Loading page…
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.
← All marathons
Abbott World Marathon MajorCommunity route dataGuide reviewed August 2026
Next Boston Marathon
Build a plan for this raceMonday 19 April 2027
About 28 weeks away · 197 days · projected from the usual race weekend
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
A thirty-year average for April, not a prediction. The real forecast appears here inside the last nine days.
Your race plan
3:30:34
The same effort as 3:32:45 on flat ground
Target pace
4:59/km
3:30:00 Boston +0:34 typical April = 3:30:34
▸Where that comes from
- Your goal for Boston
- 3:30:00
- Boston’s terrainshapes the splits, not the total
- —
- Typical April
- +0:34
- On the day
- 3:30:34
↑ climbs +3:43 (248 m)↓ descents -6:28 (388 m)
The net descent gives back about 2:45 against flat ground.
9°C at the gun, 12°C by the finish. +0.3% adapted.
Boston Marathon
Boston, Massachusetts
Hover the map or the profile, the other follows.
Interactive route map loads as you approach it.
Boston is a 42.2 kilometre course described as point-to-point, net downhill, with the newton hills. It has about 248 metres of climbing. It has about 388 metres of descent.The elevation chart and split table below provide the same route information without requiring the map.
This one is won on the back half.
km 32–33 climbs 27 m, right where most runners fade.
plan slows (give time) plan runs (take it back)each block ≈ 500 m of the course
Your race-day splits
Every
Units
| Marker | Target pace | Clock | Terrain |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 km | 4:26/km | 4:26 | -31 m |
| 2 km | 4:57/km | 9:23 | flat |
| 3 km | 4:55/km | 14:18 | flat |
| 4 km | 4:53/km | 19:11 | -7 m |
| 5 km | 4:33/km | 23:44 | -20 m |
| 6 km | 4:41/km | 28:25 | -14 m |
| 7 km | 5:12/km | 33:36 | flat |
| 8 km | 5:06/km | 38:42 | flat |
| 9 km | 4:57/km | 43:39 | flat |
| 10 km | 4:52/km | 48:31 | -7 m |
| 11 km | 5:01/km | 53:32 | flat |
| 12 km | 5:02/km | 58:34 | flat |
| 13 km | 5:06/km | 1:03:40 | flat |
| 14 km | 4:59/km | 1:08:39 | flat |
| 15 km | 5:02/km | 1:13:41 | flat |
| 16 km | 5:15/km | 1:18:56 | +7 m |
| 17 km | 5:12/km | 1:24:08 | flat |
| 18 km | 5:10/km | 1:29:18 | flat |
| 19 km | 4:44/km | 1:34:01 | -12 m |
| 20 km | 5:03/km | 1:39:05 | flat |
| 21 km | 4:56/km | 1:44:00 | flat |
| 22 km | 5:02/km | 1:49:03 | flat |
| 23 km | 5:08/km | 1:54:11 | flat |
| 24 km | 5:10/km | 1:59:21 | flat |
| 25 km | 4:47/km | 2:04:08 | -12 m |
| 26 km | 4:50/km | 2:08:58 | -13 m |
| 27 km | 5:20/km | 2:14:19 | +10 m |
| 28 km | 4:56/km | 2:19:15 | flat |
| 29 km | 5:32/km | 2:24:47 | +17 m |
| 30 km | 4:55/km | 2:29:42 | flat |
| 31 km | 4:57/km | 2:34:39 | flat |
| 32 km | 5:17/km | 2:39:56 | +8 m |
| 33 km | 5:31/km | 2:45:27 | +16 m |
| 34 km | 5:09/km | 2:50:36 | flat |
| 35 km | 4:40/km | 2:55:16 | -16 m |
| 36 km | 4:44/km | 3:00:00 | -13 m |
| 37 km | 5:02/km | 3:05:02 | flat |
| 38 km | 4:46/km | 3:09:48 | -11 m |
| 39 km | 4:39/km | 3:14:27 | -15 m |
| 40 km | 5:04/km | 3:19:30 | flat |
| 41 km | 5:00/km | 3:24:30 | flat |
| 42 km | 5:06/km | 3:29:36 | flat |
| Finish | 4:58/km | 3:30:34 | flat |
These are modelled splits, not a validated prediction. The route and elevation data, weather, surface, congestion and your own uphill and downhill ability can all change the pace you can hold. Use the numbers as a planning guide, run the climbs by feel and stay relaxed on the descents. Heat builds as you go, so treat the closing 10 km as a feel check rather than a pace target.
Take it to your watch
These exact splits as a structured workout: one step per kilometre, each with its target pace band (±10 s/km). Your watch prompts every step, so on race day you run the terrain, not the arithmetic.
Garmin needs a cable and a computer. In this file: 43 steps · every km · 3:30:00 goal · even effort · typical April conditions · per-km paces. Change anything above and download again.
Getting it onto your watch
You will need a USB cable and a computer. There is no way around that: Garmin has never built a way to send a workout to a watch from a phone, from Garmin Connect, or from any file you can email yourself. Everyone who makes these files, us included, has the same constraint.
- Download the file above on a computer.
- Plug the watch in by USB and wait for it to appear.
- Copy the file into GARMIN/NewFiles. If your watch has no NewFiles folder, use GARMIN/Workouts instead.
- Eject the watch and unplug it.
- On the watch, go to Training, then Workouts. It will be there under the name of this race.
On a Mac the watch mounts as a media device rather than a drive, so you will need a transfer app such as Android File Transfer to see those folders. Windows shows them in Explorer.
Dragging it into Garmin Connect or TrainingPeaks will not work, and it is worth knowing why. .fit is a container that holds several different kinds of file. A recorded run uploads to both of them happily, which is what those drop zones are built for. A workout is a different file type inside the same extension, and neither platform will import one.
Train for this course, not just the distance.
A coach builds the climbs and descents into your plan, and closer to the day you can sit down with Jason and settle how you will run it.
Where Boston is decided
Hardest km
29 km at 5:32/km
Fastest km
1 km at 4:26/km
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
·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%). 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
- Read the course before race day. Point-to-point, net downhill, with the Newton Hills. Deceptive in both directions.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
Race Strategy Session
The pacing above is free. The judgement is the part worth paying for.
This page knows the Boston Marathon. It does not know you. Two or three weeks out, Jason reads your last twelve weeks and spends 60 minutes going through the day with you, then writes it down so you are not running on memory.
- An honest read on what your training says you can hold
- How to spend your effort across this course, and where it is won
- Fuelling and conditions, decided before you are standing on the line
A$180
One session, one race. Video call, or in person in Sydney.
Your race is still a way off. Worth knowing about now, worth booking about eight weeks out.
More marathons
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.