Prague, May
Prague Marathon Pacing Plan
Starts and finishes in Old Town Square, crossing the medieval, statue-lined Charles Bridge between km 2 and 3 — closed exclusively for the race — with views straight up to Prague Castle. The route crosses the Vltava a total of eight times over the full course, mixing short cobblestone stretches near the old bridges with modern paved roads elsewhere; net elevation change is minimal (roughly 50m up, 50m down).
Distance
42.5 km
Elevation gain
+76m / -76m
Typically run in
May
Typical race-day weather
14°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 0-5 — You open into a headwind at km1 and a crosswind through km2-3, so don't chase splits — 5:21, 5:22, then a legit drop to 5:12 as the road tips down. Km4 gives you a real -1% descent and a 5:00/km reading; that's the road giving you time, not you racing for it, so let it happen and don't add effort on top of it. Settle back to 5:21 at km5 as the grade flattens — your 3:45 target needs roughly 5:18/km average, so this opening five is close enough to banked, not a place to dig.
KM 6-12 — The grade is essentially flat here (0 to -0.9%) and the wind is mostly a crosswind you can ignore, so this is where you find your real rhythm: 5:00, 5:14, 5:16, 5:11, 5:18, 5:16, 5:17. You cross 12K at 1:02:49 — check that against 5:14/km average pace-band and adjust effort, not stride length, if you're off. This stretch has no excuses built into the data, so if you're drifting slow here it's a fitness signal, not a course signal.
KM 13-15 — Km13 carries a genuine +1.3% grade and the pace data shows it — 5:35/km, your slowest kilometer so far, running 5.5% off average. Don't fight it; a tailwind is with you but it won't cancel the climb. The reward comes fast: km15 drops -1.2% and nets 4:56/km, the fastest split of your whole race, so let gravity do the work rather than powering the downhill yourself. You hit 15K at 1:18:44 with the hill already behind you.
Build your Prague Marathon plan
Upload your own GPX or use Prague Marathon's course — set your goal and recent results, and get the full km-by-km strategy.
Build my Prague Marathon plan →Splitsmith is an independent pacing-plan tool and is not an official partner, sponsor, or affiliate of the Prague Marathon or its organizers. Course data source: digitized from the official course.