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Course pacing
How to pace the Cape Town Marathon
The Sanlam Cape Town Marathon is a largely flat but gently rolling marathon, with about 205 m of climbing and 203 m of descent (a near-level net change). Pace it by even effort: ease back on the few rises and let the descents run, rather than forcing an identical pace on every kilometre.
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Guide reviewed August 2026
Next Cape Town Marathon
Plan your race with JasonSunday 18 October 2026
About 2 weeks away · 14 days · projected from the usual race weekend
Elevation gain
205m
Elevation loss
203m
Net change
+2m
Terrain
Rolling
Typical race-day conditions
October
At the gun
13°C
~6:15am start
By the finish
18°C
warms through the morning
Humidity
75%
morning average
Conditions
Warm
a little warm; expect a small slowdown
A thirty-year average for October, not a prediction. The real forecast appears here inside the last nine days.
Your race plan
3:34:00
Target pace
5:04/km
3:30:00 Cape Town +4:00 typical October = 3:34:00
▸Where that comes from
- Your goal for Cape Town
- 3:30:00
- Cape Town’s terrainshapes the splits, not the total
- —
- Typical October
- +4:00
- On the day
- 3:34:00
↑ climbs +4:08 (205 m)↓ descents -3:57 (203 m)
The climbs and descents very nearly cancel out.
13°C at the gun, 18°C by the finish. +1.9% adapted.
Sanlam Cape Town Marathon
Cape Town, South Africa
Hover the map or the profile, the other follows.
Interactive route map loads as you approach it.
Cape Town is a 42.2 kilometre course described as fast, gently rolling, under table mountain. It has about 205 metres of climbing. It has about 203 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 29–32 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 | 5:04/km | 5:04 | flat |
| 2 km | 5:14/km | 10:18 | +6 m |
| 3 km | 5:04/km | 15:22 | flat |
| 4 km | 4:52/km | 20:14 | -8 m |
| 5 km | 5:15/km | 25:29 | +7 m |
| 6 km | 5:17/km | 30:46 | +8 m |
| 7 km | 5:01/km | 35:47 | flat |
| 8 km | 5:06/km | 40:54 | flat |
| 9 km | 5:24/km | 46:17 | +11 m |
| 10 km | 5:04/km | 51:21 | flat |
| 11 km | 4:55/km | 56:16 | flat |
| 12 km | 4:49/km | 1:01:05 | -9 m |
| 13 km | 5:18/km | 1:06:23 | +8 m |
| 14 km | 5:13/km | 1:11:36 | flat |
| 15 km | 5:06/km | 1:16:42 | flat |
| 16 km | 5:02/km | 1:21:43 | flat |
| 17 km | 4:57/km | 1:26:40 | flat |
| 18 km | 4:51/km | 1:31:32 | -8 m |
| 19 km | 5:13/km | 1:36:44 | flat |
| 20 km | 5:00/km | 1:41:44 | flat |
| 21 km | 5:07/km | 1:46:51 | flat |
| 22 km | 5:10/km | 1:52:01 | flat |
| 23 km | 4:43/km | 1:56:44 | -14 m |
| 24 km | 5:01/km | 2:01:44 | flat |
| 25 km | 4:57/km | 2:06:41 | flat |
| 26 km | 5:15/km | 2:11:56 | +7 m |
| 27 km | 5:07/km | 2:17:03 | flat |
| 28 km | 4:56/km | 2:21:58 | flat |
| 29 km | 5:08/km | 2:27:06 | flat |
| 30 km | 5:13/km | 2:32:19 | flat |
| 31 km | 5:26/km | 2:37:45 | +13 m |
| 32 km | 5:15/km | 2:43:01 | +6 m |
| 33 km | 5:01/km | 2:48:02 | flat |
| 34 km | 4:55/km | 2:52:57 | flat |
| 35 km | 4:48/km | 2:57:45 | -10 m |
| 36 km | 5:01/km | 3:02:45 | flat |
| 37 km | 5:02/km | 3:07:47 | flat |
| 38 km | 5:08/km | 3:12:55 | flat |
| 39 km | 4:57/km | 3:17:52 | flat |
| 40 km | 5:03/km | 3:22:55 | flat |
| 41 km | 5:05/km | 3:28:00 | flat |
| 42 km | 5:03/km | 3:33:03 | flat |
| Finish | 4:54/km | 3:34:00 | 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 October 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.
You have the splits. The question is whether they are the right ones for you.
In a Race Strategy Session, Jason reads your last twelve weeks and spends 60 minutes going through the Cape Town Marathon with you: what you are fit for, how to pace it, fuelling and the conditions. A$180.
Where Cape Town is decided
Hardest km
31 km at 5:26/km
Fastest km
23 km at 4:43/km
The coach's read
Fast, with gentle rolls rather than real hills, and a city-and-coast loop that brings the finish into view before sending you back out along the Sea Point promenade. Run the rolls by effort, respect any wind off the Atlantic late, and you've a quick course under the mountain.
WHY Allowing for a typical October day, that's about 5:04/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 Cape Town Marathon
A coach's read on how the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon runs, and how to spend your effort across it.
01The course
Kilometre by kilometre
- The climbing that matters: 29.3–31.6 km (+27 m at 1.2%), 3.7–6.4 km (+23 m at 0.8%), 7.4–9.5 km (+21 m at 1.0%). Run these by effort; your pace will and should slow.
02The plan
How to pace the Cape Town Marathon
- Read the course before race day. Fast, gently rolling, under Table Mountain. Fast, with gentle rolls rather than real hills, and a city-and-coast loop that brings the finish into view before sending you back out along the Sea Point promenade.
- 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 29–32 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. Run the rolls by effort, respect any wind off the Atlantic late, and you've a quick course under the mountain.
03Questions
Cape Town Marathon, answered
- Is the Cape Town Marathon hilly?
- It's largely flat but gently rolling, with around 205 m of total climbing over the 42.2 km. The biggest single climb is about 27 m.
- How should I pace the Cape Town Marathon?
- The Sanlam Cape Town Marathon is a largely flat but gently rolling marathon, with about 205 m of climbing and 203 m of descent (a near-level net change). Pace it by even effort: ease back on the few rises and let the descents run, rather than forcing an identical pace on every kilometre.
- What is the hardest part of the Cape Town Marathon?
- The toughest climb runs roughly 29–32 km, gaining about 27 m at an average 1.2%. Fast, with gentle rolls rather than real hills, and a city-and-coast loop that brings the finish into view before sending you back out along the Sea Point promenade.
- Is the Cape Town Marathon a good course for a PB?
- It can be. It's fast enough for a personal best if you pace by effort and don't fight the rolling sections; just don't expect a dead-flat racetrack.
- How much elevation gain does the Cape Town Marathon have?
- About 205 m of total gain and 203 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 Sanlam Cape Town 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
More marathons
Train for Cape Town. Not just the distance.
A coach builds this course's climbs, descents and race-day pacing into a plan made for you.