Prague Marathon

The course

Everything here happens around the Vltava. The race starts on Old Town Square, runs the short length of Pařížská, crosses at Čechův most and is on the far bank inside a kilometre — the Wallenstein Palace, the Castle on the hill above, then back across Charles Bridge at 2.8 km, cobbled, narrow, unlike anything else in the race. From the Rudolfinum at 3.8 km the course opens into a long northern and eastern arc through Karlín, flat and exposed along the water. Old Town Square returns at 12.7 km, and the route threads the historic core: Celetná, the Powder Tower, Wenceslas Square, the National Theatre at 14.5, the Dancing House at 15.2. Then south. Under the Nusle Bridge at 18 km, past Vyšehrad at 21.3 — the steepest point of the day — and out along the embankments to Podolí. This is the fastest running of the morning: long, straight, riverside. The last third crosses back over the Legion Bridge at 31.5 km and the Rudolfinum at 32.5, then goes out to Karlín a second time, near 38.7 km, before finishing where it started. The difficulty is rhythm rather than gradient: bridges, turns, and cobbles saved for the end.

Start

Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí)

Finish

Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí)

Shape

loop

Terrain

Close to flat, with the rise to Vyšehrad around 21 km the steepest point; the organiser publishes no elevation data. Difficulty comes from rhythm rather than gradient: repeated Vltava bridge crossings, turns, and cobbled sections through the Old Town and on Charles Bridge.