Can you explain how to interpret a course elevation map? I’m trying to get a better understanding of a marathon I’m running this fall that looks intimidating on the chart, but there is no mention on the website about it being super hilly. Thanks. —Kayla

You are wise to get a handle on the marathon course now so you can develop a solid training strategy. You’ll want to train on terrain that’s similar to what you’ll face in the race.

On elevation charts, the elevation (listed in feet or meters above sea level) is located on the left side of the chart and reads from low (on the bottom) to high (on the top). The distance of the race is located along the bottom of the chart and will read from left to right in miles or kilometers.

First, note the range of elevation from the bottom to the top. If there’s a small range—like in the Marine Corps Marathon chart below, which ranges from zero to 230 feet—it means that even the largest hills aren’t that large. This course is flat to slightly rolling. Even flatter is my hometown race, the Chicago Marathon (also below), with a 30-foot elevation range. (Where we lack in elevation, we more than make up for in skyscrapers.)

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If you’re not looking closely, you might think the Chicago course is hillier than the Marine Corps course because of its scary-looking profile. However, if the elevation scales were identical, the Chicago Marathon would look like a flat line and resemble the reality of the course (flat with only small bridge inclines). Those “steep” ascents and descents only gain or lose about 10 feet in elevation—not so scary after all.

If the scale of your map ranges in hundreds of feet, like the one for the Boston Marathon (below), it means there will be some elevation change and it is likely a rolling course. Also, you can see there is a significant loss of elevation in the first ten miles, but it still has some incline spikes in the first five. You can also see the steepest descent at around 15.5 miles followed by the famous “Newton Hills” (from 17.5 to 21 miles). The challenge of this course is the overall loss early in the race plus the uphills later in the race.

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If the elevation chart’s range includes thousands of feet—like the one for the Blue Ridge Marathon (below)—it means you’re going to be tackling some tough hills. This may not look as hard as, say, the Boston Marathon, but if you plotted the two on the same scale, Boston would seem flat to gently rolling by comparison.

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To get a sense for what the elevation changes in your race mean in real life, try running a rolling or hilly route near you. If you have a GPS watch that measures elevation change, use it, or chart the route using an online running tool that includes elevation (like MapMyRun.com) to see how your run’s elevation chart compares to that of your race.

If you start to get into this, you can determine the grades of the hills you run in training versus those you’ll face in the race to see how similar they’ll feel. The grade of a hill equals the vertical gain divided by the horizontal distance you’re covering. So, for example, if you gained 300 feet over 0.7 miles, here is how you would calculate it:

First, convert the mileage to feet, using the knowledge that there are 5,280 feet in a mile.
0.7 x 5,280 = 3,696 feet

Then divide the amount of gain (300 feet) by the distance covered (3,696 feet).
300 feet of gain / 3,696 feet = 0.08, an eight-percent grade