Twin Cities Marathon Fueling Plan & Pace Chart

Twin Cities Fueling Strategy

Twin Cities does not look like a hard course for nineteen miles, and that is the problem. The first two thirds run flat to gently downhill through the lakes and along the river, and then the course hands you a three mile climb at mile twenty when your legs are already gone. The second thing to understand is that the on-course drink is Nuun, not a sports drink. Nuun Sport carries about 4 grams of carbohydrate per 16 ounces. If you plan to hit 75 to 90 grams of carbohydrate an hour, essentially all of it has to come out of your own pockets. There is exactly one fuel point on the course, a maple syrup packet around mile 18.8, and it is not something most people have practiced with.

The opening two miles run west out of downtown past the Basilica and the Walker before turning up Douglas Ave, which climbs about 30 feet. Take your first gel at the Douglas Ave station around mile 2.2. There is no water again until mile 4.8 on W Bde Maka Ska Pkwy, a 2.6 mile gap, so drink at Douglas rather than waving it off because you feel fine.

Miles 3 through 8 wind around Lake of the Isles, Bde Maka Ska and Lake Harriet. This is the fastest-feeling stretch of the race and the section where runners give away their afternoon. The lakes are gently rolling with a small rise into mile 6. Fuel here on the clock, not on feel. A gel every 25 minutes puts you at roughly mile 5 and mile 8. Note the longest carry on the course sits right here: 2.9 miles between the Lake Harriet station at 6.9 and the next one at 9.8.

Minnehaha Parkway from mile 8 to the Lake Nokomis loop at 12 and 13 is the flattest running of the day and the best absorption window you get. Stations at 9.8, 11.3 and 13.2 are close together. Halfway falls on Lake Nokomis Pkwy. If your gut is going to give you trouble, this is where you find out, and it is also where you still have time to back off to smaller, more frequent doses instead of trying to fix it at mile 22.

Mile 14 climbs about 20 feet back up onto Minnehaha Parkway, then mile 15 drops roughly 25 feet through Minnehaha Park onto Godfrey Pkwy and out to West River Parkway. Miles 15 through 19 run north along the Mississippi on shaded, quiet, near-flat pavement. Treat this as your last loading window. Everything you take between mile 14 and mile 19 is what you will actually have available on Summit Avenue. Take a gel at the mile 17 station and another at the mile 19 station.

Around mile 18.8 you pass the Organic Pure Fuel maple syrup point, roughly 27 grams of carbohydrate from a 1 ounce pouch of pure maple syrup. It is real food, glucose and fructose, and it is thicker and stickier than a gel. If you have not practiced with it, skip it and take your own gel at the mile 19 station instead. If you have practiced with it, it is a legitimate 27 grams and it lands in exactly the right place.

Mile 19 ends with a short ramp up onto the Franklin Avenue bridge, then you cross the river and drop to the lowest point on the course at mile 20, around 756 feet. Get your carbohydrate in before the bridge, not on it. From mile 20.3 the climbing starts: three short risers on East River Road, then a left onto Summit Avenue near the University of St. Thomas. From mile 20 to the crest at Summit and Snelling at mile 23 you gain about 190 feet, roughly 80 in mile 21, 67 in mile 22 and 41 in mile 23. It averages barely over 1 percent and it will feel like far more than that.

Take your gel at the mile 21 station at the bottom of the climb, then hold your fueling steady through 22 and 23 rather than trying to catch up. Stations sit at 22.2, 23.2, 24.2 and 25.2, which is generous spacing for the hardest part of the course, so take small amounts often instead of one large slug. Gastric emptying slows when effort goes up, and a big gel plus a full cup on a 1 percent grade at mile 22 is how people end up walking at 24. After the crest at Snelling, Summit rolls slightly down with one short one-block riser near mile 25. Mile 26 drops about 40 feet past the Cathedral and down John Ireland Boulevard into the Capitol. If you are still moving well at 23, one last gel at the mile 24 station is worth taking.

Weather is the real variable here and it swings hard. The fifteen year average start is 48°F with 81 percent humidity, which is close to ideal for aggressive fueling. On a genuinely cold morning, and starts as low as 30°F have happened, your absorption is good but your hands are not: open gels before the stations and expect to drink less than you think you need, because thirst is blunted in the cold and the Summit climb will still cost you fluid. On a warm year, and this race has seen a 69°F start in 2025 and a cancellation at 92°F in 2023, cut solid gel carbohydrate by roughly 10 to 15 percent, push fluid up by 15 to 20 percent, and start taking water at every station from mile 2 rather than every other. On a hot day the Summit climb from 20 to 23 is fully exposed compared to the shaded river parkway you just left, and heat plus grade plus mile 21 is the worst combination on this course.

One practical note on sodium. Nuun delivers about 300 milligrams of sodium per 16 ounces, which is on the low side for a heavy sweater over four hours, and there is no higher-sodium option on course. If you salt heavily in training, carry your own salt capsules. Twin Cities gives you plenty of fluid and almost no carbohydrate or sodium, so build the plan around what you are carrying and treat the stations as water stops.