- Sodium
- 5 mg
- Caffeine
- 0 mg (Coffee: 27 mg)
- Glucose : fructose
- pure maple syrup, not a glucose-fructose blend
Every aid station on the course, what it serves, and the exact minute you reach it based on your goal time. Then a fueling plan built on this exact course, so every gel is timed to avoid the hills and where there is water to wash it down so you never hit the wall in the last 6 miles.
Aid tables from the race's own GIS, the service behind its official runner map, checked 12 Sep 2026. Marine Corps publishes street corners, not miles; kilometres are converted. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Most fueling plans are generic: take a gel every 30 minutes, wash it down with water and drink your carb beverage in between.
But, what if your planned time to take a gel comes right in the middle of a hill? What if there’s no aid station close by to grab water from?
Often, where each gel goes on the course matters as much as how many you take
It’s these small, often ignored parts of executing a fueling plan that trip runners up and have them hitting the wall or slowing down because of an upset stomach, despite having a well-rehearsed fueling plan heading into the race.
things go wrong when you don’t account for the course in your fueling plan
You plan a gel at 60 minutes, but the next water station isn’t for another 15. That means you either have to wait, take it without water and have it sit, or take it with your carb beverage and take in too much sugar for your stomach to process.
Marine Corps does not publish how many run it, only that it is the third largest marathon in the United States. Tables that busy are easy to misjudge and not get the fuel you need. Without a plan for the next one you either double up later and pay for it, or run the rest of the race short.
As intensity increases, your stomach’s ability to process carbohydrates slows down. Couple that with breathing harder up a hill and you’ve got the perfect storm for a gel that can’t be digested fast enough.
The distance between aid stations, the concentration of the carbohydrate drink, and how much you’re actually able to swallow all change how much glycogen you’re actually replacing every hour. Your plan calls for 60 g per hour, but if you only hit 40 g you’ll run out of glycogen before you finish.
So your fueling plan needs to start with one question, and everything after it follows.
Water at 14 of the 17 tables, Nuun at 12 of them, gels at miles 13.2, 18.3 and 23.8.
What that adds up to, and what you still carry.
Fuel off the course ↓Your products, your timing, nothing riding on a cup you might miss.
What the course still decides for you.
Fuel from your own kit ↓Marine Corps takes more care than most courses to do this on. 3 of the 17 tables have no water, so a gel taken at the wrong one goes down dry. Below is where you’ll find each station, and what is at it.
Elevation is stretched to emphasis location. The numbered dots are your recommended fueling options for your 3:45 goal.
Source: the official Marine Corps Marathon, checked 12 Sep 2026
Water is provided at 14 of the 17 tables, from mile 2.3 to mile 24.9. The other 3, miles 13.2, 18.3 and 23.8, have none.
Nuun Endurance at 12 of the 17 stations, but there is very little carbohydrate in it: half a litre an hour of it is about 17 g. Gels at miles 13.2, 18.3 and 23.8, UnTapped maple syrup, 26 g each. Two more stations are cup-free — the 14th Street Bridge at mile 20 and Crystal Drive at mile 22.3 — where you refill your own bottle and nothing is poured for you.
The course climbs 664 ft in total, and 3 climbs are steeper than 3%: the hill up Lee Highway out of Rosslyn from mile 1.25 to 2, the climb onto Key Bridge from mile 4 to 4.3 and the climb to the Marine Corps War Memorial at mile 26. CarbRate keeps your feeds off those climbs and on the water tables either side.
14 of 17 tables, mile 2.3 to mile 24.9
miles 2.3, 4.7, 6.6, 8.2, 10.7, 13.6, 15.6, 16.9, 18.5, 21.8, 23.9 and 24.9
miles 13.2, 18.3 and 23.8, water at each
Put your goal time in and when you arrive at every aid station on the course recalculates. This is the list to put in your pocket, and the one CarbRate builds your feeds on.
| mi | km | Table | What’s at the table | You arrive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.3 | 3.7 | WP1 - Eastbound Lee Highway between Wayne and Adams Streets | waterNuun | 0:20 |
| 4.7 | 7.5 | WP2 - M and 33rd Streets NW, Georgetown | waterNuun | 0:40 |
| 6.6 | 10.6 | WP3 - Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway median, northbound | waterNuun | 0:57 |
| 8.2 | 13.3 | WP4 - Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway median, southbound | waterNuun | 1:11 |
| 10.7 | 17.1 | WP5 - Independence Avenue and Ohio Drive SW, West Potomac Park | waterNuun | 1:31 |
| 13.2 | 21.3 | Hains Point food station | UnTapped gels | 1:53 |
| 13.6 | 21.9 | WP6 - Ohio Drive SW parking area near the end of Hains Point | waterNuun | 1:57 |
| 15.6 | 25.1 | WP7 - Raoul Wallenberg Place SW and Independence Avenue SW | waterNuun | 2:14 |
| 16.9 | 27.2 | WP8 - Madison Drive NW and 12th Street NW, National Mall | waterNuun | 2:25 |
| 18.3 | 29.4 | National Mall food station | UnTapped gels | 2:37 |
| 18.5 | 29.8 | WP9 - Jefferson Drive SW and 7th Street SW, National Mall | waterNuun | 2:39 |
| 20 | 32.2 | 14th Street Bridge self-serve water (own bottle) | water | 2:52 |
| 21.8 | 35.1 | WP10 - Army-Navy Drive at Eads Street | waterNuun | 3:07 |
| 22.3 | 36.0 | Crystal City self-serve water, Water Monster (own bottle) | water | 3:12 |
| 23.8 | 38.2 | Crystal City food station, Long Bridge Park | UnTapped gels | 3:24 |
| 23.9 | 38.5 | WP11 - Long Bridge Drive, soccer complex parking lot | waterNuun | 3:25 |
| 24.9 | 40.1 | WP12 - Lady Bird Johnson parking area, Boundary Channel Drive, North Pentagon | waterNuun | 3:34 |
Nuun Endurance is 3.4 g of carbohydrate per 100 mL. A typical cup contains about 200 mL.
But, you likely won’t actually drink that much. Volunteers typically fill cups about half way to prevent water from splashing and you’ll lose a good amount as you run with the cup and what spills as you drink.
On average, you can expect a net intake of about 60 to 90 mL per cup
This is the part most runners don’t account for in their fueling plan, so CarbRate builds it directly in your plan.
We’ll tell you exactly how many cups at each aid station to drink based on how much glycogen you need and how much you’ll be able to supplement with gels.
A cup holds about 200 mL. Half-filled, spilled and sipped on the run, 60 to 90 mL of it actually goes down.
After you’ve calculated how much of the course drink you’ll likely take at each aid station, you’ll need to fill in your glycogen needs with gels along the course.
A typical gel contains about 25 g of carbohydrate, so use the chart here to calculate how many you’ll need.
If you’ve practiced fueling in training, you can target 75 to 90 g per hour. If you haven’t trained your stomach, err closer to 60 g per hour.
Here’s more on how to practice your fueling schedule to maximize your gut tolerance.
| Finish | 60 g/h | 75 g/h | 90 g/h |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3:45 your goal | |||
| 3:00 | 3to3 | 4to5 | 6to7 |
| 3:30 | 4to5 | 6to7 | 8to9 |
| 4:00 | 4to5 | 7to7 | 9to9 |
| 4:30 | 5to6 | 8to9 | 11to11 |
| 5:00 | 6to7 | 9to10 | 12to13 |
The gel is maple syrup in a packet, which is mostly sucrose rather than the glucose-fructose blend most race gels are built on, and it carries 5 mg of sodium. The drink is Nuun's tablet, made to replace salt rather than to fuel you. Practise with the gel before race day so mile 13.2 is not the first time your stomach meets it.
If UnTapped does not sit well with you, the closest matches are Maurten Gel 100, Precision Fuel PF 30 Gel and SiS Beta Fuel Gel. Pick one before race week and train on it.
CarbRate builds you a personalized race fueling plan from your own sweat rate, how your stomach handles gels, and then it coaches you through every feed, live, while you run.
It also customizes every gel and every drink placement to align with the actual elevation profile and aid station on your course.
Even carrying your own fuel, the Marine Corps course influences 4 things about your fueling plan: the timing of your gels, fluid intake, the hills, and caffeine.
The common advice is to take your gels every 30 to 45 minutes, but that might not coincide with when you hit an aid station.
If you’re not carrying your own water with you, you’ll need those aid stations to wash down your gel.
For a 3:45 finisher, Marine Corps’ tables arrive 20, 40, 57, 71 and 91 minutes in, then every 5 to 17 minutes.
So, you need to factor this into your fueling plan.
Enter your goal time in the input box below and we’ll show you when each aid station will arrive for your given pace.
If you want a fueling plan with all of these built in, CarbRate does this for you. Start building your plan here.
For a 3:45 finisher, 3 of 11 twenty-minute alarms land within 2 minutes of a table. Highlighted tables take a gel in a 75 g an hour plan; the first goes down before mile 2.3 from a bottle you carry.
| Finish | 60 g/h | 75 g/h | 90 g/h |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3:45 your goal | 9 | 12 | 14 |
| 3:00 | 8 | 9 | 11 |
| 3:30 | 9 | 11 | 13 |
| 4:00 | 10 | 12 | 15 |
| 4:30 | 11 | 14 | 17 |
| 5:00 | 12 | 15 | 18 |
Research has shown that the optimal carbohydrate concentration is 6 to 8 percent carbohydrate to water.
That means you’ll want about 100 mL (3.5 oz) of water for every 8 grams of carbohydrate you take in. A typical gel contains 25 g of carbohydrate, so you’ll want to aim for about 300 mL (10 oz) of water with each gel.
A good estimate is that each cup of water will provide you 100 mL (3.5 oz) of water. That’s because volunteers typically fill cups about half way to prevent water from splashing and you’ll lose a good amount as you run with the cup and what spills as you drink.
So, if you’re not carrying your own water, have your gel open and prepared to take at the start of the aid station so you can take it early with a cup of water and still have time to grab another cup or two.
The carbohydrate you need per hour is the same on a hilly course as on a flat one. What changes is which aid stations you can take it at, when you reach them, and where your caffeine goes.
Keep your gels off the climbs
Your stomach slows down digestion as your effort increases running uphill. This happens because blood moves from your gut to your legs, so a gel taken on a hard climb sits there instead of being absorbed.
So, keep your gels off any climb steeper than about 3 percent, and take them on the flat before it or the flat after it.
Marine Corps has 3 climbs like that: the hill up Lee Highway out of Rosslyn from mile 1.25 to 2, the climb onto Key Bridge from mile 4 to 4.3 and the climb to the Marine Corps War Memorial at mile 26.
Long, steep descents are no better. Below about 7 percent your quads are doing the braking and everything in your stomach is bouncing, so wait for the grade to ease before you take anything.
If you want a fueling plan with your gel and drink timing customized to the course, CarbRate does this for you. Start building your plan here.
The climb to the Marine Corps War Memorial at mile 26 is the climb that decides your race, so your caffeine goes in about an hour before it.
If you plan to use caffeine, it’s best to time it so the benefits kick in on the climb that decides your race rather than at the start.
Caffeine peaks in your blood about an hour after you swallow it, then it slowly falls.
With a goal finish time of 3:45 that would place your caffeine at mile 18.5 (30 km), about an hour before the climb to the Marine Corps War Memorial at mile 26.
This should provide you with peak benefits from the caffeine right when you need it the most.
Blood caffeine peaks about an hour after the dose, so a mile 18.5 gel peaks near mile 26 for a 3:45 finisher, on the climb to the Marine Corps War Memorial.
CarbRate builds you a personalized race fueling plan from your own sweat rate, how your stomach handles gels, and then it coaches you through every feed, live, while you run.
It also customizes every gel and every drink placement to align with the actual elevation profile and aid station on your course.
This is a real CarbRate plan rather than an example we wrote out: a 68 kg runner, 3:45 goal, trained stomach, drinking the Nuun and taking the course gel, 14 °C at the start. Adjusted finish 3:48. Target 81 g an hour, 307 g in total, as 12 feeds of 25 g.
8 of the 12 feeds land on a real Marine Corps aid table, so there is water in your hand for every one of them.
| # | Clock | mi | Where | What |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0:09 | 1.1 | No table here · mile 1.1 (water in hand) | One 25 g gel, your own |
| 2 | 0:30 | 3.5 | No table here · mile 3.5 (water in hand) | One 25 g gel, your own |
| 3 | 0:47 | 5.5 | No table here · mile 5.5 (water in hand) | One 25 g gel, your own |
| 4 | 0:58 | 6.7 | WP3 - Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway median, northbound · mile 6.6 | One 25 g gel, your own |
| 5 | 1:32 | 10.6 | WP5 - Independence Avenue and Ohio Drive SW, West Potomac Park · mile 10.7 | One 25 g gel, your own |
| 6 | 1:44 | 12.0 | No table here · mile 12 (water in hand) | One 25 g gel, your own |
| 7 | 1:59 | 13.7 | WP6 - Ohio Drive SW parking area near the end of Hains Point · mile 13.6 | One 25 g gel, your own |
| 8 | 2:26 | 16.8 | WP8 - Madison Drive NW and 12th Street NW, National Mall · mile 16.9 | One 25 g gel, your own |
| 9 | 2:41 | 18.6 | WP9 - Jefferson Drive SW and 7th Street SW, National Mall · mile 18.5 | One 25 g gel, your own |
| 10 | 3:08 | 21.7 | WP10 - Army-Navy Drive at Eads Street · mile 21.8 | One 25 g gel, your own |
| 11 | 3:13 | 22.2 | Crystal City self-serve water, Water Monster (own bottle) · mile 22.3 | One 25 g gel, your own |
| 12 | 3:37 | 25.0 | WP12 - Lady Bird Johnson parking area, Boundary Channel Drive, North Pentagon · mile 24.9 | One 25 g gel, your own |
The first feed comes before the first table on purpose: CarbRate starts you early, with the water you carry from the start line. Say you are carrying your own instead and it rebuilds this same timeline with your products and more feeds, on the same tables. On race day the app calls each feed by voice as you reach it.
CarbRate builds yours from your weight, your sweat rate, your goal time, the gels you already train with, and the race-day forecast. Answer a few quick questions and it is built, with the Marine Corps course already loaded.
These are the warnings CarbRate attaches to a Marine Corps plan, word for word, for the 3:45 runner above.
Marine Corps hands out UnTapped gels at 3 points. You need about 12 feeds, so that covers roughly 24% of your carbohydrate. Take them if you want them, and carry the other 9.
Marine Corps has Nuun Endurance, Lemon Lime, which carries 3.4 g of carbohydrate per 100 ml. Drinking 500 ml an hour that comes to about 17 g/h against your target of 81. Drink it for the fluid and the sodium. It is not going to replace a gel.
3 of Marine Corps's 17 stations have no water — they pour sports drink or hand out gels only. Your plan already skips them for anything you need to wash down.
The longest stretch without water on Marine Corps runs 2.9 miles, from mile 10.7 to mile 13.6. At your pace that is about 34 minutes. Carry fluid through it rather than waiting for the next table. Under 5 hours that stretch takes less than 27 minutes, and CarbRate stays quiet.
The first table is at mile 2.3. CarbRate allows 45 minutes for the opening stretch instead of the usual 27, because you start hydrated and fed. So Marine Corps’ first 2.3 miles never trigger a warning.
Nuun Endurance carries about 800 mg of sodium per litre as mixed, above the 600 mg per litre target. The race does not publish its own dilution, so that figure is the maker’s standard mix.
Drink it at the tables and your sodium is covered. Carry your own water instead and CarbRate works out how much you need from your sweat rate and the forecast, and puts it on the same schedule as your gels.
From 15 October the start-line forecast appears here, with what it changes in your plan. On a warm day: more fluid and more sodium.
Every fact on this page in one block, for the runner who wants the answer and nothing else.
Yes. Nuun Endurance, Lemon Lime is at miles 2.3, 4.7, 6.6, 8.2, 10.7, 13.6, 15.6, 16.9, 18.5, 21.8, 23.9 and 24.9, alongside water. UnTapped gels is handed out at miles 13.2, 18.3 and 23.8.
Miles 13.2, 18.3 and 23.8, which is km 21.3, km 29.4 and km 38.2. There is water at each of them. Plan to carry the rest of your own.
It depends on your carbohydrate target and how much of the course drink you take. At 75 g an hour a 3:45 finish needs about 280 g. Drinking one cup of Nuun at each drink table covers roughly 60 g of that, which leaves about 9 gels of 25 g, 3 of them handed out on the course, so carry 6. Drinking half a litre of Nuun an hour, carry 6. The grid above works this out for any finish time.
Yes. Our course profile shows 664 ft of climbing across 26.2 miles with 3 climbs steeper than 3%: the hill up Lee Highway out of Rosslyn from mile 1.25 to 2, the climb onto Key Bridge from mile 4 to 4.3 and the climb to the Marine Corps War Memorial at mile 26. CarbRate keeps your gels off those climbs and on the tables either side of them, and arrival times assume even pace only as a rough guide.
Yes. Nuun Endurance carries about 800 mg of sodium per litre as the maker mixes it, which is above the 600 mg per litre target. The race does not publish its own dilution. If you carry your own water instead, bring your own sodium plan.
Marine Corps publishes none. The tables carry water and Nuun and nothing else.
The first table is at mile 2.3. After that they come every 0.2 to 2.6 miles. The longest gap after the start is mile 10.7 to mile 13.2, about 4.1 km, which is 24 minutes at 4:00 pace and 30 minutes at 5:00 pace.
At even pace: 1:46 into a 3:30 race, 1:53 into a 3:45, 2:01 into a 4:00, and 2:31 into a 5:00. Enter your own goal time in the station table above to see every table.
There are 17, at miles 2.3, 4.7, 6.6, 8.2, 10.7, 13.2, 13.6, 15.6, 16.9, 18.3, 18.5, 20, 21.8, 22.3, 23.8, 23.9 and 24.9. 14 of them have water; miles 13.2, 18.3 and 23.8 do not. 12 of them, miles 2.3, 4.7, 6.6, 8.2, 10.7, 13.6, 15.6, 16.9, 18.5, 21.8, 23.9 and 24.9, also have Nuun Endurance, Lemon Lime.
Yes. Marine Corps does not take personal bottles from the mass field, so everything you carry starts on you at the gun. Carrying everything at 75 g an hour is 12 gels of 25 g for a 3:45 finish, or 9 if you take the course gels.
60 to 90 grams an hour, set by your body size and by how much your stomach has practised absorbing. Start at the rate you have already trained at rather than the rate you want: 90 g an hour is a target to build toward over a training cycle before you race on it.
Only for the opening 2.3 miles. The first table is at mile 2.3, about 20 minutes into a 3:45 race, and after that tables come every 0.2 to 2.6 miles. If your first feed comes before mile 2.3, carry the fluid for it from the start line.
1 to 4 g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight in the 1 to 4 hours before the start, from food you have already eaten before long runs. A 68 kg runner eating 3 hours before the start needs roughly 130 to 200 g of carbohydrate.
The tables, the Nuun and the course profile above are already in. Add your weight, goal time, sweat rate and the gels you like, and CarbRate builds your feed-by-feed plan for Marine Corps, then calls each feed by voice on race day.
The plan is free. Live race-day guidance and the practice schedule are in the app, $9.95 a month or a one-time $49.95 Race Pass that expires after your race.