The 2024 Chicago Marathon is now less than 1 month away, it’s time for your final preparations. You’re probably coming up to your final long run before entering the tapering phase of your training. But failing to prepare your fuelling strategy for the day is failing to prepare for the race. Hitting the wall although common during a marathon is not a given. It can be avoided and I’m here to guide you through fuelling the marathon so you can avoid hitting the wall and finish the Chicago Marathon 2024 as you envisioned.
I will be breaking down the fuel available on the course so you can avoid carrying any additional weight. The sponsors for 2024 include Gatorade, Maurten, and Chiquita Bananas. Although you can carry your own fuel with you for the event hydration packs are not allowed (fuel belts and handheld bottles are permitted). Using what is provided on the course can make the day easier and less stressful. I’ll look at what will be available and which aid stations and talk through how much you might need to get you to the next station.
What is fuelling and why does it matter?
Fuelling a marathon is about taking on mainly carbohydrates to replenish your body’s glycogen stores while running. Before the event you will complete a carb-load which will ensure your muscles are saturated with carbohydrates ready for race day. These stores will give you around 60-90 minutes of fuel. A marathon is significantly longer than this so to avoid running out of glycogen and ‘hitting the wall’ you need to be taking on fuel as you go. For a marathon distance, this is likely to be between 60-90g of carbohydrates per hour, starting in the first hour.
What is available and when?
Along the 26.2 mile course, there will be 20 aid stations. These will be between 1-2 miles apart. All aid stations will have Gatorade Endurance Formula Lemon-Lime flavour which contains 22g carbohydrates per 12 fl oz. (approx 354ml). On the day they will be giving out cups that will contain roughly 6 fl oz containing 11g of carbohydrates.
The key aid stations for fuel will be 10 (Mile 13.6), 14 (18.2 miles) and 18 ( 23 miles). These will have available both the Maurten Gel 100 and Maurtern Gel 100 Caf 100. Both gels contain 25g carbohydrates per sachet.
If you can manage solid food while running or need something different then aid stations 15-17 (miles 19.5-22.3) will have Chiquita bananas available, a medium banana contains around 20g of carbohydrates.
How many grams of carbs do you need?
The general advice is for any activity over 3 hours you should be taking on 60-90g carbs per hour. Throughout the marathon this is what is could look like:
| 60g per hour | 70g per hour | 80g per hour | 90g per hour | |
| 3 hours | 180 | 210 | 240 | 270 |
| 3.5 hours | 210 | 245 | 280 | 315 |
| 4 hours | 240 | 280 | 320 | 360 |
| 4.5 hours | 270 | 315 | 360 | 405 |
| 5 hours | 300 | 350 | 400 | 450 |
| 5.5 hours | 330 | 385 | 440 | 495 |
| 6 hours | 360 | 420 | 480 | 540 |
| 6.5 hours* | 390 | 455 | 520 | 585 |
*the official cut-off time for the 2024 Chicago Marathon is 6 hours 15 minutes to be fully supported anything over this and you may find yourself without access to the water and gels provided on the course.
What this means is if you are looking to run the marathon in 5 hours using 80g carbs per hour you would need to consume 400g carbohydrates over the course of the event or 32 Maurten 100 gels.
This is why planning and having a fuelling strategy in place before the event is so important. Consuming 32 gels of the same flavour and consistency can easily lead to flavour fatigue and if you haven’t trained your GI system to handle this then it can easily lead to GI distress on the day.
For the rest of this post the assumption is going to be made that you will be aiming for the lower end of the carbohydrate bracket and we will work off 60g carbs per hour. If you are planning on more then you can use the above information to guide your own calculations.
Putting the pieces together to form a plan
Starting with liquid carbs you can consume from the Gatorade as this is one of the easiest things to consume. Each cup of Gatorade contains 11g of carbs, if you take one at every aid station (remember there’s 20) you will consume 220g of carbs along with this 120 fl oz (3.5 litres) of liquid. The liquid content is potentially going to be too high for some people so realistically you will probably take a Gatorade at every alternate aid station giving you 110g carbs and 60 fl oz (1.75 litres) of liquid. This is dependent on your sweat rate and heavy sweaters may need more and light sweaters may need less.
Let’s say you are aiming for a 5-hour marathon with 60g carbs per hour, this means you are aiming to consume 300g of carbs (see above table). You get 110g from the Gatorade leaving you 190g of carbs to consume. If you were to use the maurten gels then you would need to consume 8 gels.
This would be equal to 1 gel every 35-40 minutes plus 1 cup of gatorade at every alternate aid station. Or you could switch one of the gels for a banana.
When, where and how many
With the above figures you want to take 1 cup of Gatorade at every alternate aid station. If you are aiming for the 5-hour marathon mark you will need 4 gels to get you to the first aid station that will be providing gels (carry 5 to be safe). At aid station 10 you want to pick up 2 gels, then 1 gel at aid stations 14 and 18, although again always best to carry at least 1 more than you think you will need just incase. You ca pick up a banana between aid stations 15-17 and can switch out one of the gels along this section or have a banana as an extra boost.
Caffeine or Non-Caffine gels?
Caffeine has the benefit of making the tough parts feel a little easier, however everyone responds differently to its consumption. It takes around 15 minutes for caffeine to get into your blood stream and then peaks about 45-60 minutes after consuming it. Each of the caffeine gels maurten will have on the course contains 100mg of caffeine. Using caffeine as part of your fuelling strategy is a separate topic for another day. In terms of the Chicago marathon if you haven’t trained with caffeine gels then nothing new on race day applies. If you have trained with caffeine gels then use them as you do in training. Taking into account you probably want to have consumed your last one before going into the final hour of the event.
Recap
- Water and Gatorade Endurance lemon/lime will be available at every aid station
- 1 cup of Gatorade will give you 11g carbs and 6 fl oz of fluids (354ml)
- 1 maurten gel will give you 25g of carbs and these will be available at aid stations 10, 14 and 18
- You want between 60-90g carbs per hour and start consuming this within the first hour of the event
Useful Links from this Post
Want to learn more about using caffeine as part of your fuelling strategy? Then read this handy post from Precision Hydration
Looking to buy the products being used at Chicago marathon? Here are suppliers based in the UK
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