TheMarathon Clinic
Course pacing

How to pace the London Marathon

The TCS London Marathon is a largely flat but gently rolling marathon, with about 127 m of climbing and 161 m of descent (a net drop of 34 m). 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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Next London Marathon

Sunday 25 April 2027

About 43 weeks away · 301 days · projected from the usual race weekend

Build a plan for this race

Elevation gain

127m

Elevation loss

161m

Net change

-34m

Terrain

Rolling

Typical race-day conditions

April

At the gun

10°C

~9:30am start

By the finish

13°C

warms through the morning

Humidity

65%

morning average

Conditions

Good

close to ideal, a small cost at most

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 · +0.8%

A typical April morning sits around 10°C at the gun and 13°C by the finish. Adapted to conditions like these, the heat may still slow you about +0.8% against an ideal cool day. That moves your 3:30:00 goal to about 3:31:42, and the pace below already allows for it.

Your target pace

5:01/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.

TCS London Marathon

London, United Kingdom

Hover the map or the profile, the other follows.

0 km51015202530354010 m20 m30 m40 m50 m
climb descenttarget pace

The coach's read

Largely flat after a quick downhill from the Greenwich start. The challenge is discipline in the dense early crowds and the twisting miles through Docklands; hold an even effort and save your push for the Embankment run-in to The Mall.

WHY  Allowing for a typical April day, that's about 5:02/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 20 km: 5:15/km at +0.7%.

Free speed

The km to 5 km: 4:21/km at -2.7%.

Key climbs & descents
Your race-day splits
MarkerTarget paceClock
1 km5:10/km5:10
2 km5:08/km10:18
3 km5:04/km15:22
4 km4:51/km20:13
5 km4:21/km24:33
6 km4:50/km29:23
7 km4:57/km34:20
8 km5:00/km39:20
9 km5:03/km44:23
10 km5:08/km49:31
11 km5:00/km54:30
12 km5:03/km59:33
13 km4:58/km1:04:31
14 km5:06/km1:09:37
15 km5:03/km1:14:41
16 km5:00/km1:19:41
17 km5:04/km1:24:44
18 km4:59/km1:29:44
19 km5:03/km1:34:47
20 km5:15/km1:40:01
21 km4:58/km1:45:00
22 km5:04/km1:50:04
23 km4:56/km1:55:00
24 km5:02/km2:00:02
25 km4:58/km2:05:00
26 km5:01/km2:10:01
27 km5:04/km2:15:05
28 km5:04/km2:20:09
29 km5:05/km2:25:14
30 km5:08/km2:30:22
31 km5:04/km2:35:26
32 km4:55/km2:40:21
33 km5:01/km2:45:22
34 km5:09/km2:50:31
35 km5:03/km2:55:35
36 km5:00/km3:00:35
37 km5:06/km3:05:41
38 km4:55/km3:10:36
39 km4:58/km3:15:35
40 km5:04/km3:20:38
41 km5:03/km3:25:41
42 km5:01/km3:30:42
Finish5:06/km3:31:42

Even-effort splits distribute your goal time by the energy cost of each gradient (the Minetti grade-cost model), not an even pace. Wind, heat, turns, and your own downhill tolerance still apply, so run the climbs by feel and stay relaxed 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 London Marathon

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

01The course

Kilometre by kilometre

  • There are no climbs to plan around: the profile stays within a narrow band the whole way, so the course runs as a flat, even-effort race.
  • Where you get it back: 3.6–6.3 km (-42 m down). Let these run without braking or hammering: relaxed, quick feet.
02The plan

How to pace the London Marathon

  1. Read the course before race day. Flat and fast, sharp early drop. Largely flat after a quick downhill from the Greenwich start.
  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.
  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 challenge is discipline in the dense early crowds and the twisting miles through Docklands; hold an even effort and save your push for the Embankment run-in to The Mall.
03Questions

London Marathon, answered

Is the London Marathon hilly?
It's largely flat but gently rolling, with around 127 m of total climbing over the 42.2 km and a biggest single climb of about 8 m. None of it is severe, but the rises add up.
How should I pace the London Marathon?
The TCS London Marathon is a largely flat but gently rolling marathon, with about 127 m of climbing and 161 m of descent (a net drop of 34 m). 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 London Marathon?
Largely flat after a quick downhill from the Greenwich start.
Is the London 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 London Marathon have?
About 127 m of total gain and 161 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 London. 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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