Athens Marathon Fueling Plan & Pace Chart

Athens Fueling Strategy

Athens is the hardest course most runners will ever sign up for on purpose, and the difficulty sits almost entirely in one place. Kilometre 19 to kilometre 31, mile 11.8 to 19.3, is a 12 kilometre climb that gains about 650 feet and does not really let up. Everything before it is setup and everything after it is a long descent into the city. The runners who have a good day in Athens are the ones who arrive at the bottom of that climb with carbohydrate already absorbed and a schedule they can keep while the road points up for an hour or more.

Start with what the course hands you, because it is less than you think. Water comes in bottles every 2.5 kilometres, which is excellent. Isotonic drink only starts at kilometre 10 and then appears every 5 kilometres after that. Gels come twice, at kilometre 10 and kilometre 20, mile 6.2 and mile 12.4, and in 2025 they were Maurten Gel 100 at the first table and Gel 100 Caf 100 at the second, 25 grams of carbohydrate each with almost no sodium. That is 50 grams of on-course gel carbohydrate in a race that, at a four hour finish and 75 to 90 grams an hour, needs somewhere around 300. Carry your own, use the gel tables as a top-up, and do not count on the isotonic cups for more than a few grams each.

The first 6 miles are flat, cool and coastal, and they are where the day gets won or lost without anyone noticing. The course drops about 90 feet in the first two miles on Marathonos Avenue, loops the Tomb of the Marathon Warriors from kilometre 4 to 6.2, and runs the seafront through Nea Makri. The first two stations, at kilometre 5 and 7.5, are water only. Take your first gel off your own supply at mile 2 or 3, before the loop, and wash it down at kilometre 5. Runners are bussed out to Marathon well before dawn, so breakfast was three or four hours ago by the time you reach mile 3, and this gel is not optional.

The first climb, kilometre 10 to 16, mile 6.2 to 10, gains about 230 feet and catches people off guard because every preview talks about kilometre 19 to 31 instead. It is steady rather than steep until the final half kilometre before Mati, which hits about 3 percent. Take the gel at kilometre 10 at the base of it, then let the effort rise with the grade rather than holding pace. Then the course drops 170 feet in about a mile, kilometre 16 to 17.7, toward the Rafina junction. Run that descent loose and do not eat on it. Fuel again at the kilometre 17.5 water table on the flat at the bottom.

The big climb starts right after kilometre 19. Its first two kilometres into Pikermi run at about 2.5 to 3 percent, which is the steepest sustained grade you have seen so far. The second gel table sits at kilometre 20, mile 12.4, right on that pitch, and in 2025 it served a caffeinated gel. Caffeine takes 30 to 45 minutes to peak, which lines it up with the Pallini and Gerakas miles, where the climb gets hardest. Halfway falls just past Pikermi at kilometre 21.1, and it is the audit point. At 75 to 90 grams an hour you should have four gels in by then, including both on-course tables.

Miles 14 through 19 are where Athens is decided. There is a long push around kilometre 24 to 25, more climbing through Pallini at kilometre 27 to 28, and then the steepest sustained climb on the course. That is the Stavros interchange, kilometre 30 to 31, mile 18.6 to 19.3, at over 3 percent, arriving after more than an hour of climbing. Your stomach will be at its least cooperative on the steep pitches, so fuel on the gentler grades between them. Take a gel around kilometre 22.5 to 23 (mile 14) and another by the kilometre 27.5 water table (mile 17), well before Stavros. Do not wait for the top. Kilometre 30 has Coca-Cola, which is fine as a small caffeine-and-sugar top-up, but a cup of cola is 15 to 20 grams of sugar at most and it is not a substitute for the gel you should have taken at mile 17.

The course high point is at kilometre 31.1 in Agia Paraskevi, about 800 feet above sea level. The last 11 kilometres drop roughly 480 feet, steep at first down to Cholargos, then easier along Mesogeion Avenue, then steep again from kilometre 36 past the Ministry of Defence and down into the Katechaki underpass. It is fast running if your legs and your glycogen survived the climb, and brutal on both if they did not. Take a final gel on the gentler section around kilometre 33 to 35, mile 21 to 22, with the water or cola at kilometre 35. Anything after kilometre 37 is about morale more than energy. The finish runs down Vasilissis Sofias past the concert hall at kilometre 40, then along Irodou Attikou to the stadium, with the last 170 metres on the track inside the Kallimarmaro.

Weather decides how hard the climb bites. The November averages look mild, around 51 to 65 degrees, but a mid-pack runner is climbing through Pallini and Gerakas in full late-morning sun, and the day usually feels warmer than the forecast. 2025 ran 62 to 72 degrees along the course with humidity near the coast early on. Use the sponges at the water-only stations (kilometre 7.5, 12.5, 17.5 and so on) on the neck and forearms. On a warm year, raise fluid 15 to 20 percent and drop to the bottom of the 75 to 90 gram range if your gut is complaining on the climb. On a cool, overcast year this is a course to run at the top of that range, because absorption is better and the climb burns more carbohydrate than the pace suggests.

Sodium is thin. The 2025 Maurten gels carried roughly 20 to 35 milligrams each and a cup of isotonic is not much more. For a four hour runner in a warm year that adds up to far less than you are sweating out. Carry salt capsules or a higher-sodium drink mix and take something every 45 to 60 minutes from kilometre 10 onward.