The hilliest marathon courses, ranked

36 US marathons ordered by verified total climbing, most first — for runners who want the challenge, or specific preparation for a hilly goal race.

#	Race	Climbing	Steepest grade	Net drop	BQ adjustment
1	Blue Ridge Marathon Roanoke, Virginia	7,430 ftverified	10%	10 ft down	None
2	Big Sur International Marathon Big Sur, California	2,182 ftverified	4.52%	60 ft down	None
3	Publix Atlanta Marathon Atlanta, Georgia	1,811 ftverified	—	70 ft up	None
4	The San Francisco Marathon San Francisco, California	1,303 ftverified	—	15 ft up	None
5	Charlotte Marathon Charlotte, North Carolina	1,044 ftverified	—	10 ft up	None
6	Sydney Marathon Sydney, Australia	1,027 ftverified	—	95 ft down	None
7	Akron Marathon Akron, Ohio	989 ftverified	—	40 ft down	None
8	Los Angeles Marathon Los Angeles, California	943 ftverified	—	240 ft down	None
9	Portland Marathon Portland, Oregon	873 ftverified	—	5 ft down	None
10	Boston Marathon Boston, Massachusetts	815 ftverified	—	480 ft down	None
11	New York City Marathon New York, New York	810 ftverified	—	65 ft up	None
12	Santa Rosa Marathon Santa Rosa, California	800 ftverified	—	10 ft up	None
13	Carlsbad Marathon Carlsbad, California	782 ftverified	—	10 ft up	None
14	Marine Corps Marathon Arlington, Virginia & Washington, D.C.	699 ftverified	—	125 ft up	None
15	California International Marathon (CIM) Sacramento, California	663 ftverified	—	366 ft down	None
16	Philadelphia Marathon Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	651 ftverified	—	Flat	None
17	Honolulu Marathon Honolulu, Hawaii	641 ftverified	—	20 ft up	None
18	Twin Cities Marathon Minneapolis & St. Paul, Minnesota	576 ftverified	—	46 ft up	None
19	St. George Marathon St. George, Utah	500 ftverified	—	2,559 ft down	+5:00
20	Missoula Marathon Missoula, Montana	492 ftverified	—	35 ft down	None
21	Richmond Marathon Richmond, Virginia	490 ftverified	—	150 ft down	None
22	Eugene Marathon Eugene, Oregon	487 ftverified	—	2 ft up	None
23	Long Beach Marathon Long Beach, California	470 ftverified	—	3 ft up	None
24	REVEL Big Bear Marathon Big Bear, California	280 ftverified	—	5,084 ft down	+10:00
25	Tunnel Light Marathon North Bend, Washington	267 ftverified	—	2,050 ft down	+5:00
26	Avenue of the Giants Marathon Humboldt Redwoods, California	250 ftverified	—	2 ft down	None
27	London Marathon London, United Kingdom	246 ftverified	—	130 ft down	None
28	Berlin Marathon Berlin, Germany	241 ftverified	—	Flat	None
29	Tokyo Marathon Tokyo, Japan	198 ftverified	—	124 ft down	None
30	Chicago Marathon Chicago, Illinois	187 ftverified	—	10 ft up	None
31	REVEL Mt Charleston Marathon Las Vegas, Nevada	186 ftverified	—	5,098 ft down	+10:00
32	Napa Valley Marathon Napa, California	170 ftverified	—	339 ft down	None
33	OC Marathon Newport Beach to Costa Mesa, California	150 ftverified	—	75 ft down	None
34	Skagit Flats Marathon Burlington, Washington	93 ftverified	—	2 ft up	None
35	Erie Marathon at Presque Isle Erie, Pennsylvania	84 ftverified	—	3 ft up	None
36	Mountains 2 Beach Marathon Ventura, California	40 ftverified	—	690 ft down	None

How the ranking works

Ranked by total climbing, most first. This is the same verified-only pool as our fastest-courses ranking, inverted. The energy cost of running rises steeply with gradient (Minetti et al., Journal of Applied Physiology, 2002), so cumulative ascent is the honest measure of how much climbing a course asks of you.

Climbing is not the whole story. Two courses can climb the same total with very different characters — one long drag versus repeated sharp pitches. Where a course's steepest sustained grade is published, it is shown, because grade shapes how a hill runs more than the total does.

Why run a hilly marathon? Some runners want the challenge itself. Others are training for a hilly goal race: Boston's Newton hills arrive at miles 16–21, so runners targeting Boston often want a tune-up with real climbing late in the race.

Downhill hurts too. Descending loads the quads eccentrically, the main driver of post-marathon muscle damage. A hilly course with big descents needs downhill-specific training, not just hill repeats — and remember the B.A.A. now adds 5 or 10 minutes to qualifying times from steep net-downhill courses.

References

Minetti et al., “Energy cost of walking and running at extreme uphill and downhill slopes,” J Appl Physiol 93:1039–1046, 2002 — via a 2025 review of uphill and downhill running.
B.A.A. qualifying standards and net-downhill rule — baa.org.

Narrow it to two

Put any two races head to head on climbing, weather, and the BQ adjustment.

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