TCS Amsterdam Marathon Fueling Plan & Pace Chart

Amsterdam Fueling Strategy

Amsterdam is flat in the way only a Dutch course can be. The entire route sits inside a 9 metre band, and the roughly 230 feet of total climbing is a string of bridge humps, cycle underpasses and one shallow polder. Nothing on this course will slow you enough to make eating feel natural, and that is the risk. The two things that actually shape your fueling are the seven exposed miles along the Amstel and the thin gel provision. Build the plan around those.

Start with the on-course product. Amsterdam serves Maurten, which is good news if you have trained with it. Drink Mix 160 is poured at eight stations (km 5, 11, 16, 20, 27, 31, 35 and 38) at 40 grams of carbohydrate per 500 millilitres, so a race cup is worth roughly 10 to 12 grams if you actually drink all of it. Maurten Gel 100 is handed out at exactly two points, km 18 (mile 11.2) and km 30 (mile 18.6), at 25 grams each. That is 50 grams of gel across the whole race. At 75 to 90 grams an hour a 3:45 runner needs close to 300 grams, so plan on carrying at least two thirds of it yourself and treat the Maurten tables as a top-up.

The first aid station is km 5, mile 3.1. The opening miles run through Vondelpark on narrow paths shared with thousands of people, which is not the place to open a packet. Take your first gel just after the Rijksmuseum passage around mile 2.5, where the road opens up, and wash it down at km 5. Miles 3 to 8 loop through Oud-Zuid and the Zuidas with water at km 8 (mile 5.0) and a full station at km 11 (mile 6.8). Gel again around mile 5 and with a cup of Drink Mix at mile 7, then settle in.

The Amstel is the race. You reach the river around mile 8.7 and run south on open dike to Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, cross the river around mile 12, and come back north on the other bank until about mile 15.5. There is no shelter and very little crowd. Race-day wind in most recent editions has come from the south or southwest, which usually makes the outbound leg a headwind and the return a tailwind. Running into a headwind burns noticeably more energy without feeling much harder, so this is the easiest place on the course to fall behind on carbohydrate without noticing. Fuel at the km 16 station (mile 9.9) and take the Maurten gel at km 18 (mile 11.2) or one of your own there. Do not spend the tailwind on the way back by surging.

Halfway falls at km 21.1 on the east bank, just after the bridge in Ouderkerk. Use it as your audit. At 75 to 90 grams an hour you should have four or five gels in by then. Know what comes next: after the full station at km 20 (mile 12.4) there is water only at km 25 and no carbohydrate from the course until km 27, mile 16.8. That is 4.4 miles on the quietest, most exposed part of the race. Carry a gel for mile 14 and take it with water at km 25 if you want one close to a station.

Miles 15.5 to 19 leave the river for Overamstel and the business park, industrial and flat with a raised stretch around mile 18. The full station at km 27 (mile 16.8) is your next gel. Then Amsterdam gives you something rare: the second Maurten gel at km 30 (mile 18.6) and a full drink station at km 31 (mile 19.3) are only 0.6 miles apart. Take the gel at 30 and chase it with Drink Mix at 31. That is the best-placed fuel on the course, because right after it the road drops into the Watergraafsmeer polder.

From here the stations come every 1.2 to 1.9 miles (km 33, 35, 38 and 40), which makes the last 10 kilometres easy to fuel if you are still willing to. The climb out of the polder just past mile 21 is only about 20 feet, but it is the first thing on the course that feels like a hill. Take your final gel at the km 35 station, mile 21.7, on the flat after it. Around mile 23 the course dips through an underpass and climbs about 26 feet onto the Torontobrug over the Amstel. It is the sharpest rise of the day and lasts only a few hundred metres, but it arrives at the wrong time. Do not eat on it. Take a last cup of Drink Mix at km 38 (mile 23.6) for the run past the Rijksmuseum and through Vondelpark to the stadium.

Weather is usually kind and occasionally not. Over the last ten editions the 9 a.m. temperature has run from the mid 40s to the high 50s °F, averaging near 49°F, which argues for fueling at the top of the 75 to 90 gram range because absorption is good in the cool. Mornings are humid, often above 85 percent, and the warm years are real: 2024 started in the high 50s with a south wind building past 15 mph. Waves 5 and 6 do not start until 9:31 and 9:43, so a 4:30 runner is still out past 2 p.m. On a warm forecast, raise fluid 15 to 20 percent and use the sponges at km 11, 20, 27, 33 and 38. On a cold, wet morning, pre-tear your gel tabs before the start, because you will be eating on a wind-blown dike with wet hands.

Sodium is the gap. Drink every one of the eight Drink Mix stations and you get roughly 500 milligrams over the race, and a Gel 100 adds only about 20. That is fine for a light sweater on a 48°F morning and too little for a salty sweater on a humid 60°F day. If you lose a lot of salt, carry capsules and take one an hour.