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Marathon Pace
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Marathon course library

Pick a distance and enter the time you could run on a flat course in good weather. Each course then adds its own hills, bridges and typical race-morning heat, so you can see what the same fitness is worth in Boston, New York or Berlin.

49 of 49 races

How course times are worked out

Terrain

Mapped routes and reference GPX tracks are sampled every 25–50 m against public terrain models, with bridge corrections where available. Each course lists its route source. Climbs cost about 3.3% per 1% grade; descents give back about 1.8%.

Weather

Typical, warm and cool race mornings come from hourly airport records near each race date since 2011. Heat is scored with shade WBGT and costs more the longer you are out on course.

Pacing

Even effort is the default. The easy-early-downhills option takes only half the downhill speed-up in the first 25 km, for the same finish time with kinder splits.

These are model estimates for planning, not guarantees. Crowding, turns, wind, sun and how well you handle hills all move real results by a minute or more either way.

Frequently asked questions

Which World Marathon Major is the fastest course?

On terrain alone Tokyo, Chicago, Berlin and London are all within about a minute of a flat course for a 3-hour runner. Berlin and Chicago can lose more to warm mornings, while Tokyo’s early-March start is usually cool. New York and Sydney are the hilliest Majors.

What is a flat-course marathon time?

The time you could run on a perfectly flat course in cool, still weather (shade WBGT under about 15°C). It is the common currency the library uses: each course adds its own terrain and weather on top.

Why is Boston not faster when it is net downhill?

Runners win back only a little over half of what a climb costs when they run back down, so Boston’s net drop of about 140 m is mostly cancelled by the Newton hills late in the race. Heavy early downhill running also wears the quads, which the even-effort model does not fully capture; try the easy-early-downhills pacing option.

Where do the elevation and weather data come from?

Routes come from mapped OpenStreetMap roads, organizer-linked GPX files or community reference tracks. Each course lists its source, and reference routes may differ from the latest edition. Elevations come from public terrain models, with bridge corrections where available. Weather is hourly airport data from NOAA’s Integrated Surface Database.