Richmond Marathon Fueling Plan & Pace Chart

Richmond Fueling Strategy

Richmond has a reputation as a friendly, forgiving, first-timer-appropriate marathon, and the first fourteen miles will confirm it. The problem is that the on-course nutrition is thinner than almost any race this size, and the hardest climbing arrives at mile 17. If you show up planning to run on what the race hands you, you will get to the Lee Bridge with about forty grams of carbohydrate in you and eleven miles left.

Start with the drink, because this is where Richmond quietly breaks plans. Every one of the sixteen stations pours Tailwind Rapid Hydration, which is 12 grams of carbohydrate and 320 milligrams of sodium per stick mixed into 16 to 24 ounces. A race cup holds four to six ounces. That is roughly three grams of carbohydrate and eighty milligrams of sodium per cup, against the nine or ten grams you would get from a cup of Gatorade Endurance at Boston or Chicago. Tailwind sells a separate product called Endurance Fuel that carries the calories. Richmond is not serving it. Treat what is in the cup as hydration and sodium, treat it as functionally zero carbohydrate, and carry everything you intend to eat.

Then look at where the gels are. There are exactly two energy stops on this course, mile 14 and mile 21, and nothing before mile 14. That is fourteen miles and roughly two hours with no on-course carbohydrate at all. Every runner needs to carry a full supply. At 75 to 90 grams per hour, a four-hour finisher needs about 300 to 360 grams total, which is thirteen to sixteen GU-sized gels' worth. The two on-course GUs cover 44 grams of that. Plan your own supply as if the energy stops do not exist, and take what they hand you only as a bonus.

The first six miles are a trap dressed as a warmup. Broad Street through VCU, the Monument Avenue median, Grove Avenue through the West End, and it is uphill the entire way, roughly 55 feet of net rise to the course high point near mile 6. Nothing about it registers as climbing. Your legs feel great, the temperature is in the low forties, and there is no gel table for another eight miles. Take your first gel at mile 3 on Monument and your second before mile 6, using the water at 2, 4 and 6 to wash them down. Pre-tear the tabs before the gun, because at a 43-degree average start you will be wearing gloves.

Mile 7 is the fastest mile you will run all day. The course drops about 108 feet off Huguenot Road and across the Huguenot Bridge, which is more elevation change than any single mile at Boston. It is free speed and it is also quad damage that will not present its bill until mile 25. Run it controlled, and do not try to swallow a gel on it. Fuel instead on the flat river road at mile 8 or 9, where there is a station and the grade is nearly zero.

Miles 10 through 12 are the climb out of the river valley into Stratford Hills, about 85 feet across three miles with the sharpest pitch inside mile 10. Riverside Drive before it is narrow and it bunches up badly behind the pace groups, so plan to eat before you get boxed in rather than while you are shuffling. Halfway falls at roughly 197 feet on Forest Hill Avenue near Forest Hill Park, up on the high ground and not down at the river. Use the 13.1 marker as an audit. At 75 to 90 grams an hour you should have four or five gels in. If you are short, miles 13 through 15 are downhill and easy and they are your last comfortable chance to catch up.

Everything about this race is decided between mile 15.5 and mile 18. The course drops to Manchester, loops at mile 15, then climbs the Lee Bridge at mile 16, which is the most wind-exposed 800 meters on the course, and then climbs Belvidere off the river at mile 17 for about 60 feet of net gain in a single mile. Miles 16 through 18 gain roughly 118 feet in total, and they arrive at the exact point in a marathon where your gut is least cooperative. Do not plan to eat on the bridge. Take a gel at mile 15 on the Semmes Avenue descent so it is absorbed before Belvidere, take the water at 16 (there is a junk food stop there too, which is a novelty and not a plan), and then leave your stomach alone until you are on flat Main Street past mile 18.

Miles 19 through 24 are the Northside, and they are where Richmond is honest. Arthur Ashe Boulevard to Hermitage, Bellevue past Joseph Bryan Park, back down Brook Road past Virginia Union. Six miles that are flat within four feet, with thin crowds, exposed north wind, and nothing to look at. There is no terrain to blame here, which is precisely why under-fueled runners fall apart in this stretch. Stations come every mile from 20 onward, which is generous. Take the mile 21 energy stop, get your final gel in by mile 22 or 23 at the latest, and if you have practiced with Coke, the junk food stop at 22 is a legitimate carbohydrate and caffeine hit at the right moment. If you have not practiced with it, mile 22 is not the day to audition pickle juice.

Weather is Richmond's best feature and it should push you to the top of the range. The 17-year average is 43°F at the 7 a.m. gun with 75 percent humidity, a light north wind, a high near 58, and rain in roughly one year out of nine. Gut absorption is meaningfully better in the forties than in the seventies, so run 85 to 90 grams per hour rather than 75. The cold has three costs and all three are solvable: it blunts thirst, so drink on a schedule and not on feel; it thickens gels, so carry them against your skin under a layer; and it means gloves, so pre-fold every tab before the start. Richmond has started as cold as 27°F in 2017 and as warm as 64°F in 2022. Above 60, add 15 to 20 percent fluid and take Tailwind at every station for the sodium, because at eighty milligrams a cup you need volume to accumulate anything.

One last thing about the finish. Mile 26 turns onto 5th Street and the last tenth drops roughly 90 feet to Tredegar Street and Brown's Island. It is a real descent, and it is the second-steepest thing on the course after mile 7. Runners who ate through the quiet Northside miles hammer it. Runners who did not have quads that already spent their downhill budget back at the Huguenot Bridge.