Berlin, September
BMW Berlin Marathon Pacing Plan
The course starts on Straße des 17. Juni beside the Tiergarten, then loops through Charlottenburg, Schöneberg, Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain and Prenzlauer Berg before a long straight run down Unter den Linden to finish at the Brandenburg Gate. It's the flattest of the six World Marathon Majors — every men's world record since 2003 has been set here — with roughly 35m of total elevation change across the whole 42.2km.
Distance
42.7 km
Elevation gain
+28m / -26m
Typically run in
September
Typical race-day weather
15°C, 13 km/h
Weather is a 10-year seasonal average for this course's location and month, not a forecast for a specific date — see FAQ.
Elevation profile
Sample strategy — 3:45:00 goal
A real, AI-generated excerpt of what Splitsmith produces for this exact course — not a hand-written example. Upload your own goal and recent results to get the full plan.
KM 0-4 — The start is flat but you're running into a headwind through km 1-3, so don't chase quick splits — hold 5:14-5:18/km even though the road feels open. By km 4 the wind swings to a tailwind and pace naturally drops to 5:10/km; let that happen on its own rather than forcing it. You cross 4K at 20:59, right on your 5:20/km average target.
KM 5-13 — Tailwind holds through this whole stretch and your splits drift to 5:09-5:14/km, 1-2% quicker than goal average — that's the wind doing the work, not you overexerting. Stay controlled here; this is exactly the section where runners quietly bank too much speed and pay for it after 28K. You cross 10K at 52:14 and 13K at 1:07:47, both slightly ahead of even pace, which is fine as long as effort feels unchanged.
KM 14-21 — Wind shifts to crosswind then headwind again and pace settles back to 5:13-5:17/km, essentially your goal average. Nothing dramatic happens here — flat grade, no big fatigue signal yet — so use it to reset and run by feel rather than by watch. You cross 21K at 1:49:42, just past halfway, with the race still fully in your control.
Build your BMW Berlin Marathon plan
Upload your own GPX or use BMW Berlin Marathon's course — set your goal and recent results, and get the full km-by-km strategy.
Build my BMW Berlin Marathon plan →Splitsmith is an independent pacing-plan tool and is not an official partner, sponsor, or affiliate of the BMW Berlin Marathon or its organizers. Course data source: digitized from the official course.