Steamtown Marathon Fueling Plan & Pace Chart

Steamtown Fueling Strategy

Steamtown sells itself on a 955-foot net drop, and the number is real, but it is not spread evenly. Roughly 655 feet of it is gone by mile 8. From mile 8 to mile 21 the course eases down another 300 feet along the Lackawanna River, and the last five miles are net flat with three short climbs stacked into Scranton. Your plan has two jobs: get carbohydrate in during the fast early miles without eating on the steepest pitches, and reach mile 23 with enough fuel and enough quad left to run uphill.

Start with what the race hands out, because it is thin. All 14 aid stations have water and Gatorade. The race does not name the formula. If it is standard Thirst Quencher, that is 21 grams of carbohydrate and about 160 milligrams of sodium per 12 ounces, so a four to six ounce cup is worth roughly 7 to 10 grams of carbohydrate. The only gel station in the 2025 course directions is GU at mile 10.85, and GU Energy Gel runs 21 to 23 grams of carbohydrate and 60 to 125 milligrams of sodium depending on flavor. The race FAQ still mentions a second GU table near mile 20.5, but it is not in the 2025 course directions, and the FAQ's aid-station list matches the pre-2025 route. Carry every gel you plan to eat and treat the GU table as a spare.

Race morning is long. Buses leave downtown Scranton between 5:30 and 6:45 for a 45-minute ride, so most runners wait in Forest City for one to two hours before the 8 a.m. gun. Take a gel or 25 to 30 grams of carbohydrate in the last 15 minutes before the start so your first hour is not running on a breakfast eaten three hours earlier. Then leave it alone for mile 1. The course drops about 130 feet in the first mile, most of it in the final third on Dundaff Street, which the race's own directions label very steep.

Miles 2 and 3 are the part of this downhill course that goes up, a gentle climb of about 70 feet on Route 171 into Vandling. That is your best early window: controlled effort, steady footing, and the first aid station at 2.9. Fuel there, and fuel generously, because from about mile 3.4 the road tips down hard and you lose roughly 470 feet over the next three miles through Simpson toward Carbondale. Mile 5 alone drops about 190 feet, the steepest mile on the course. That stretch lasts 25 to 35 minutes for most runners, too long to go without carbohydrate at 75 to 90 grams an hour, but swallowing a gel on a 3 to 4 percent grade is how stomachs turn. Take a bigger dose before it, a 40-gram gel or two standard gels between mile 2 and 3.3, drink Gatorade at 4.6, and take your next gel at the Gentex lot station at 6.64, where the descent bottoms out before a short 40-foot rise into Carbondale. Mile 8 drops another 100 feet through town. Hold back on it. Every second banked here comes out of your quads at mile 24.

Miles 9 through 12 through Mayfield and into Jermyn are where the race settles. The grade eases to somewhere between flat and 60 feet of drop per mile and you finally run at even effort. This is the stretch to catch up. The GU table at 10.85 sits just past the 10.8 water station, which makes it the easiest place on the course to get a gel down with water. After the 12.25 station at the trail entrance the next water is 14.75, a 2.5 mile gap, so take something at 12.25 if you are due.

From 12.2 the course moves onto the Lackawanna River Heritage Trail and stays on it, on and off, until a tunnel at mile 20.6. Regional tourism listings describe the trail as paved. OpenStreetMap tags pieces near Archbald, Jessup and Blakely as unpaved, and runners in the wet 2024 race reported mud, so check conditions before you commit to racing flats. The trail is quiet and narrow, and it is easy to drift off schedule there. Halfway lands on the trail in Archbald and it is your audit point: a 3:30 to 4:00 runner at 75 to 90 grams an hour should be roughly 130 to 180 grams in. Stations at 14.75, 15.8, 18.05 and 18.9 are evenly spaced. Fuel at 15.8 and again at 18.9 in Olyphant, because the next station is not until 21.3, a 2.4 mile gap through the new 2025 trail section.

The last five miles are why Steamtown has its reputation. Elevation barely changes between mile 21 and the finish, about 745 feet at both ends, but the road goes up three times: roughly 40 feet on Boulevard Avenue around 23.4, about 45 feet up Electric Street between 24.15 and 24.3 at close to 4 percent, and Cooper's Hill on North Washington Avenue from 25.4, about 50 feet over half a mile with a short pitch near 25.6 that approaches 5 percent, before the road drops about 30 feet into Courthouse Square. None of them is big. All of them arrive after 950 feet of descending has worn down your quads, and the runners walking Cooper's Hill are usually the ones who ran Simpson 15 seconds a mile fast. Take your last gel at the Dickson City Industrial Park station at 21.3, on the flat, or at 23.3 at the latest. The stations at 24.3 and 25.27 sit at the top of Electric Street and at the foot of Cooper's Hill. Use them for Gatorade and water, not a gel.

Weather here is usually kind. FindMyMarathon's 14-year record shows an average start of 42 degrees with 75 percent humidity and highs in the mid-60s, and most recent years started between 36 and 56 degrees. Cool mornings favor aggressive fueling because absorption is better, so run at the top of the 75 to 90 gram range and keep gels somewhere warm, since they thicken in the 30s and 40s. The bad years are real, though. 2017 started at 71 degrees and 2018 at 68, both above 90 percent humidity. On a warm year raise fluid 15 to 20 percent, take water at every station from 2.9 on, and carry electrolytes if you sweat heavily, because a cup of Thirst Quencher delivers only about 55 to 80 milligrams of sodium. On a wet year, like 2024, the trail miles are where footing and pace slip, so have your fueling on schedule before you reach 12.2.