philosopherking

I'm going to be running my first half marathon in a couple of weeks, and I've been trying to decide whether or not I should start using Gels for my long runs. So far my longest distance has been 8 miles, and have felt fine w/out eating anything. I've been reading various forums and about half the people think Gels are necesarry and half think that they are more of a psychological boost and for distances of a half-marathon or less they aren't really needed. Has anyone ever ran a half, or an equivalent distance, w/out Gels? If it's something that I can safely do, I think I'd rather not deal with the hassle of Gels.