Irish Life Dublin Marathon Fueling Plan & Pace Chart

Dublin Fueling Strategy

Dublin gives you two climbs and then asks you to fuel around them. The first runs from the river at mile 2.5 to the top of College Road at mile 7, about 200 feet spread over four and a half miles, most of it a long straight grind up Chesterfield Avenue in Phoenix Park. The second is Clonskeagh and Roebuck Roads from mile 20.7 to 22.1, about 100 feet that arrive exactly when your glycogen is lowest. Everything between is gentle. The 673 feet of total gain looks bigger than the race feels, but the shape matters: a climb early enough to tempt you into waiting to eat, and a climb late enough to punish you for it.

Know what the course hands you. There are ten Ishka water stations, some with 250 ml bottles and some with cups, four Lucozade Sport stations at miles 9.5, 13, 19 and 22, and High5 gels at only two points, mile 16 and mile 22. The gels carry 23 grams of carbohydrate and very little sodium. Lucozade Sport is 6.5 grams of carbohydrate and 50 milligrams of sodium per 100 ml, so a cup is worth roughly 10 grams if it is 150 ml. Take everything on offer and you collect something like 85 grams of carbohydrate from the course over the whole race. At 75 to 90 grams an hour you need three to four times that. Carry your own gels, at least four for a sub-3:30 and five or six for anything slower, and treat the High5 tables as top-ups.

The first mile and a half runs downhill from Leeson Street and there is no water until just before mile 3 on Manor Street in Stoneybatter, at the top of the first real pitch up from the quays. Take your first gel there with the bottle, around 20 to 25 minutes in. Do not start eating on the quays at mile 2, because you will be climbing Blackhall Place with a mouthful of gel and nothing to wash it down. Then settle into the park. Chesterfield Avenue is wide, straight and slightly uphill for three miles, with water at mile 5 and just past mile 7 on College Road. The grade is shallow enough to eat on without trouble, so take your second gel around mile 6 and wash it down at 7.

From College Road the course drops about 200 feet in under three miles, including the steep run down Knockmaroon into the park and Upper Glen Road to Chapelizod Gate. This is the fastest section of the race and the easiest place to spend a minute you will want back at mile 22. Run it controlled and do not try to eat on the steep part. The first Lucozade station sits at the bottom at mile 9.5, which is the natural place for gel number three, just before the short climb up St Laurence and Sarsfield Roads into Inchicore.

Halfway comes on Crumlin Road at Brickfields Park, with water and Lucozade at mile 13. Use it as an audit. At 75 to 90 grams an hour you should have four gels in by here, plus whatever Lucozade you have taken. Miles 13 to 15 climb gently out Crumlin, Drimnagh and Walkinstown Roads, and on a normal October day the prevailing south-westerly is often in your face here. There is water at mile 11.5 and then nothing between 13 and 16. If you are short, eat at 13 rather than waiting.

The first High5 table is on Kimmage Road West at mile 16, on the flat plateau. Take it or your own gel, whichever your gut is trained on. Miles 16 to 19 through Kimmage, Fortfield and Templeogue into Terenure are the easiest running of the second half, slightly downhill in places, and they are your last comfortable fueling window. The Dartry Road station at mile 19 has Lucozade and water. Take a gel there even if it is only 20 minutes since the last one, because the next 20 minutes decide the race.

After Dartry the course drops to the Dodder, lifts up Milltown Road, then falls again to Clonskeagh bridge before the long climb starts at about mile 20.7. Clonskeagh Road into Roebuck Road rises about 100 feet in a mile and a half, steepest near the top around 35K. The second High5 table and the fourth Lucozade station are at mile 22, after the climb, on the UCD side before Fosters Avenue. That placement is backwards for anyone who has not eaten since 16, which is why you take a gel at 19. Treat mile 22 as your last gel, not your rescue gel. Fosters Avenue then drops about 65 feet and the last four miles are downhill or flat along Stillorgan Road, Nutley Lane and Merrion Road, with a final water stop at mile 24. Anything you take after 24 is for morale.

Weather is usually kind and occasionally wet. Late October in Dublin averages a 45 degree low and a 56 degree high, the waves start between 8:45 and 9:45, and humidity sits around 80 to 85 percent in the morning. That combination is cool enough to support the top of the 75 to 90 gram range and humid enough that you will still sweat more than the temperature suggests. Rain turns up roughly one year in four and wind is the more common problem, especially on the exposed stretches around miles 13 to 15 and on Merrion Road. In cold rain, drink to thirst but do not stop fueling on the clock, because cold hands and a soaked wrapper make it easy to skip a gel. On the rare warm year, raise fluid 15 to 20 percent and remember that Wave 4 runners are out until early afternoon.

Two practical notes. Clocks go back an hour at 2 a.m. on race morning, so set your breakfast alarm by the new time and eat your pre-race meal three hours before your wave, not before the elite start. And sodium is thin: a cup of Lucozade gives you roughly 75 milligrams and a High5 gel under 40. A salty sweater should carry salt capsules or a higher-sodium gel, because the course will not give you enough.