Stockholm Marathon 2027 fueling guide: water stations, the 12:00 start, and a plan for every finish time

The adidas Stockholm Marathon starts at 12:00 (preliminary time) on Saturday, 29 May 2027, and the last edition gave runners 13 water stations, six of them with Enervit G Sport sports drink, plus 10 energy stops. Only one of those stops had a gel: an Enervit cola-flavour gel at 16.9 km. The rest were bananas, pickles, apple wedges, dextrose, broth, Red Bull, coffee and cola. So most of your carbohydrate has to come with you from Lidingövägen. This guide sets out what the organizer has published, when you will reach each point at your pace, and three plans to choose from.

Two things make Stockholm different from most big marathons. The noon start means breakfast is early and lunch is off the table, so the hours before the gun need a plan. And the hardest part of the course, from Slussen over Katarinavägen, Lundagatan and Västerbron, came between 20 and 31 km last time, on a stretch with water only. The 2027 station list is not published yet, so everything below is based on the last edition’s official participant information. Recheck it in race week.

Stockholm Marathon 2027: the confirmed race facts

The cut-offs are clock times, and they apply whatever wave you started in. The race clocks on the course also count from the first start at 12:00, so second-wave runners subtract 8 minutes and third-wave runners subtract 16. The table shows last edition’s cut-offs; the 2027 times will be in the participant information in May.

What is on the Stockholm Marathon course

This is the full list from the last edition’s official participant information. Water stations are called vätskekontroller in Swedish, and energy stations energikontroller. Each energy stop sits just before a water station, and at sports drink stations the Enervit G Sport is on the first tables, with water after it.

Look at the gap. After Skeppsbron at 19.9 km there is no sports drink until Fleminggatan at 31.8 km. That stretch holds the Katarinavägen climb, the course’s highest point on Lundagatan, and Västerbron. The food in between is pickles, apple, and dextrose. If you rely on the course, this is where your fuel runs thin. Plan to carry two or three gels just for this section.

Enervit G Sport is an isotonic sports drink. Isotonic drinks usually hold about 6 g of carbohydrate per 100 ml, so a cup of 100 to 150 ml gives roughly 6 to 9 g, less whatever you spill. Six sports drink stations add up to about 40 to 55 g over the whole race, less than one hour of fuel for most runners. Count it as a top-up, not your plan. Enervit also sells a paid personal bottle service; last edition it was handed out at 6.6, 15 and 37.6 km to runners who bought the armband.

When you will reach each station at your pace

The table shows elapsed time from your own start at an even pace. A 3:00 runner reaches the Skansen gel at 1:12. A 5:00 runner reaches it at 2:00, and the cola at Karlaplan at 4:43. If that runner started in the third wave at 12:16, that is close to 17:00, the warmest part of a late-May afternoon.

Pick your plan: three runner profiles

World Athletics’ consensus statement gives 30 to 60 g of carbohydrate per hour as the usual marathon range, and its companion paper on distance runners suggests trained runners try up to 90 g per hour in events longer than about two and a half hours. The organizer’s own first-timer guide points to 90 g per hour as a benchmark and admits that most runners fall short. Research on multiple transportable carbohydrates shows that intakes above 60 g per hour are only absorbed well when the product mixes glucose and fructose and the gut has been trained for it. So here are three honest profiles. With 25 g gels, one every 30 minutes gives 50 g per hour, every 25 minutes gives 60 g, and every 20 minutes gives 75 g.

Racing it: your problem is volume and the gap. At 75 g per hour from gels alone, a 3:00 race needs nine 25 g gels. The Skansen gel can replace one if you know it. Sports drink at race pace is often half spilled, so count no more than a few grams per cup. Build your number over eight to ten weeks of long runs, starting at 60 g and adding 10 to 15 g every second week while your stomach stays quiet. Take the first gel at about 20 minutes, around the 5.7 km station, and the last one near 36 km, before Strandvägen and the climb to the finish.

Steady marathon: think in grams. A 4:00 race at 60 g per hour is 240 g. The Skansen gel and six cups of sports drink cover perhaps 60 to 80 g of that. That leaves about seven carried 25 g gels, or one every 25 minutes with one swapped for the course gel. Put at least two of them in the 20 to 31 km stretch, where the course only offers water, pickles, apple and dextrose. Write the grams next to each item and total each hour.

Long day: five to six and a half hours on your feet changes the math. Fifty grams per hour over six hours is 300 g, and the course covers only a small part of it. Small, frequent doses work best: a gel every 30 minutes, or half a gel every 15, with a piece of banana, a dextrose tablet or a cup of cola when a gel feels like too much. Keep an eye on the cut-off times. A 6:00 runner in the third wave passes Slussen at about 15:16, close enough to 15:35 that a bad patch costs real minutes. Eating on schedule in the first three hours is what keeps you moving on Fleminggatan.

Caffeine, sodium, and the late energy stops

• Caffeine: the ISSN position stand supports 3 to 6 mg per kg taken about 60 minutes before exercise. For a 70 kg runner, 3 mg per kg is 210 mg. With a 12:00 start, that means around 11:00, while you wait at Östermalms IP.
• Red Bull at 36 km: Red Bull lists 80 mg of caffeine per 250 ml can, about 32 mg per 100 ml, plus sugar. Coffee follows at 36.7 km. Both are fine late in a race if you have tried them; skip them if you already took a big caffeine dose.
• The Skansen gel is cola flavour. Check the label at the expo for caffeine before you count it in your plan.
• Sodium: pickles at 24.2 km and vegetable broth at 31.8 km are the salty stops. Salty sweaters on a warm day may still want a tested salt product, roughly 300 to 600 mg per hour in total.
• Dextrose at 28.6 km and cola at 39.8 km are quick sugar. They help, but they will not replace a gel’s worth of carbohydrate unless you take a lot.
• Tear the top of your gel before the station, so you can drink with the same hand.

Hydration for a late-May afternoon in Stockholm

At the end of May, Stockholm averages a daily high near 17 °C (63 °F) and a low near 8 °C (46 °F), with about a 22 percent chance of a wet day and almost no muggy days. Daylight lasts about 18 hours. The catch is the clock: the race runs from 12:00 to as late as 18:30, the warmest and often sunniest hours of the day, and there is little shade on Strandvägen, Djurgårdsvägen or Västerbron. The organizer places showers or water channels just before the water stations for cooling. World Athletics warns against drinking more than you sweat; finishing heavier than you started is a sign of overdrinking.

• Test your sweat rate in one cool and one warm long run in April and May.
• The organizer says drinking at every station is enough and you do not need your own bottle. A hydration belt or vest is allowed if you prefer one.
• Pick your priority stations now: the six G Sport stations, plus Varvsgatan and Rålambshovsparken for water in the gap.
• Use the cups for drinking and the showers for cooling; the organizer asks runners not to rinse with the cups.
• Seek help at a first-aid point, which sit at the water stations, for confusion, severe headache, repeated vomiting, or collapse, whatever the clock says.

Breakfast and the pre-race top-up for a 12:00 start

A familiar carbohydrate-rich meal one to four hours before racing is the standard framework, and ACSM gives 1 to 4 g of carbohydrate per kg in that window. A noon start lets you use the full range. The organizer’s first-timer guide is blunt: with a 12:00 start, a normal lunch is out. Get up in good time, eat a good breakfast, then top up with easy carbohydrate. Last edition, runners gathered at Östermalms IP from 09:00, kit bags had to be in by 11:00, the start pens opened at 10:45, and runners had to be in their pen by 11:45 (groups A to E) or 11:55 (groups F to J).

• 07:30 to 08:30, about 3.5 to 4.5 hours before: the main breakfast, a practised meal such as oatmeal with honey, white bread with jam, a banana and juice, about 2 to 3 g of carbohydrate per kg.
• 10:00 to 10:30, about 90 to 120 minutes before: a small low-fibre top-up instead of lunch, for example a white roll with honey, a rice cake or a banana, about 30 to 60 g of carbohydrate.
• 10:30 to 11:30: sip a sports drink you know while you wait at Östermalms IP.
• Around 11:00: caffeine, at the dose and timing you have practised.
• 11:45 to 12:00: an optional gel in the pen, only if used in training.
• Pick up your bib on Thursday or Friday if you can. Saturday morning expo queues can eat into your eating and resting time.

Course tactics: where Stockholm tempts you

The 2027 course has not been published yet. Last edition’s course took the classic Stockholm route in a new order and was described by the organizer as slightly flatter. These notes follow that course.

• 0 to 10 km: right onto Valhallavägen, then Odengatan, Sveavägen, Central Station and around Gamla Stan to Skeppsbron, before Strandvägen and the 600 m Narvavägen climb at about 9 km. The first kilometres are crowded; the organizer says to take it easy. Take your first gel around the 5.7 km station, even if it feels early.
• 10 to 19 km: past Stadion, gently down Valhallavägen, a short climb to Radiohuset, then Djurgården. The long 3 percent climb toward Manilla comes at about 15 km, and the Enervit gel at Skansen at 16.9 km. Djurgårdsvägen is flat and easy. Steady runners should have three or four gels in by Skeppsbron at 19.9 km.
• 19 to 29 km: halfway at Slussen, then a full kilometre uphill on Katarinavägen, through SoFo, up Lundagatan to the highest point, and over Västerbron. Water only from 19.9 to 31.8 km. This is where carried gels matter most. Shorten your stride on the climbs and keep eating on the clock.
• 29 to 36 km: two flat kilometres on Norr Mälarstrand to City Hall, then the Fleminggatan climb at about 32 km, with broth and sports drink at 31.8 km. After St. Eriksplan it runs downhill along the railway toward Central Station, with bananas and sports drink at 34.5 km.
• 36 to 42.2 km: Red Bull at Kornhamnstorg, coffee at Skeppsbron, Strandvägen again, Narvavägen again, cola and sports drink at Karlaplan at 39.8 km. The final kilometre starts uphill on Sturegatan before the finish inside Stadion. Your last carbohydrate should be in by about 37 km.

The long-run rehearsal that makes the plan real

Most runners do their long runs in the morning. Stockholm asks you to run at noon, so in April and May, schedule two or three long runs that start at 12:00. Eat breakfast at the same time as on race day, have the same small top-up at 10:00, carry the same products, and fuel at the same clock times. If you plan to use Enervit G Sport or the Enervit cola gel, buy some and test them here. One rehearsal proves the timing works; the next tests it under fatigue, at goal pace for racers and at the full expected time for the long-day group.

The later rehearsals are where you simplify. If carrying eight gels is awkward, lean on the six sports drink stations and carry gels mainly for the 20 to 31 km gap. If a gel every 20 minutes feels stressful, link your gels to the stations instead: most of them are 2.5 to 4.5 km apart. The best plan is the one you can still follow on Fleminggatan at 32 km.

Race-week Stockholm checklist

• Recheck the official participant information for 2027 station kilometres, drinks, the energy stop menu and cut-off times. Last year it was published in May.
• Note your start wave and subtract 8 or 16 minutes from the course clocks if you are in a later wave.
• Lay out every carried item, add one backup, and write grams and timing on one card. Mark the 20 to 31 km gap.
• Plan your morning backward from 12:00: breakfast, top-up, travel by metro to Tekniska Högskolan, Gärdet, Karlaplan or Stadion, kit bag by 11:00.
• Check the forecast 48 hours out and adjust fluid, sodium and sun protection, not the whole plan.
• Do not buy an unfamiliar gel at the expo because the flavour sounds good.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and update notes

1. 1Participant Information 2026adidas Stockholm Marathon (Marathongruppen)Accessed October 17, 2026; last edition’s start waves, assembly and pen times, cut-offs, 13 water stations, Enervit G Sport stations, 10 energy stops, Enervit bottle service, cooling showers
2. 2About the Race 2027adidas Stockholm Marathon (Marathongruppen)Accessed October 17, 2026; 29 May 2027 date, preliminary 12:00 start, 6:30 maximum time, four cut-offs, energy items, pacers
3. 3The Courseadidas Stockholm Marathon (Marathongruppen)Accessed October 17, 2026; kilometre-by-kilometre description and climbs of the last edition’s course
4. 4Course Map (updated 11 May 2026)adidas Stockholm Marathon (Marathongruppen)Route, kilometre markers, water and energy station positions for the 2026 edition
5. 5Debutantguiden 2026 (first-timer guide, Swedish)adidas Stockholm Marathon (Marathongruppen)No lunch before a 12:00 start, breakfast and top-up advice, 90 g per hour benchmark, drinking at stations
6. 6International Association of Athletics Federations Consensus Statement 2019: Nutrition for AthleticsInternational Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism (Burke et al., 2019), PMID 30952204Carbohydrate ranges, pre-race meal, and hydration guidance
7. 7Contemporary Nutrition Strategies to Optimize Performance in Distance Runners and Race WalkersInternational Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism (Burke et al., 2019), PMID 30747558Marathon carbohydrate intake, including up to 90 g per hour for trained runners in longer events
8. 8Nutrition and Athletic Performance: Joint Position StatementAmerican College of Sports Medicine (Thomas et al., 2016), PMID 268911661 to 4 g per kg carbohydrate 1 to 4 hours before exercise; sports drink composition
9. 9A Step Towards Personalized Sports Nutrition: Carbohydrate Intake During ExerciseSports Medicine (Jeukendrup, 2014), PMID 24791914Multiple transportable carbohydrates and intakes above 60 g per hour
10. 10International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Caffeine and Exercise PerformanceJISSN (Guest et al., 2021), PMID 333880793 to 6 mg per kg, about 60 minutes before exercise
11. 11May Weather in StockholmWeather SparkEnd-of-May temperature, wet-day, humidity and daylight averages
12. 12How Much Caffeine Is in a Can of Red Bull Energy Drink?Red Bull80 mg caffeine per 250 ml can