Widely called the hardest 100-mile MTB race in North America. Technical, remote, unforgiving.
Build Your Personalized Race Fueling Plan — $19General, evidence-based guidance. Numbers should always be personalized to sweat rate, body mass, fitness and weather.
Target 60–90 g/hr for most trained riders, biased toward liquid carbohydrate and gels for technical sections and solid food (rice cakes, waffles, small sandwiches) when the trail opens up. Gut-train for 90 g/hr in the last 6 weeks if you're chasing the buckle.
17–34 fl oz/hr adjusted for temperature. Split water and drink mix across a hydration pack plus one or two bottles — the pack sustains intake through singletrack; bottles carry the carb mix.
400–1000 mg of sodium per liter of fluid, tuned to your sweat sodium concentration. Over a 14+ hour day the sodium ledger matters as much as the carb ledger.
3–6 mg/kg body mass, held back from the start. A typical pattern: 100 mg at 6 h, 100–200 mg every 3–4 h through the night hours.
Pre-stage drop bags with pre-mixed bottles, pre-counted gels and one warm layer per bag. Every minute you don't spend counting is a minute of daylight preserved. Target < 3 min at early stops, < 8 min at the halfway drop.
1–4 g/kg carbohydrate 2–4 hours pre-start, from rehearsed low-fiber, low-fat foods — oatmeal with honey and banana, white toast with jam, or a rice bowl.
Alarm-based fueling every 15–20 minutes. Sip on every doubletrack second. Chew whenever the trail lets you take a hand off the bar. Front-load calories before every rock garden.
Within 60 minutes of finishing: 1.0–1.2 g/kg carbohydrate, 0.3 g/kg protein, and enough fluid to replace ~150% of body-mass losses. Warm calories go down easier after a cold night finish.
Every aid station along the Marji Gesick course, with crew access, drop-bag rules and the fueling action to execute at each stop.
Top off one bottle only. No stopping if you're on buckle pace.
Bottle swap, 2 gels in pocket, quick calorie hit. Target < 3 min.
Full reset: fresh bottles, refilled gel supply, warm layer if needed, sunscreen. Target < 8 min.
Real food, second caffeine dose, headlamp on the bar if you're outside buckle pace.
Second full reset. Lights confirmed on, warm layer on, final calorie load. Do not skip.
Immediate recovery: 60 g CHO + 20 g protein + 17 fl oz fluid within 30 min of stopping.
You cannot chew safely in rock gardens. Front-load calories before technical sections rather than skipping them.
Cool weather suppresses thirst even as respiratory water loss stays high. Structured intake matters more, not less.
Bars feel filling and then sit in the stomach for hours on rough terrain. Prioritize liquid and gel calories in the first 6 hours.
Riders finishing after dark often abandon fueling to conserve mental bandwidth. Rehearse night riding and night eating in training.
Sub-12 requires ~8 mph moving average on this terrain. Riders who don't compute a stop-time budget blow up on Jasper.
Marji amplifies every small GI or mechanical issue. Race only what you've rehearsed for 6+ hour rides.
The final 20 miles are where under-fueled riders concede 30+ minutes and often the buckle.
Thirst under-reports deficit. Over a 14-hour day the gap compounds into cramping and lost decision quality.
Chronic low ferritin destroys your ability to hold pace late. Check labs 3+ months out; correct with food or supplementation as your clinician advises.
Crew that doesn't know your bottle order, gel count and cutoff clock will cost you time exactly when you cannot afford it.
Get a practical planning document with the course breakdown, aid-station strategy, fueling and hydration worksheets, race-morning timeline, equipment checklist, crew notes, and space for your own plan.
Free calculators, checklists and articles to help you personalize your Marji Gesick plan.
Every athlete is different. FTP, finish time, body weight, sweat rate, weather, nutrition preferences and race goals all change what you should eat and drink.
FuelQ Pro builds a personalized race fueling strategy tuned to your ride — carbohydrate, hydration, sodium, caffeine and recovery, mapped to the course.
A Race Fueling Plan gives you a personalized strategy for this event. The free checklist helps you prepare the basics first: race-week setup, 48-hour prep, race morning, hydration, sodium, caffeine, aid stations, and backup calories.
