Best Supplements for Marathon Runners of 2026

No bottle, no powder, no waiting. SaltStick's FastChews are sodium you chew and swallow, which is exactly what you want when your bottle is already full of carbohydrate and the next aid station is six miles out.

These are our pick for hot long runs and warm-weather races where drinking more is not the answer, because you need salt rather than volume. The orange tablets are mild and slightly tart, easy to chew even with a dry mouth, and low-calorie enough that they slot into a fueling plan without disturbing it. If you cramp in the last hour of a summer race, this is the format to try first.

The bottle is bigger than a gel sleeve — it fits a belt pocket or a vest compartment, but measure it against a minimal race belt before you commit. In heat we go through two or three over a long run, and the cost per tablet is low enough that doing so does not sting.

Roctane is the original GU gel with the dials turned up: 125 to 190 mg of sodium per packet, roughly three times the standard gel, and 1,425 mg of amino acids including taurine and beta-alanine, all with 19 to 21 grams of dual-source carbohydrate.

The sodium figure is the one that matters. If you finish long runs with white streaks dried on your kit, or you have watched a hot race come apart in the last 10K, this is the gel built for that runner — more salt per packet means fewer separate salt chews to carry and one less thing to remember.

The 24-count box is a way to work out which flavors you tolerate in training rather than during a race. It mixes caffeinated and caffeine-free packets, so read each wrapper instead of assuming the whole box carries a lift.

Roctane is worth it when sodium is your limiter and not much otherwise. Everyone else gets the same ground covered by the original gel plus a few SaltStick chews, with more control over how much salt goes in at once. Where it earns its place is ultra distance and serious heat, where carrying fewer, stronger packets is worth something.

A gel is the only format here you can open and swallow without stopping, chewing, or reaching for a bottle, and GU's original is the packet we measure the others against. Each one carries 21 to 23 grams of dual-source carbohydrate — maltodextrin and fructose — with 60 to 125 mg of sodium and 450 mg of BCAAs, which is a lot of jobs for something that fits in a singlet pocket.

What keeps it at the top is how little it asks of you. There is no chewing at threshold pace, nothing to mix the night before, and no flavor so sweet that it turns your stomach with eight miles to go; the tri-berry is tart enough that we finish the packet without a grimace. It is the one we hand to first-timers and the one we still carry ourselves.

The texture is thick, closer to syrup than to a drink, and we take each one just before an aid station so there is water to chase it with. Stomach tolerance is the thing we watch hardest across a marathon block, and this is the packet that has never been the reason a long run went sideways.

Sodium is where it gives ground. 60 to 125 mg is a rounding error beside the high-sodium options in this guide, so if you finish summer runs with salt dried on your sleeves, plan a second sodium source rather than a second gel. Otherwise there is not much to think about: it is the simplest way to get carbohydrate into a marathon.

LMNT costs more per serving than any other electrolyte in this guide, and we still keep a box in the cupboard for the runners who sweat like it is their job. The pitch is sodium first and sugar never: no sugar, a mix built to replace salt rather than to taste like a sports drink, and a raspberry flavor that reads salty-tart instead of candy.

Mixing is where it earns its flexibility. One stick in 32 ounces makes a drink you sip across an hour; in 16 it is a sharp, fast hit before a hot long run. That range is why it works on race morning and at a desk in July. Raspberry is our pick of the flavors, salty enough to feel like it is doing something without turning briny.

The cost is the honest sticking point, and it is why we do not drink it every day. Across a 16-week block, a stick a day is the most expensive habit in the electrolyte half of this guide. Our compromise is to save it for long runs and hot races and let the Nuun tablets cover easy days — runners who cramp badly tend to think that is a fair trade.

Fruit puree, chia seeds, brown rice syrup. Huma's ingredient list is short enough to read out loud, and that is the pitch: no maltodextrin, no dextrose, nothing you need to look up.

You can tell from the texture. Huma is closer to apple sauce than to the thick syrup in a GU packet, and it goes down without water, which counts for something on a course where the aid stations are spread thin. The fruit flavors taste like fruit rather than candy, and the box mixes enough of them to find a favorite.

The reason to switch is your stomach. If a gel has ever sat heavy at mile 18, the chia-and-fruit base is a different proposition — this is the gel runners with sensitive guts tend to stay with. Not a cure for a bad fueling plan, but the gentlest option here on the days that matter.

These are the ones we hand to anyone whose long runs have been derailed by a gel that would not settle. Beside the GU packet at the top of this guide they are milder in every way — flavor, texture, and hit — and over four hours that mildness is the whole point.

Seven grams of BCAAs in a 2:1:1 ratio, added electrolytes, zero sugar, and an NSF Certified for Sport mark on the tub — that mark is the first thing we look for. Supplements are not held to food standards, and if you race under anti-doping rules, a certification you can point to is worth more than any flavor.

In practice it is a drink that makes the hour after a long run more pleasant: cold water, a scoop, and something that tastes like blue raspberry rather than a recovery obligation. Shake it hard in a bottle with a ball or a shaker cup; stirred with a spoon it leaves clumps at the bottom.

We treat it as a nice-to-have rather than a staple. There is no carbohydrate in the tub, so it does not replace a gel or a proper meal, and the case for BCAAs in marathon performance is thin. What it does well is get 24 ounces of fluid and electrolytes into you when you do not feel like drinking — and for runners who like a post-run ritual, that is worth something real.

The tube of Nuun tablets rattling around in our gym bag is the least exciting product here and the one we use most. Five electrolytes, a gram of sugar, and enough fizz to make a lukewarm bottle of tap water disappear — that is the case, and for everyday hydration it is a good one.

Forty tablets across four flavors let you work out whether you are a citrus or a berry person without committing to a single tube. Drop one in an open bottle and let it finish fizzing before you cap it; a sealed bottle shaken mid-dissolve builds pressure and sprays when you open it. Cold water slows the tablet down, so give it a few minutes and a swirl rather than drinking around a chalky core.

What it is not is fuel. A gram of sugar barely registers as carbohydrate, so on a long run this is the drink beside your gels, not a replacement for them. What it is, is the difference between drinking enough on an easy day and not drinking at all — which, across a training block, is worth more than it sounds.