Columbus Marathon Fueling Plan & Pace Chart

Columbus Fueling Strategy

Columbus is genuinely flat, and that is exactly what makes it a fueling course rather than a terrain course. About 525 feet of climbing across 26.2 miles, a net change of zero, and the whole race lives inside a 130-foot band. But the climbing is not spread evenly. There is 85 feet of it in the first two miles, two dips into the Alum Creek valley out east, ten miles of near-nothing through the middle, and then one real hill from mile 18 to mile 19.5 that gains about 105 feet and tops out at the highest point on the course. Everything after that is downhill or flat. Plan around that shape and around the fact that this race hands you almost nothing to eat for fifteen miles.

Start with the on-course product, because Columbus's is thinner than most big American marathons and runners consistently overestimate it. There are 17 fluid stations and every one of them has water and lemon-lime Gatorade Endurance. Gatorade Endurance runs 22 grams of carbohydrate and 310 milligrams of sodium per 12 ounces, and a race cup holds four to six. That is roughly seven to ten grams of carbohydrate per cup, and most runners get half a cup down at speed. Taking every station would still leave you well short of one hour of your target intake. Treat the Gatorade as hydration and sodium with a small carbohydrate assist, and carry every gram of carbohydrate you actually intend to absorb.

The gels are GU, and there are exactly two stations, at mile 15.5 on 12th Avenue at Ohio State and at mile 20.7 on King Avenue coming out of Upper Arlington. Nothing in the first half. Each packet is 22 grams of carbohydrate with 60 to 125 milligrams of sodium, and 20 milligrams of caffeine in the Vanilla Bean and Chocolate Outrage flavors. The race stocks roughly 6,800 gels for a marathon field of around 4,500, so if you are running slower than four hours, treat both stations as a bonus rather than a plan. Carry your own and let the on-course gels be the ones you do not need.

The first two miles climb about 85 feet out of the Scioto River bottom onto Broad Street. It will not feel like a hill and it does not look like one on the profile, and that combination is what makes people run the opening 15 to 20 seconds a mile faster than they meant to. Take your first gel by mile 3, on flat Broad Street before the road drops toward Alum Creek. Stations sit at roughly 1.9, 3.6, 5.0 and 6.8, so you have four chances to wash it down before you turn back toward downtown.

Miles 3 through 7 are a small out-and-back through Bexley with two river dips and two climbs back out. The course drops to about 750 feet crossing Alum Creek on Broad near mile 3.5, climbs 40 feet into Bexley to Drexel, turns south and west on Main, drops to Alum Creek again around mile 6, then climbs 55 feet back up onto the Broad Street ridge by mile 7. None of it is hard. All of it costs more than the pace suggests. Fuel again around mile 6, at the Main Street station or the Conservatory station at 6.8, and do not swallow anything on the mile 7 climb.

Miles 8 through 13 are the flattest and most emotional stretch of the race. You come down 18th Street past Nationwide Children's Hospital, west on Livingston, through the brick streets of German Village around Schiller Park, then north on High Street back into downtown. The patient champions and their families are thickest through here, the Angel Mile has recently been mile 11, and this is reliably where runners forget to eat for fifteen minutes. Set an alarm before the gun. Stations sit close together at roughly 8.1, 8.9, 10.8 and 11.8, which makes this your best absorption window on the course. If you are running 75 to 90 grams of carbohydrate an hour, you should have four or five gels in by the 13.1 mat.

Mile 13 runs right past the Arena District and within sight of the finish, and the half marathoners peel off. The crowds thin, the noise drops, and the next four miles through the Short North and onto the Ohio State campus are quiet, flat and faster than they feel. Use them. Take a gel at the 14.9 station on West 5th, then take the GU at 15.5 on 12th Avenue or your own equivalent. That placement is not an accident. There is a two-mile gap from 15.5 to the next station on Woody Hayes Drive at 17.6, and the hill starts right after it.

Mile 17.5 crosses the Olentangy past Ohio Stadium at the low point of the second half, and then the course climbs. Woody Hayes to Kenny Road, then west on Guilford into Upper Arlington: about 105 feet of gain over a mile and a half, roughly 25 feet in mile 18 and 79 in mile 19, cresting around 836 feet. It averages barely over one percent and at mile 19 it will feel like far more. Get your carbohydrate in at the 17.6 station on the flat before the bridge, not on the grade. Then hold steady through 19 and 20 rather than trying to catch up, and take the mile 20.7 gel on King Avenue as the road starts to tip back down. Upper Arlington is the most exposed ground on the course with the thinnest crowds, and a southwest wind above 10 mph turns miles 19 to 21 into the hardest twenty minutes of your day.

The last five miles give everything back. The course loses about 28, 34 and 42 feet in miles 21, 22 and 23 through Grandview Heights, flattens through Victorian Village, and drops another 30 feet into the Arena District in mile 26. This is where a well-fueled Columbus race turns into a personal best and a badly fueled one turns into a shuffle, because there is no terrain left to blame. One practical warning: the last fluid station is around mile 23.5 on West 5th Avenue, which leaves roughly two and a half miles with no support. Take your final gel by mile 22 or at the latest at that last station, with fluid, and be done. Anything you swallow after mile 24 here is doing nothing for you.

Weather is usually the good news. Race-day history averages 51 degrees with a range around 40 to 61 and roughly 79 percent morning humidity, and a 7:30 start typically means mid-40s in the corral. That is close to ideal for gut absorption, which argues for running at the top of the 75 to 90 gram per hour range rather than the bottom. The cost is handling: cold blunts thirst, so drink on a schedule rather than on feel, carry gels against your skin under a layer, and pre-tear every tab before the gun if you are wearing gloves. On a warm October year, and Columbus has produced them, raise fluid by 15 to 20 percent, take water at every station from mile 2 instead of every other, and pay attention to sodium. Between a four-ounce cup of Gatorade Endurance and a GU packet you are getting maybe 150 milligrams a stop, and if you salt heavily in training nobody on this course is going to hand you enough.