery treat for the runners in her life.

“The goal was to create a bar that was healthy and tastes good,” says Rose Marie. “And that’s the number one comment I get—they taste good!”

The new partnership between xact nutrition, Kronobar and the Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend, means runners have even more to look forward to on the course and at the finish in May. Not only nutrients for energy and recovery, but great taste from local entrepreneurs who are equally passionate about sport and food.