Sunday 29 August 2027
How to train for the Sydney Marathon
Sydney climbs 313 metres, and the elevation is not the problem. The problem is where it sits. A steep downhill start, a quiet eleven kilometre grind where the race is actually lost, and a real climb at 40km. Train for the shape of this course and it is a fast day. Train for a flat marathon and it will take the last ten kilometres off you.
Below is the full 20 week plan, written around the course. Nothing held back.
The course
Three places decide your race
North Sydney to the Opera House. Over the Harbour Bridge at 2km, through Pyrmont and the city, out and back down Anzac Parade, a loop of Centennial Park, then the Domain and home down Macquarie Street. It is net downhill by 83 metres, and that number tells you almost nothing about how it feels.
48 metres down before the bridge
The first 2.1 kilometres drop 48 metres before you even reach the bridge. It feels free. It is not. Every second you take out of your goal pace here is paid back with interest after 30km, and the damage is to your quads, not your lungs.
Where it is actually lost
There is no hill here. That is the trap. About 50 metres of climbing spread over eleven kilometres at under one percent, back up Anzac Parade, through Centennial Park, out past Driver Avenue, with no real descent to recover on. Nothing steep enough to notice, and nowhere to hide.
The one real climb
Mrs Macquarie's Chair. Thirty metres of climbing in a single kilometre, around three percent, at 40km. Then it drops 29 metres down Macquarie Street to the Opera House. A hill you would not blink at on a Tuesday, arriving at the worst possible moment.
One honest correction. The official elevation profile shows a huge spike through the city between 11 and 14km. It is not real. That data is measured from a surface model that includes building height, and the official site itself notes the elevation in its file is not fully accurate. The real climb through the CBD is about 20 to 25 metres, not 70. Do not train for a mountain that is not there.
What that means for you
Four sessions this course demands
A standard marathon plan will get you fit. It will not get you ready for this. These four go in on top, and they are the difference between racing the last ten kilometres and surviving them.
Downhill repeats, for your quads
The most common regret from Sydney finishers is not training the downhills. Running downhill loads your quads eccentrically, which is the kind of damage that shows up as dead legs at 35km and cramp in the final 400 metres. It has to be trained, and it takes months.
Find a 300 to 400m hill at about 3 percent. Start at 4 by 90 seconds down, easy effort, controlled, landing soft. Build to 8 by 2 minutes by week 14. None in the last three weeks.
One long continuous climb
Hill repeats give you a rest every time you jog down. This course does not. Anzac Parade is three and a half kilometres of uphill you can barely see, and the 40km climb comes with nothing left. You need to practise holding effort on a grade without recovery.
Once a fortnight from week 8, a single continuous 2 to 3km climb at marathon effort, not marathon pace. Your pace will drop. Your effort should not.
Rolling fartlek, because you never settle
Sydney never gives you a flat kilometre to find a rhythm in. The constant changes are what chew people up mentally. Training on a flat loop teaches you a rhythm the course will take away from you in the first two kilometres.
Weekly from week 5. Run your rolling route and surge the uphills at 10K effort, float the descents at easy effort. No watch targets. Effort only.
Marathon pace on tired legs
This is the one that wins you km 25 to 36. Fresh marathon pace is easy. Marathon pace after two hours of running is the actual skill the race asks for, and it is the whole idea behind the plan below.
From week 11, finish your long run with marathon pace blocks. Start at 2 by 10 minutes, build to a continuous 10 to 14km at goal pace off tired legs.
The plan
20 weeks, built for this course
This is the four hour version, which is 5:41 per kilometre. It is built on the Hansons approach, which means six running days, easy days that are genuinely easy, and a long run that is a proportion of your week rather than a fixed heroic distance. There is no 32km long run in here and that is deliberate.
If you are chasing a different time, the shape is the same and the numbers are not. Scroll down and I will email you the version for your goal.
| Wk | Phase | Key session | Second session | Long run | Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Base | Easy running, 4 by 20s strides | Easy | 14km easy | 40km |
| 2 | Base | Easy running, 6 by 20s strides | Easy | 15km easy | 43km |
| 3 | Base | Easy running, 6 by 20s strides | Easy | 16km easy | 45km |
| 4 | Base | Easy running, strides | Easy | 14km easy | 38km |
| 5 | Speed | 12 by 400m at 5K pace | Rolling fartlek 40min | 18km easy | 48km |
| 6 | Speed | 8 by 600m at 5K pace | Downhills 4 by 90s | 19km easy | 50km |
| 7 | Speed | 6 by 800m at 5K pace | Tempo 5km at goal pace | 20km easy | 52km |
| 8 | Speed | 5 by 1km at 10K pace | Continuous 2km climb | 18km easy | 48km |
| 9 | Speed | 4 by 1200m at 10K pace | Tempo 6km at goal pace | 21km easy | 54km |
| 10 | Speed | 3 by 1600m at 10K pace | Downhills 6 by 90s | 22km easy | 56km |
| 11 | Strength | 6 by 1km at goal pace minus 10s | Tempo 8km at goal pace | 22km, last 2 by 10min at goal pace | 56km |
| 12 | Strength | 5 by 1200m at goal pace minus 10s | Continuous 3km climb | 24km, last 3 by 10min at goal pace | 58km |
| 13 | Strength | 4 by 1600m at goal pace minus 10s | Tempo 10km at goal pace | 24km, last 6km at goal pace | 60km |
| 14 | Strength | 3 by 2km at goal pace minus 10s | Downhills 8 by 2min | 26km, last 8km at goal pace | 60km |
| 15 | Strength | 4 by 1600m at goal pace minus 10s | Tempo 12km at goal pace | 26km, last 10km at goal pace | 62km |
| 16 | Strength | 3 by 2km at goal pace minus 10s | Continuous 3km climb | 26km, last 12km at goal pace | 62km |
| 17 | Strength | 2 by 3km at goal pace minus 10s | Tempo 16km at goal pace | 26km, last 14km at goal pace | 62km |
| 18 | Taper | Tempo 8km at goal pace | Easy, strides | 20km easy, finish fresher than you started | cut 25% off peak |
| 19 | Taper | 2 by 12min at goal pace, 3min jog between | Easy | 14km easy | cut 50% off peak |
| 20 | Race | 3 by 5min at goal pace, then 4 by 20s strides | Easy shakeout | Race day | cut 75% off peak |
Read the taper correctly, because most people get it wrong. Every cut is taken off your peak week, not off the week before. Three separate subtractions from one number, never a chain. Cut the volume and keep the intensity. There is race pace work in all three taper weeks, and that is exactly why you will not feel like you are losing fitness.
The paces, for four hours. Goal pace 5:41 per kilometre. Easy running 6:45 to 7:15. Long run 6:20 to 6:50. Tempo and threshold around 5:15. 10K pace around 5:05. 5K pace around 4:50. If your easy days are not genuinely easy, this plan becomes overtraining rather than training, and that is the single most common way it fails.
Race day
What nobody tells you
It will be cold, and it will be windy from the west
Expect 9 to 12 degrees at the gun and 16 to 19 by the time a four hour runner finishes. In 2025 it was 8 degrees and felt like 3 behind a polar westerly. August is Sydney's driest and clearest month, so plan for sun and dry air, not humidity. You will train through autumn and winter and race in conditions colder than most of your long runs. Do not overdress.
Carry your own gels
Water is at every drink station. Powerade at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40km. But gels are only at 20km and 30km, and the official site says they are limited and not guaranteed. Carry your own and practise with them on every long run from week 5.
There is no race morning bag drop
Bags go in at the expo, not on the day. This is the single most common logistical mistake at this race. There are also no toilets in the start chutes, and the first on course toilets are past 5km.
Practise the alarm
A 6:30am gun is early. For most people that is a 3:00 to 3:30am alarm. Run two or three of your long runs at race hour, with race breakfast, in the last eight weeks. It is a skill and it is free.
The cut off is seven hours, or ten minutes per kilometre. There are also redirection points through the race, so if you are behind schedule you will be sent on a shorter route rather than pulled off immediately. The first is at 6km at 2 hours 45.
Free, no catch
Get the plan for your goal time
The plan above is built for four hours. The shape of the training is the same at every level and the numbers are not. Tell me what you are chasing and I will email you the full 20 week plan for that time, as a PDF you can print and stick on the fridge.
Done. Check your inbox in the next minute or two.
One email with your plan attached. I will send you the occasional coaching email after that and you can unsubscribe from any of them in one click.
One last thing
A plan is not a coach
Everything above is yours for nothing, and it is the same thinking behind what I do with my own athletes. But a plan written in November cannot see the week you get sick, the niggle in your calf in April, or the fact that your easy runs have crept up to tempo pace without you noticing. That is what a coach is actually for, and it is why people who follow a plan alone so often arrive at the start line either undercooked or already broken.
If you want someone watching the data week by week between now and August, start with a free 30 minute video call. It costs nothing and there is no commitment.