TheMarathon Clinic
Course pacing

How to pace the Boston Marathon

The Boston Marathon is a genuinely hilly marathon, with about 248 m of climbing and 388 m of descent (a net drop of 140 m). Pace it by even effort, not even splits. Ease the climbs and protect your quads on the descents, or the hills will take far more than they give back.

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Next Boston Marathon

Monday 19 April 2027

About 42 weeks away · 295 days · projected from the usual race weekend

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Elevation gain

248m

Elevation loss

388m

Net change

-140m

Terrain

Hilly

Typical race-day conditions

April

At the gun

9°C

~10:00am start

By the finish

12°C

warms through the morning

Humidity

55%

morning average

Conditions

Ideal

cool, fast racing weather

Goal finish time
::
StrategyEven effort keeps your effort steady and lets pace drift with the terrain, slower up the climbs and faster down. Even pace holds one pace the whole way and ignores the hills.
Splits every
Units
Race conditionsPace for an ideal cool day, a typical race-day, or a warm-outlier year. Warmer conditions slow your realistic finish, and the splits below adjust to match.
AcclimatisedAcclimatised: you already train and race in conditions like these, so your body has adapted. You sweat sooner and more, hold a lower heart rate and core temperature, and barely lose time to the heat.Not yet: you mostly train in cooler weather, so a warm race hits harder, a higher heart rate, an earlier fade, and roughly twice the slowdown an adapted runner sees. It comes good after about two weeks of training in the heat.
Typical condition impactTypical April · +0.3%

A typical April morning sits around 9°C at the gun and 12°C by the finish. Adapted to conditions like these, the heat may still slow you about +0.3% against an ideal cool day. That moves your 3:30:00 goal to about 3:30:34, and the pace below already allows for it.

Your target pace

4:59/km

Your average across the whole course. The splits below shift it for every climb and descent, so your effort stays even the whole way.

Boston Marathon

Boston, Massachusetts

Hover the map or the profile, the other follows.

This one is won on the back half.

0 km51015202530354020 m40 m60 m80 m100 m120 m
km 32–33 climbs 27 m, right where most runners fade.
climb descenttarget pace

The coach's read

Deceptive in both directions. The first 25 km drop fast and tempt you to bank time you'll pay for, hold back and protect your quads. The Newton Hills from ~26–34 km, ending with Heartbreak Hill, decide your race: run them by effort, then ride the downhill into the city.

WHY  Allowing for a typical April day, that's about 5:03/km of effort the whole way, the splits below shift with the gradient, not your pace.

Ease the climbs, let the descents run, and stay relaxed through the second half.
JHJason HuntFounder & Head Coach

Hardest stretch

The km to 29 km: 5:32/km at +1.7%.

Free speed

The km to 1 km: 4:26/km at -3.1%.

Key climbs & descents
Your race-day splits
MarkerTarget paceClock
1 km4:26/km4:26
2 km4:57/km9:23
3 km4:55/km14:18
4 km4:53/km19:11
5 km4:33/km23:44
6 km4:41/km28:25
7 km5:12/km33:36
8 km5:06/km38:42
9 km4:57/km43:39
10 km4:52/km48:31
11 km5:01/km53:32
12 km5:02/km58:34
13 km5:06/km1:03:40
14 km4:59/km1:08:39
15 km5:02/km1:13:41
16 km5:15/km1:18:56
17 km5:12/km1:24:08
18 km5:10/km1:29:18
19 km4:44/km1:34:01
20 km5:03/km1:39:05
21 km4:56/km1:44:00
22 km5:02/km1:49:03
23 km5:08/km1:54:11
24 km5:10/km1:59:21
25 km4:47/km2:04:08
26 km4:50/km2:08:58
27 km5:20/km2:14:19
28 km4:56/km2:19:15
29 km5:32/km2:24:47
30 km4:55/km2:29:42
31 km4:57/km2:34:39
32 km5:17/km2:39:56
33 km5:31/km2:45:27
34 km5:09/km2:50:36
35 km4:40/km2:55:16
36 km4:44/km3:00:00
37 km5:02/km3:05:02
38 km4:46/km3:09:48
39 km4:39/km3:14:27
40 km5:04/km3:19:30
41 km5:00/km3:24:30
42 km5:06/km3:29:36
Finish4:58/km3:30:34

Even-effort splits distribute your goal time by the energy cost of each gradient (the Minetti grade-cost model), not an even pace. On a course this hilly, treat the splits as a guide to ±10–15 s/km: run the climbs by feel and protect your quads on the descents.

Train for this course, not just the distance.

A coach builds the climbs and descents into your plan.

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·Race-day guide

Pacing the Boston Marathon

A coach's read on how the Boston Marathon runs, and how to spend your effort across it.

01The course

Kilometre by kilometre

  • The climbing that matters: 32.3–33.4 km (+27 m at 2.4%), 28.1–29.0 km (+17 m at 1.9%), 25.7–26.6 km (+16 m at 1.8%). Run these by effort; your pace will and should slow.
  • Where you get it back: 3.8–6.0 km (-36 m down), 24.5–25.6 km (-31 m down), 0.0–0.9 km (-31 m down). Let these run without braking or hammering: relaxed, quick feet.

The one thing

This is not a course for even splits. Hold even effort, let the pace flex with the ground, and the time will look after itself.
02The plan

How to pace the Boston Marathon

  1. Read the course before race day. Point-to-point, net downhill, with the Newton Hills. Deceptive in both directions.
  2. Pace by effort, not just the watch. Set the effort you can hold for the whole marathon, then let the pace flex with the ground: a little slower up, a little faster down, the same effort throughout.
  3. Give the climbs effort, not pace. Let your pace slow on the climbs while holding effort steady; chasing your flat pace uphill is the classic way to blow up. The biggest is around 32–33 km (+27 m).
  4. Protect your quads on the descents. Stay relaxed and let the descents come to you. Hammering downhill banks a few seconds now and wrecks your legs for the closing kilometres; the model deliberately caps the downhill benefit for this reason.
  5. Plan your finish. The Newton Hills from ~26–34 km, ending with Heartbreak Hill, decide your race: run them by effort, then ride the downhill into the city.
03Questions

Boston Marathon, answered

Is the Boston Marathon hilly?
Yes, it's a genuinely hilly course, with about 248 m of total climbing over the 42.2 km and a biggest single climb of roughly 27 m. Pace it by effort, not by pace.
How should I pace the Boston Marathon?
The Boston Marathon is a genuinely hilly marathon, with about 248 m of climbing and 388 m of descent (a net drop of 140 m). Pace it by even effort, not even splits. Ease the climbs and protect your quads on the descents, or the hills will take far more than they give back.
What is the hardest part of the Boston Marathon?
The toughest climb runs roughly 32–33 km, gaining about 27 m at an average 2.4%. Deceptive in both directions.
Is the Boston Marathon a good course for a PB?
It's a hard course to set an outright personal best on because of the climbing, but pacing it by effort gives you the best possible time for your fitness on the day.
How much elevation gain does the Boston Marathon have?
About 248 m of total gain and 388 m of loss over the 42.2 km, in line with the organiser's published figures.

From the journal

2026-06-10 · 4 min

Why your marathon paces should come from a real run

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Train for Boston. Not just the distance.

A coach builds this course's climbs, descents and race-day pacing into a plan made for you.

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