UW Medicine Seattle Marathon: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

The race starts at seven in the morning on Harrison Street beside Seattle Center, in the dark. A flat loop through South Lake Union leads into the only genuine climb of the day at kilometre 1.6: 900 metres up Lakeview Boulevard onto Capitol Hill, averaging 4.7 per cent and touching almost ten. Then come the narrow, tree-lined Interlaken Boulevard, the ramp up into Arboretum Drive at kilometre 7.8 and the sweep through the Washington Park Arboretum. After the Montlake Bridge at kilometre 13 the course drops to water level and stays there.

The middle section is a different race. Across the University of Washington campus, along the Union Bay shoreline path and onto the Burke-Gilman Trail, kilometres 14 to 27 run beside the water with almost no elevation change, past Gas Works Park and over the Fremont Bridge. Fifty-eight per cent of the distance sits inside one per cent of gradient, not much for a city marathon, but this is the flat part of this one. The surface, on the other hand, never settles: closed roadway, bike lane, park path, shoreline trail, bridge sidewalk, plus a great many turns and stretches where runners pass in both directions.

The closing miles belong to the port. After the loop through Interbay and along Commodore Way, the course picks up the Elliott Bay Trail and crosses the Magnolia Bridge, a 1930 viaduct whose sidewalk carries the race high over the Interbay rail yard, then drops onto Elliott Avenue and down to the water's edge. The last five kilometres run through Myrtle Edwards Park and the Olympic Sculpture Park along open Elliott Bay with no shelter at all, finishing at Bell Harbor Pier 66. Until 2024 the race ended inside Memorial Stadium; the waterfront finish arrived with the course redrawn for 2025.

Pacing Strategy

On paper the course loses 26 metres net, but that number is useless for planning. Two thirds of the climbing and around sixty per cent of the descending happen before kilometre 21. Attacking Capitol Hill at kilometre 1.6 at goal race pace burns exactly what the flat middle section will ask for: run the first hour on effort rather than pace, shorten your stride on the ramps and stay controlled on the drops.

The race is decided between kilometres 21 and 33. That is where the long, uniform miles sit, Burke-Gilman Trail, Ship Canal Trail and the streets of Interbay, with no descent to carry you and no climb forcing you to ease off. The two short ramps, Rainier Vista at kilometre 21 and Gilman Avenue at kilometre 31, cost more on tired legs than 15 metres of gain suggests.

The real trap is downhill running in the cold. Most of the descending lands in the first half, on muscles that are not warm yet at around five degrees with a start before sunrise; whatever shuts down there comes back to find you after kilometre 30. Add wet leaves, road markings and bridge sidewalks that get slick in drizzle, and a finishing stretch on open water where a headwind makes the last five kilometres more expensive than the pace chart says. Water is available at thirteen stations; in the cold, runners routinely drink too little.

Training plan for UW Medicine Seattle Marathon: 12-week build

For an age-group athlete the effort lasts roughly 3:15 to 5:30 hours; the course stays open for about seven and a half. The demand is aerobic and steady but never rhythmic: only 58 per cent of the distance sits in the flat band, the rest tilts gently up or down, and the turns and surface changes never stop. What the course asks for is less a single sustainable pace than the ability to hold an even effort for hours while pace and stride length keep moving.

The decisive phases come in two halves. The first ten kilometres need climbing strength and, above all, downhill technique: the Capitol Hill ascent and the drops towards the Arboretum are short, but they load the quadriceps eccentrically very early. From kilometre 21 the requirement inverts: pace discipline on completely flat, straight ground where nothing about the effort varies any more.

Conditions are a training topic in their own right. Late November mornings in Seattle average around five degrees, usually overcast and damp, and the gun goes before sunrise. Put your autumn long runs deliberately into cold and rain, test gloves, hat and a throwaway layer in training rather than on race morning, and practise drinking at temperatures where thirst never arrives.

Three emphases carry the build: downhill running under fatigue, in the form of repeats of 400 to 1000 metres on three to six per cent gradient at the end of long runs; long runs containing 20 to 25 kilometres at marathon pace on flat, open ground to rehearse the middle section; and short climbs of 400 to 900 metres around five per cent so the early ramps do not force a surge. If you are chasing a Boston qualifier, do not talk your goal time down on the strength of the net descent; those 26 metres are given back almost entirely in the first half.