Marathon courses, fast and slow

What makes a marathon course fast or slow? Profile or grade is one factor, for sure. The Pocono Mountains Run for the Red Marathon has one of the most runner-friendly profiles.

At the other end of the profile spectrum, the Grandfather Mountain Marathon is, as its website states, “One of America’s Toughest Marathons.”

There are many compilations of fastest marathon courses. The following table of marathons I have run is a subset of those in the original table in one such compilation, FindMyMarathon (accessed 1/17/2022), that ranked 495 marathons from fastest to slowest (so far, all in the U.S. and Canada). It was purely a coincidence that the races I’ve run covered the entire range of the original table. 

The rankings are periodically updated. When I’d checked it in early fall of 2021, the Pocono Mountains Run for the Red Marathon was still on the list. But then in October, the race organizers decided to discontinue the race, in part because of the pandemic. I kept it in the table below, because Pocono was where I ran my marathon PR (3:55) in 2016 and qualified for the Boston Marathon for the first time. It was ranked the 26^th fastest course before being discontinued.

The marathons are ranked using each race's Personal Record (PR) Score. The PR Score is derived from an algorithm based on the effects of three factors on running performance: grade (G), elevation (E), and temperature (T). There’s also a related ranking using each race’s Course Score (G+E, no T). Column 1 of the table below shows the ranking based on all three factors (and the most recent year I’d run it), whereas column 2 shows the ranking based on the Course Score. The BQ % is the percentage of runners who qualified for the Boston Marathon according to the latest race results. As can be seen, the BQ % does not directly indicate a fast or slow course.

Grade (G), Elevation (E), Temperature (T); NA - Not available

Rank (G+E+T)	Rank (G+E)	Month, location (elevation in ft)	Race name	PR score	BQ %	Grade
1 (Did not run)	1	April, Las Vegas, NV (2030)	REVEL Mt. Charleston	107.03	NA	Downhill
(2019)	26	May, Stroudsburg PA, (2215)	Pocono Mountains Run for the Red	101.36	8.52%	Downhill
48 (2018)	57	October, Corning, NY (932)	Wineglass	99.76	17.71%	Downhill
54 (2014)	73	March, Virginia Beach, VA (13)	Shamrock	99.68	3.24%	Very flat
156 (2019)	206	November, Harrisburg, PA (351)	Harrisburg	99.07	18.26%	Mostly flat
247 (2013)	310	October, Wash., DC (72)	Marine Corps	98.47	NA	Mostly flat
324 (2012)	379	October, Baltimore, MD (240)	Baltimore	97.72	4.04%	Hilly
344 (2017)	397	April, Gettysburg, PA (538)	Gettysburg North-South	97.53	14.39%	Rolling
430 (2018)	101	September, Wash., DC (72)	Abebe Bikila Day International Peace	95.58	15.63%	Mostly flat
494 (2013)	491	July, Boone, NC (5946)	Grandfather Mountain	84.80	NA	Very hilly
495 (Did not run)	495	October, Breckenridge, CO (9600)	Breckenridge Road	83.98	0.10%	Hilly

Notes:
- An assumption of the rankings is that pre-race training has been optimal.
- I did not run #1 and #495; these two fastest and slowest courses, respectively, are included for reference.
- For most courses, G+E+T and G+E rankings don’t differ by enough to change the relative rankings.
- One noticeable exception is the Abebe Bikila Day International Peace Marathon along the Potomac River in Washington, DC. It ranks 101 if only grade and elevation are considered, but 430 if temperature is also included (!). This Potomac race is scheduled in early September to enable any Boston Qualifying results to be submitted within the qualifying window for the following year’s Boston Marathon. But that means the race is typically run with a mean temperature in the 70s (F)--plus the swampy humidity!
- Only for the Grandfather Mountain Marathon is the elevation (at 5946 ft.) possibly a factor. As elevation increases, of course, it becomes more and more a factor. Of all the races I’ve run, not just marathons, the one at the highest elevation was Copper Mountain Half Marathon at 9600 ft. That definitely was a factor!

Beyond grade, elevation, and temperature, there are other factors that could speed up or slow down a course, e.g.,

- Time of year/weather (other than temperature): rain, humidity, wind speed/direction.
- Number of turns in the course.
- Race field size: some optimal size between not too crowded to impede (e.g., Marine Corps Marathon in 2013) and not too sparse to become uncompetitive (i.e., more like a time trial).
- Availability and quality of pacers.
- Spectator size and distribution.

While the latter factors, which are mental rather than physical, help make the running easier and thus the course faster, other mental factors can make the running easier though not necessarily faster. For example, last summer, on a warm August morning, I did the following 15-mile "intestinal" run.

One "lap" is ~13.8 miles, so a marathon would be shorter than two laps. Which is interesting, because, mentally, that seems easier than a typical marathon route. Now I did run it slowly, because it was a hilly route, I was pacing by target heart rate, and it was a warm August morning. But I think it's more than just the slow pace. At the farthest, the route is less than two miles from home. So, I know well every street, cul-de-sac, many of the houses, signs on their fences, dogs to wave at (and those to avoid), churches, schools, etc. That familiarity, along with the more visual chunking (e.g., cul-de-sac) allowing the route to be run and focused on one chunk at a time, I think is what made the mental effort easier--though the course was a slow one.