Portland Marathon Fueling Plan & Pace Chart

Portland Fueling Strategy

Portland is sold as a fast course and the total, 873 feet of climbing over a net-zero loop, does not sound like much. The problem is distribution. There is no single hill to plan around and there is also no flat stretch to hide in. The course climbs and drops in eight or nine discrete 50 to 100 foot blocks spread evenly from mile 1 to mile 25, and the longest genuinely flat running you get after mile 8 is the 0.9 miles of Reed College Place at miles 16.4 to 17.3. Every other big-city marathon gives you a loading window. Portland does not. Fuel on the clock here, not on the terrain, because if you wait for a comfortable moment you will still be waiting at mile 22.

The second thing to understand is the aid station spacing, which is exactly backwards from what the course demands. Stations run every two miles from mile 3 to mile 15, then every mile from 16 to 26. That means the hilliest, thirstiest third of the race, including a 142 foot climb, a 106 foot climb and the Sellwood Bridge bluff, is the part with the fewest chances to drink, and the flatter closing miles are the part with a station every mile. There is also nothing at all before mile 3. Take your first gel between miles 2 and 3 as you crest the course high point on West Burnside and start down toward NW 23rd, and time it so you reach the mile 3 station on NW Kearney with something to wash down.

Miles 3 through 8 are the best absorption you will get all day and most runners waste them. The course drops 145 feet from the crest at 2.4 down through the Pearl District to river level at mile 5, climbs about 76 feet over the Broadway Bridge into the Rose Quarter at 5.9, drops the same amount back across the bridge, and then runs flat along Naito Parkway at 32 to 39 feet from mile 6.8 to 8.3. Your effort is low, your gut is cooperative and the stations at 5 and 7 sit on either side of the Broadway Bridge loop. Take a gel around mile 5.5 before the bridge climb and another near mile 7.5 on the flat Naito section. You run directly past the finish line just after mile 8, which is the single best crew and spectator point on the course. If you are handing off bottles or gels to anyone, that is where it happens.

The climb out of downtown at mile 8.3 is the one nobody warns you about. South on SW 1st Avenue, straight onto Ross Island Way, then up Kelly Avenue through Lair Hill under the aerial tram, gaining about 106 feet to a crest at mile 9.2. It is the second-longest sustained climb of the day and it arrives immediately after the flattest, easiest running on the course, which is exactly the setup that gets people. Do not fuel on it. Take the mile 9 station cup at the top, then use the 100 foot descent to Macadam and the flat South Waterfront miles 10 to 11.2 to get a gel in. The station at mile 11 on Macadam is your last easy one before the bridge.

Halfway is not where you think it is. The Sellwood Bridge crosses at about mile 12.1 and the course then climbs the bluff on SE Tacoma and SE 7th, so the 13.1 marker falls at roughly 119 feet of elevation on Sellwood Blvd, about 75 feet above where you were on Macadam. Use it as an audit point. At 75 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour you should have four gels in by there. Miles 13.1 to 15 give back 62 feet in a long gradual descent through Sellwood, and that stretch plus the mile 13 and mile 15 stations is your last chance to catch up before Eastmoreland.

Miles 15 through 20 are the part of Portland the elevation chart lies about. From mile 15 the course climbs 78 feet over the railroad tracks on Bybee and up Crystal Springs Blvd along the golf course, levels out on Reed College Place, then does something the per-mile numbers cannot show: inside mile 18 alone it drops about 80 feet into the Reed College campus and climbs about 51 feet straight back out. Mile 18 reads as nearly flat and is not. The fix is simple. Reed College Place at miles 16.4 to 17.3 is the flattest and quietest running left in the race, stations are now every mile, and you should take a gel there, around mile 17, before the campus loop rather than during it. Then take your next one at the mile 19 station on Lambert, at the top, before the 77 foot drop down Bybee to mile 20.4.

The last six miles are honest but unkind. Milwaukie Avenue rolls up 35 feet through Brooklyn to mile 21.8 and back down 31, and then just past mile 22.4 the course throws its last sharp pitch at you: about 47 feet up SE Franklin Street to McLoughlin Boulevard in roughly a third of a mile, the steepest grade after the first three miles. Get your final gel down at the mile 22 station on Milwaukie, on the flat, before Franklin Street. After McLoughlin the course drops 80 feet to the Eastbank Esplanade and runs flat at river level past OMSI and under the Marquam from 23.6 to 24.7, with stations at 23 and 24. There is one more 28 foot ramp up NE Couch to the Burnside Bridge just before mile 25, then it is downhill and flat to Waterfront Park.

On the products, Portland is unusual in a useful way. The drink is Skratch Labs Lemon Lime at 19 grams of carbohydrate and 400 milligrams of sodium per 16 ounce serving, which is one of the highest-sodium on-course drinks at any major American marathon and only a moderate carbohydrate source. A four to six ounce race cup gets you roughly 5 to 7 grams of carbohydrate and 100 to 150 milligrams of sodium, so treat Skratch as your sodium plan and carry your own carbohydrate. The gel is Crank Sports e-Gel at 37 grams of carbohydrate and 230 milligrams of sodium, which is about one and a half times the carbs of a standard gel, and the race does not publish which stations carry it. Two of the four flavors on course, Electric Cola and Orange You Glad, are e-Gel Turbo with 50 milligrams of caffeine each, so if you are already running caffeinated gels, check the flavor before you take a second one. Carry your own and treat the on-course gels as backup.

Weather is mostly on your side. The fifteen year average start is 51 degrees at 87 percent humidity with a 7:15 gun essentially at sunrise, which is close to ideal and argues for running at the top of the 75 to 90 gram range. But the average race day high is 71 degrees, starts have come in as low as 42 and as high as 61, and there is roughly a one in four chance of rain. On a warm year push fluid up 15 to 20 percent from mile 9 onward, because the Eastmoreland and Reed miles are the most exposed on the course. On a wet year pre-tear every gel tab before the gun, because Portland rain plus a cold hand plus a foil corner at mile 22 is a real way to skip a gel you needed.