Route 66 Marathon Fueling Plan & Pace Chart

Route 66 Fueling Strategy

Route 66 has two hilly sections separated by eleven flat miles, and the second hilly section is the one that decides your day. The first five miles through Maple Ridge are all short rollers that cancel each other out. Miles 6 through 17 barely move off the river. Then the Midland Valley Trail climbs 120 feet between mile 17 and mile 19, and you stay on high ground through Cherry Street and the University of Tulsa until mile 22. Build your plan around being fully fueled at the base of that climb, not around the 822-foot total.

Start with the on-course product. Route 66 serves water and Gatorade at roughly 15 to 16 stations, about one every mile and a half. Gatorade is the listed sponsor, but the race has not said whether stations pour Gatorade Endurance (22 grams of carbohydrate and 310 milligrams of sodium per 12 ounces) or regular Thirst Quencher (21 grams and 160 milligrams). Either way a four- to six-ounce cup is worth about 7 to 11 grams of carbohydrate. That is a useful supplement, not a plan. Some stations have offered gels and bananas in past years, but the race does not publish which gel or where. Carry every gel you intend to eat and treat anything handed to you as a bonus. Ignore the neighborhood party stops entirely. They are fun, but beer and jello shots are not fuel.

The first five miles are more work than they look on the profile. You climb St. Louis Avenue to about mile 1.9, roll through Maple Ridge, drop to mile 3.3, then climb about 55 feet to Yorktown Avenue by 3.7 before another descent and one more rise to mile 5.1. Heart rate will jump on each one, and in the cold of an 8 a.m. November start it is easy to forget to eat. Take your first gel around mile 3, in the dip before the Yorktown climb, or on the descent after it near mile 4 where there has been a station on Utica. Do not wait for the flat miles to start eating, because by then you are 45 minutes in.

Miles 6 through 11 are where you settle in. The course drops about 65 feet off Woodward Park and down Peoria through Brookside, turns onto 41st Street, and runs north on Riverside Drive along the river at close to zero grade. Stations have sat near 7.4, 8.3, 9.3 and 11. Fuel every 20 to 25 minutes here and take a cup of Gatorade at each station. November winds in Tulsa usually come from the south, which means a tailwind on Riverside and a headwind on the trail after the half splits off.

The half marathon peels away near mile 11 at Cyrus Avery Plaza, and the marathon field, around 800 to 1,100 finishers in recent years, suddenly thins to a few runners in sight. Miles 12 through 17 are a flat out-and-back on the paved Riverparks East Bank Trail, turning around near mile 15.3. There is nothing to look at and nothing to react to, which is exactly why this is the best eating stretch of the day. Use 13.1 as your audit point. At 75 to 90 grams per hour you should have four or five gels in by halfway. If you are behind, the trail is where you catch up, not the hills after it.

Take a gel at the mile 16 station on the way back north. That timing matters. It gives you 15 to 20 minutes of absorption before the Midland Valley Trail tips up at mile 17 near the Gathering Place. The climb runs from about 650 feet to about 770 feet by mile 18.8, and the steepest part is the last half mile. Do not open a packet on it. There has been a station near 17.6 on the trail. Sip there and keep going.

Miles 19 through 22 are the hardest section on the course. You run east on 15th Street through Cherry Street, reach the high point of the course near 20.3, turn up Delaware and wind through the University of Tulsa campus on short rollers. Take your next gel on 15th Street once the road levels out, using the station near mile 20. Then take another at the TU or Gary Place stations around 21 to 22. Stations at roughly 21, 22.3 and 22.9 sit close together, so you can drink at all three.

From mile 22.3 the course trends gently downhill back into downtown, about 55 feet over three miles, with one small rise near mile 25. Take your last gel by mile 23. The Center of the Universe detour near mile 25.6 is optional and adds 0.3 miles, roughly two to three minutes of running on your official time, in exchange for a coin and a beer. If you are chasing a Boston qualifier or a PR, skip it and run the last short rise up Cameron Street to the finish. If you are not, it is one of the better finish-line traditions in American marathoning.

Weather here swings more than the averages suggest. The typical start is around 41 degrees with a mean race-day temperature of 48, which argues for running at the top of the 75 to 90 gram range and drinking on a schedule because cold blunts thirst. Keep gels inside a layer so they do not thicken. But 2024 started at 55 degrees and headed toward 70 with a strong wind, and Oklahoma in late November can do either. On a warm year, raise fluid intake 15 to 20 percent and take Gatorade at every station, and carry salt if the stations turn out to be pouring the lower-sodium Thirst Quencher. On a windy year, expect the Riverparks trail miles to cost more energy than they feel like they do, and eat on schedule regardless.