How tough is the course?

It’s true: This may be the most grueling Olympic marathon route ever, was the finding of a Runnersworld report, posted last Sunday.

“The first thing you notice, is that it’s going to be a brutal course. There are going to be people walking,” said Pat Tiernan, an Olympian for Australia who is running the marathon. He made two trips to Paris to examine the course.

Unlike some more recent Olympics, this course isn’t a circuit of repeated loops. Instead, it’s a full loop starting in Paris and loops down to Versailles outside of the city.

While the elevation profile for the first 14 km looks fairly tame, once the runners are past the halfway mark the landscape changes. The most notable course feature is the three uphill stretches – they’re incredibly steep and very long.

The first big hill comes just before the 16 km mark, and it climbs at a 4 percent grade – ascending for about 2 km before it levels off for a bit.

The next hill at the 19 km mark is at 5 percent, steeper than anything on the Boston Marathon course and 900 metres long. But those two are just appetizers for the real challenge. That hits just after the 29-km mark.

Runners will have to climb for 600 metres, at an average grade of 10.5 percent. Yes, picture putting your treadmill at 10 percent and trying to run up it at marathon pace.

“It’s unlike anything in any competitive road marathon,” says Sean Hartnett, emeritus professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, who specializes in marathon routes and other running competitions.

In total, the route will include 436 metres of elevation gain. But possibly more challenging is the 438 metres of descent. The make-or-break point for the route might be just after that final brutal uphill, when they are bombing downhill – at some points at a gradient of 13.5 percent. Runners will have to be efficient going down, without pounding so much they trash their quads before the final flat stretch before the finish.

Runnersworld.com