For distance running, the pooled evidence says creatine does nothing measurable. A 2023 meta-analysis of 13 placebo-controlled trials in trained people found a trivial, non-significant effect on endurance performance (Fernández-Landa 2023). The one classic trial that timed a run outdoors found the creatine group slower over 6 km, after a 0.9 kg weight gain. Where creatine has shown an effect for runners is narrower: holding speed late in repeated sprints and surges.
This page reads the running and endurance trials, the 2023 meta-analysis and the 2023 review that argues the sprint-finish case, with the review's declared conflicts. Figures are reported from the papers, not recommended. How creatine works in the first place is on creatine for muscle growth; what it does to body weight is on does creatine make you gain weight.
The endurance evidence, pooled
| What was pooled | Trials | Population | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Endurance performance (time trials, distance, time to exhaustion) | 13 placebo-controlled | trained people | SMD −0.07 (95% CI −0.32 to 0.18), p = 0.47; I² 34.75% |
| Same, after removing asymmetric studies | — | — | SMD −0.07 (−0.27 to 0.13), I² 0%, p = 0.49 |
The authors' conclusion: creatine monohydrate "was shown to be ineffective on endurance performance in a trained population." The pooled set mixes running, cycling, rowing and swimming; it is not a runners-only analysis, and no runners-only meta-analysis was found.
The running trials, one by one
| Trial | Who | Creatine | Running test | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balsom 1993, Stockholm | 18 well-trained men | 20 g/day, 6 days | 6 km terrain run; treadmill time to exhaustion at 120% vVO2max | creatine group slower over 6 km (group times 23.36 and 23.79 min); body mass +0.9 kg; time to exhaustion unchanged |
| Astorino 2005, California | 24 cross-country runners | a marketed creatine "serum", 2.5 g in 5 mL | outdoor 5,000 m; treadmill VO2max | 5,000 m time unchanged; the authors: "do not support the ergogenic claims" |
| Bogdanis 2022, Greece and UK | 16 recreationally active men | 75 mg/kg/day, 5 days | 6 × 10 s sprints, non-motorised treadmill | body mass +0.99 kg; peak speed unchanged; mean power in the last 5 s of the later sprints +4.5%; within-sprint slowdown 16.2% smaller |
The Balsom figures come from the 2023 review's table and text, because the 1993 paper's PubMed record has no abstract; the review reports the slower run and the 0.9 kg gain, and that the authors attributed one to the other. The two group times differ by 0.43 minutes, about 26 seconds over 6 km — under 2% (our arithmetic).
Read together, the three trials draw the same line the review draws: creatine adds mass, which a runner carries, and it helps short, repeated, near-maximal efforts, which a distance race contains only at the start, on hills and at the finish.
The case for sprint finishes, and who is making it
The 2023 review in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (Forbes 2023) argues that creatine "appears to be more effective at improving performances that require multiple surges in intensity and/or during end spurts". Its strongest examples are not runners: elite cyclists who held more power in the closing sprints of a 120 km time trial, swimmers faster over the last 50 m of a 400 m, rowers over 1,000 m. It names running as an event where the end-spurt question is still to be tested.
The same paper writes that weight-bearing endurance athletes "should" avoid a loading phase because of water retention and weight gain, and that 3–5 g a day saturates muscle over about four weeks. Those are the review's statements, reported here as such.
The review's conflict-of-interest statement declares that several of its authors have served as scientific advisers to creatine sellers, received creatine research funding and donations, sat on the advisory board of a creatine manufacturer (Alzchem), held a seller's affiliate link, and owned a company selling creatine. The ISSN itself receives support from creatine sellers. None of that makes its reading wrong; it is why the independent meta-analysis above is the first source on this page and the review the second.
Weight, water and the scale
Every running trial above that reported body mass found it rising by about a kilogram within a week of loading. The Forbes review attributes the gain largely to water held with creatine in muscle, and that one study found fluid compartments rising in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle but not the follicular phase. How fast the weight appears, and whether it stays, is on does creatine make you gain weight; pee, thirst and cramps are on the body-water page.
No trial found for this page compared a runner's race time on 3–5 g a day without loading against placebo. The weight argument against loading is therefore a reasonable inference from the loading trials, not a measured result.
One case report
In 2025, clinicians from the Spaulding National Running Center (Harvard Medical School) and Massachusetts General Hospital described a distance runner who developed chronic exertional compartment syndrome of the lower leg after starting creatine (Bruneau 2025). The abstract calls research on supplements and the condition "sparse". It is one person; it cannot show cause, frequency or dose. A runner with leg pain, tightness or numbness that builds with running and settles with rest needs a sports-medicine assessment.
The honest summary
- Endurance performance: 13 pooled trials in trained people, no effect (SMD −0.07, p = 0.47).
- A timed outdoor run: the 1993 6 km trial ran slower on creatine after +0.9 kg.
- A marketed runners' product: no change in 5,000 m time.
- Repeated sprints: later sprints held 4.5% more power at the end of each effort, despite +0.99 kg.
- Marathon or half-marathon time: no trial found.
- Harms specific to runners: one case report (compartment syndrome); no trial.
What creatine does in the gym — where most of its evidence sits — is on what creatine does and creatine for recovery. Peptides marketed for endurance are a separate question, covered on peptides for endurance.
Limits of this page
Most running data are small trials in men; women were enrolled in few of them. The Balsom 1993 figures were read through the 2023 review, not the original paper. The meta-analysis pooled several sports, and its 13 trials used different doses, durations and tests. No trial has measured a race over 10 km on creatine. Anyone with kidney disease, on medication or managing a health condition has a question for a clinician first.
Sources and dates
- Fernández-Landa J, Santibañez-Gutierrez A, Todorovic N, Stajer V, Ostojic SM. Effects of creatine monohydrate on endurance performance in a trained population: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Med 2023;53:1017–27 — PMID 36877404, abstract read 2026-10-28.
- Forbes SC, Candow DG, Neto JHF, et al. Creatine supplementation and endurance performance: surges and sprints to win the race. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 2023;20:2204071 — PMID 37096381, full text (PMC10132248) including Table 1 and the conflict-of-interest statement, read 2026-10-28.
- Balsom PD, Harridge SD, Söderlund K, Sjödin B, Ekblom B. Creatine supplementation per se does not enhance endurance exercise performance. Acta Physiol Scand 1993;149:521–3 — PMID 8128901 (no abstract; figures as reported in Forbes 2023).
- Astorino TA, Marrocco AC, Gross SM, et al. Is running performance enhanced with creatine serum ingestion? J Strength Cond Res 2005;19:730–4 — PMID 16287365, abstract read 2026-10-28.
- Bogdanis GC, Nevill ME, Aphamis G, et al. Effects of oral creatine supplementation on power output during repeated treadmill sprinting. Nutrients 2022;14:1140 — PMID 35334797, abstract read 2026-10-28.
- Bruneau MM, Sirls ER, Corrado GD, Theodore GH, Tenforde AS. Association of creatine use with chronic exertional compartment syndrome in a distance runner: a case report. Curr Sports Med Rep 2025;24:194–7 — PMID 40627559, abstract read 2026-10-28.
- PubMed E-utilities,
creatine[ti] AND (running[tiab] OR runners[tiab] OR "distance runners"[tiab]): 153 records, 2026-10-28 (many concern the blood enzyme creatine kinase, not supplementation).