Train with a fuel belt, race without?

[Disneyland_emily]

I take my belt and use to carry my 'Propel' since Dis only offers yellow power ade and I cant drink that flavor at all and I tend to like to hydrate on my schedule (sometimes Ive been lucky and found red or blue powerade at the med stops)

If its been really warm the days leading up to the race and its a night or shorter race I may switch one bottle out for water since the race water sits outside on the course for a few days prior and has been known to be warm and I cant stand warm Dasani (I can tolerate it cold or room temp)

 

[FireDancer]

I don't train or race with a FuelBelt but it really comes down to two schools of though. Both are equally valid but you have to decide which is right for you:

1) The don't do anything on race day school of thought. Race the exact same way you trained so use the FuelBelt

2) On race day you have infrastructure that takes care of the things you have to take care of yourself while training so let them handle it.

I normally take only water during a race so the choice of sports drink isn't important to me and I will pocket a Gu pack for myself if they aren't handing them out so I'd fall more in line with #2. If I used more sports drink and knew the one they were offering wasn't one I had experience with I might move more towards #1.

For a first race I'd probably err more towards #1 in your case OP because I think for most beginning runners it is better to keep as many variables in the known category as possible but I don't think either way is right or wrong.