Marathon International de la Côte d'Amour: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

The start is on the promenade de mer at La Baule, looking out over the bay of Le Pouliguen. From there the route follows the coast west, turns inland through the walled medieval town of Guérande and the peninsula's salt marshes, runs out to Batz-sur-Mer and the point at Le Croisic, and comes back along the coast to La Baule, where the finish faces the ocean.

The course has no elevation profile in any usual sense. The whole route sits between two and fourteen metres; the 111 measured metres of ascent are bridges, quay walls and the slight rise into Guérande's old town. The organiser publishes 97 metres of D+ - the right order of magnitude, and simply nothing to climb.

What defines this course is not terrain but exposure. The presqu'île guérandaise is a flat spit reaching far into the Atlantic: long sections run open along the coast, the salt marshes offer no shelter at all, and in early November the wind comes off the sea. The third edition in 2026 starts 8,500 runners and sold out months in advance.

Pacing Strategy

On a course without climbs, the time is almost entirely a function of evenness. The plan is a constant marathon pace from the gun, at most a marginal negative split - there is no rise to force a natural break and no descent to bail out a first half run too fast.

The race is decided between Guérande and Le Croisic, from roughly kilometre 20. That is where the route is most exposed, with no buildings and no trees, and where the wind arrives unchecked. If it is behind you on the way out, you run that section too fast without noticing and pay twice for it on the coastal return.

That is the trap here: a flat marathon invites you to set the pace by feel instead of by the watch, and a tailwind feels exactly like good form. Run by pace rather than by effort in wind and the second half is already lost. The 3:00 to 4:30 pace teams are worth more on this course than on a hilly one, because they double as shelter.

Training plan for Marathon International de la Côte d'Amour: 12-week build

For a typical age-group field the effort lasts roughly three to four and a half hours. The demand is the marathon in its purest form: an unbroken aerobic effort just under threshold, with no change in the loading pattern and none of the short reliefs a hilly course throws in. That is exactly what makes it fast and, muscularly, monotonous - the same fibres work at the same angle for the whole distance.

What decides the race is not a climb but the ability to still hold goal pace after two to three hours. Preparation should lean on long sessions with a high share at marathon pace: 25 to 32 kilometre runs with 12 to 20 kilometres at target, with threshold work as a supplement rather than the focus.

Because the course contains no gradient at all, the loading is markedly one-sided. That argues for running economy and muscular durability on flat asphalt - long runs deliberately on level ground rather than rolling terrain, plus trunk and calf strengthening, since nothing here interrupts the stride rhythm.

Conditions are the second focus and are routinely underestimated. Early November on the Breton Atlantic coast means cool damp air, a real chance of rain and above all wind across open ground. Long sessions in wind belong in the plan, as does practising running in a group and sharing the front - and a clothing strategy for a 09:15 start on a cool November morning.