TheMarathon Clinic
Course pacing

How to pace the Sydney Marathon

The TCS Sydney Marathon is a genuinely hilly marathon, with about 313 m of climbing and 396 m of descent (a net drop of 83 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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Abbott World Marathon Major
Next Sydney Marathon

Sunday 30 August 2026

About 9 weeks away · 63 days

Build a plan for this race

Elevation gain

313m

Elevation loss

396m

Net change

-83m

Terrain

Hilly

Typical race-day conditions

August

At the gun

10°C

~6:30am start

By the finish

16°C

warms through the morning

Humidity

67%

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 August · +1.2%

A typical August morning sits around 10°C at the gun and 16°C by the finish. Adapted to conditions like these, the heat may still slow you about +1.2% against an ideal cool day. That moves your 3:30:00 goal to about 3:32:25, and the pace below already allows for it.

Your target pace

5:02/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 Sydney Marathon

Sydney, NSW

Hover the map or the profile, the other follows.

This one is won on the back half.

0 km51015202530354020 m40 m60 m80 m
km 40–41 climbs 34 m, right where most runners fade.
climb descenttarget pace

The coach's read

A deceptive course that climbs through the early kilometres, including the Harbour Bridge, before giving most of it back to finish slightly net downhill at the Opera House. Bank patience, not time: run the climbs by effort and let the later descents come to you without trashing your quads.

WHY  Allowing for a typical August day, that's about 5:01/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 14 km: 6:33/km at +4.9%.

Free speed

The km to Finish: 4:19/km at -2.9%.

Key climbs & descents
Your race-day splits
MarkerTarget paceClock
1 km4:33/km4:33
2 km4:52/km9:25
3 km4:50/km14:15
4 km5:14/km19:29
5 km5:00/km24:29
6 km4:42/km29:11
7 km4:40/km33:51
8 km5:06/km38:57
9 km5:33/km44:30
10 km5:36/km50:06
11 km4:23/km54:29
12 km5:01/km59:31
13 km5:27/km1:04:57
14 km6:33/km1:11:31
15 km4:48/km1:16:19
16 km4:41/km1:20:59
17 km5:33/km1:26:32
18 km4:43/km1:31:15
19 km4:44/km1:35:59
20 km5:02/km1:41:01
21 km4:55/km1:45:56
22 km4:58/km1:50:53
23 km4:59/km1:55:52
24 km5:02/km2:00:54
25 km5:06/km2:06:00
26 km5:12/km2:11:12
27 km5:21/km2:16:33
28 km4:43/km2:21:16
29 km5:06/km2:26:22
30 km4:55/km2:31:16
31 km5:20/km2:36:37
32 km5:05/km2:41:41
33 km4:47/km2:46:28
34 km4:57/km2:51:25
35 km5:14/km2:56:39
36 km5:11/km3:01:50
37 km4:44/km3:06:34
38 km4:40/km3:11:14
39 km4:41/km3:15:55
40 km5:07/km3:21:02
41 km5:58/km3:26:59
42 km4:35/km3:31:35
Finish4:19/km3:32:25

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 Sydney Marathon

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

01The course

Kilometre by kilometre

  • The climbing that matters: 12.9–14.2 km (+54 m at 4.2%), 8.1–10.0 km (+39 m at 2.1%), 40.0–41.2 km (+34 m at 2.9%). Run these by effort; your pace will and should slow.
  • Where you get it back: 0.1–1.5 km (-47 m down), 14.4–15.7 km (-40 m down), 10.1–11.5 km (-39 m down). Let these run without braking or hammering: relaxed, quick feet.
  • Sydney Harbour Bridge (~2.4 km): An early climb onto the bridge deck, iconic, and the first test of your discipline. Ease over it.

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 Sydney Marathon

  1. Read the course before race day. Hilly first half, net-downhill finish. A deceptive course that climbs through the early kilometres, including the Harbour Bridge, before giving most of it back to finish slightly net downhill at the Opera House.
  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 13–14 km (+54 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. Bank patience, not time: run the climbs by effort and let the later descents come to you without trashing your quads.
03Questions

Sydney Marathon, answered

Is the Sydney Marathon hilly?
Yes, it's a genuinely hilly course, with about 313 m of total climbing over the 42.2 km and a biggest single climb of roughly 54 m. Pace it by effort, not by pace.
How should I pace the Sydney Marathon?
The TCS Sydney Marathon is a genuinely hilly marathon, with about 313 m of climbing and 396 m of descent (a net drop of 83 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 Sydney Marathon?
The toughest climb runs roughly 13–14 km, gaining about 54 m at an average 4.2%. A deceptive course that climbs through the early kilometres, including the Harbour Bridge, before giving most of it back to finish slightly net downhill at the Opera House.
Is the Sydney 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 Sydney Marathon have?
About 313 m of total gain and 396 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 Sydney. 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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