TheMarathon Clinic
Course pacing

How to pace the Rotorua Marathon

The Rotorua Marathon is a genuinely hilly marathon, with about 240 m of climbing and 240 m of descent (a near-level net change). 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 Rotorua Marathon

Saturday 1 May 2027

About 44 weeks away · 307 days · projected from the usual race weekend

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Elevation gain

240m

Elevation loss

240m

Net change

0m

Terrain

Hilly

Typical race-day conditions

May

At the gun

9°C

~8:00am start

By the finish

13°C

warms through the morning

Humidity

84%

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 May · +0.9%

A typical May morning sits around 9°C at the gun and 13°C by the finish. Adapted to conditions like these, the heat may still slow you about +0.9% against an ideal cool day. That moves your 3:30:00 goal to about 3:31:58, 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.

Rotorua Marathon

Rotorua, New Zealand

Hover the map or the profile, the other follows.

This one is won on the back half.

0 km510152025303540290 m300 m310 m320 m330 m340 m
km 34–36 climbs 13 m, right where most runners fade.
climb descenttarget pace

The coach's read

A lap of the lake with a few gentle rolls rather than real climbs, close to even pace, but run the rises by effort. The exposed western side can catch a wind, so stay relaxed there and save a little for the run back into town along the lakefront.

WHY  Allowing for a typical May day, that's about 5:00/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: 5:46/km at +2.6%.

Free speed

The km to 28 km: 4:27/km at -2.8%.

Key climbs & descents
Your race-day splits
MarkerTarget paceClock
1 km5:01/km5:01
2 km4:58/km9:59
3 km5:01/km15:00
4 km5:00/km20:00
5 km4:57/km24:57
6 km5:17/km30:14
7 km4:51/km35:05
8 km4:53/km39:57
9 km4:59/km44:57
10 km5:11/km50:08
11 km4:59/km55:07
12 km5:06/km1:00:13
13 km4:47/km1:04:59
14 km5:29/km1:10:29
15 km4:37/km1:15:06
16 km4:56/km1:20:02
17 km5:01/km1:25:03
18 km5:02/km1:30:04
19 km5:14/km1:35:18
20 km5:46/km1:41:04
21 km5:31/km1:46:35
22 km4:33/km1:51:08
23 km4:43/km1:55:51
24 km4:50/km2:00:41
25 km4:55/km2:05:37
26 km5:38/km2:11:15
27 km5:21/km2:16:35
28 km4:27/km2:21:02
29 km5:00/km2:26:02
30 km5:00/km2:31:03
31 km5:10/km2:36:12
32 km4:58/km2:41:10
33 km4:55/km2:46:04
34 km5:00/km2:51:05
35 km5:11/km2:56:16
36 km5:10/km3:01:26
37 km4:42/km3:06:07
38 km4:49/km3:10:56
39 km5:00/km3:15:56
40 km4:58/km3:20:54
41 km5:03/km3:25:57
42 km5:03/km3:31:00
Finish4:58/km3:31:58

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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Take it furtherAdjust for the heatPlan your splits
·Race-day guide

Pacing the Rotorua Marathon

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

01The course

Kilometre by kilometre

  • The climbing that matters: 17.8–20.5 km (+55 m at 2.1%), 25.1–26.7 km (+38 m at 2.4%), 12.7–14.0 km (+19 m at 1.4%). Run these by effort; your pace will and should slow.
  • Where you get it back: 21.2–22.4 km (-50 m down), 26.8–27.9 km (-32 m down), 36.0–37.6 km (-17 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 Rotorua Marathon

  1. Read the course before race day. Rolling loop around the lake. A lap of the lake with a few gentle rolls rather than real climbs, close to even pace, but run the rises by effort.
  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 18–20 km (+55 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 exposed western side can catch a wind, so stay relaxed there and save a little for the run back into town along the lakefront.
03Questions

Rotorua Marathon, answered

Is the Rotorua Marathon hilly?
Yes, it's a genuinely hilly course, with about 240 m of total climbing over the 42.2 km and a biggest single climb of roughly 55 m. Pace it by effort, not by pace.
How should I pace the Rotorua Marathon?
The Rotorua Marathon is a genuinely hilly marathon, with about 240 m of climbing and 240 m of descent (a near-level net change). 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 Rotorua Marathon?
The toughest climb runs roughly 18–20 km, gaining about 55 m at an average 2.1%. A lap of the lake with a few gentle rolls rather than real climbs, close to even pace, but run the rises by effort.
Is the Rotorua 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 Rotorua Marathon have?
About 240 m of total gain and 240 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 Rotorua. 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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