Brighton Marathon Weekend: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

The gun goes in Preston Park and the biggest climb of the day arrives 450 metres later: 650 metres up Preston Park Avenue, 22 metres of gain at 3.4 per cent. From there the course drops down Preston Drove and runs north on London Road to its high point at kilometre 3. The way back into town is one long, barely noticeable descent from about 39 metres to 11, past the Theatre Royal and the Royal Pavilion, once around the park called The Level and over 200 metres of block paving in the pedestrianised centre. At kilometre 10.8 comes the short St James's Street ramp, twelve metres of gain in 380.

From Marine Parade the course runs east along the top of the chalk coast. At kilometre 16 it turns inland, climbs Greenways up to Ovingdean and comes straight back down, and immediately afterwards, at kilometre 17.65, comes the last climb of the race: 13 metres in 350, ending at the turnaround that marks the eastern extreme of the course above Rottingdean. Halfway falls on the rolling return leg above Brighton Marina.

The rest is sea. A flat out-and-back runs along Madeira Drive beside the Volk's Electric Railway, open since 1883, then the route passes the Palace Pier and the i360 into Hove: Grand Avenue, Church Road and New Church Road out to Portslade and back, one last small rise at kilometre 36, then the Kingsway, Hove Lagoon and the painted beach huts on Hove Promenade. The final five kilometres sit between five and seven metres above the sea, and the finish stands on Hove Lawns.

Pacing Strategy

176 metres of climbing over 42 kilometres, nothing anywhere above six per cent, close to three quarters of the course flat: this is a race for one steady speed, not for surges. Almost all the climbing is done by kilometre 18, and the three ramps are short enough at 350 to 650 metres that you can run straight over them at race pace without a plan of their own.

The race is decided between kilometre 29 and 42, in Hove and Portslade. Wide, straight, completely flat roads, little variation, and no gradient left to force a break – this is where you find out whether the pace you set over the first 30 kilometres still holds. Treat that stretch as a race effort in its own right, not as a run-in.

The trap comes earlier. Between kilometre 4 and 8 the course gives back almost 30 metres of height and hands out speed that feels free and is missing later. Then there is the wind: more than half the route is on open coast road, the eastern leg is exposed in both directions, and the last five kilometres on the promenade offer no cover at all. Never bank a tailwind on the way out into your finish time.

Training plan for Brighton Marathon Weekend: 12-week build

For a typical age-group runner Brighton is three to five hours of work; the cut-off is seven. The demand is evenly aerobic across the whole distance. Nothing on this course forces you into the anaerobic range, and no section lets climbing ability decide the result – what is being tested is the ability to hold one single pace for a very long time.

The decisive part is the flat second half. Build long runs whose final third sits at goal marathon pace, and get used to holding that pace on straight ground where nothing in the terrain reminds you of it. Relaxed downhill running is worth adding too: kilometres 4 to 8 tilt gently downhill the whole way, and tightening up there is paid for later in the calves.

Early April on the Channel coast means cool and windy. More than half the course sits unsheltered by the water, and neither the eastern leg nor Hove Promenade offers any protection. Run winter sessions into the wind rather than postponing them, test your race kit at eight to twelve degrees, and practise drinking from a cup in a headwind – on this course that is not a detail.

Put the emphasis on volume at marathon pace rather than hill repeats. A handful of short rises of 300 to 700 metres at three to four per cent covers everything the first 18 kilometres ask for. Resistance to fatigue matters more: long runs beyond 30 kilometres, tempo blocks placed at the end of kilometres already run, and a fuelling plan you will still execute in a cold headwind.