The first Sunday of October is earmarked for the Bangalore marathon. The race is in its eleventh year, and it continues to grow year after year, securing a prominent place on the Indian marathon racing calendar.
The race route spans the heart of the city covering the Central Business District, the famous Cubbon park, and other landmarks within and around the park. This article will help you to get familiar with the route, elevation, and insights.
WEATHER
The weather forecast is cloudy, and no rain is expected during the race hours. The humidity is expected to be at 90%. Temperature is fortunately expected to be between 20 degrees 6AM, then gradually raising to 26 degrees by 10 AM. The wind direction is from the South, with an average speed of 8 km/h, which wouldn’t affect racing much.
This could be one of the best weather conditions here for personal bests.
Bangalore’s beauty is best enjoyed on Sunday morning when the city is still asleep and with no traffic around. This year, the race is on October 6th, 2024 (Sunday), and flags off from Kanteerava Stadium, the route is a loop for Half marathoners and two loops for marathoners. You will run through Cubbon Park, Vidhana Soudha, State Library, GPO, and the famous MG Road.
Cubbon park is spread over 120 Hectares and is home to more than 6000 trees, for first time runners; take deep breaths in there :) also, you will be running close to 10k in and around the park with a few “sharp” and some “U” turns. For those running this course for the first time, the park has deceiving uphills on some stretches, thus it will be important to pace yourself accordingly. The metro at MG road, made the whole stretch vibrant getting us in the mood to match its colorful graffiti through its stretch, this road has a decline, however, as we take a “U” turn, it will incline as well. Be watchful.
Start Point: Kanteerava Stadium
Holding area for the marathon is at Kanteerava Stadium, which will provide a lot of space for warm-up, there is also a 200mts track and you can also run around the stadium. You can keep your belongings at the baggage counter within the stadium. Plenty of makeshift restrooms for men and women and a hot delicious breakfast served post-run.
Race Start: The race starts within the stadium and you have to cross a narrow gate to reach the main road. Runners running this route for the first time watch out, as it can get chaotic, start slower than your usual pace, and also remember there is a slight elevation to reach the main road from the stadium.
First 3 kilometers: Once you hit the main road runners will take a left for Cubbon park, you will be running your first 3 km towards the state library and then take a left from the dog park, exiting Cubbon Park at Century Club exit towards Vidhana Soudha. Here is a slight incline for 500mts., maintain a steady pace. The landmark Vidhana Soudha will be on your left while you cruise through it towards GPO towards Minsk Square.
4 to 6 kilometers: This time, the route has changed instead of the ‘u’ turn at Minsk square like in previous years, the route will continue towards Cubbon Road. This is a positive for runners as it reduces one ‘u’ turn. Runners continue on Cubbon road; runners will take a “U” turn at Manipal center, and back towards Anil Kumble Circle.
7 to 9 kilometers: Runners will take a left towards Anil Kumble circle and then again a “u” turn, this stretch is around 500 Mts. Come back to Cubbon road, A good distraction is Bangalore’s Chinnaswamy stadium towards your left. Then take a left towards Queens Road and a “U” turn back at Tonnic, towards GPO before entering Cubbon Park. Pace yourself carefully as the section from Tonic to GPO has decent elevation. The route will continue to Vidhan Soudha road before entering Cubbon Park again.
9 to 12 kilometers: These kilometers are inside Cubbon Park, You will enter from GPO and run parallel to Queen Road. Now you will see runners at Queen Road, a happy distraction along with the decline. Hold your pace here as you are just entering Cubbon, and the park is completely rolling. While the 10th kilometer is also a decline. You will experience some bit of rolling in the 11th Km and then once you come out of Cubbon Park there is a good 800 mts incline in your 12th km on Kasturba Road towards MG Road.
12 - 16 kilometers: You will experience an elevation loss all through MG Road Mayo Hall junction (u-turn point) and then back towards Kasturba Road which will entail 13th through 16th Kms. And you will come back on the same route thus having a mental frame set for the tempo and the return uphill task :). By now you are already sweating. ]
Last 5 kilometers: This is good news for half marathoners as you have just 5 more kilometers left, in and around Cubbon park. You will trace the route back the same way you entered cubbon i.e. Queens Park, Vidhana Soudha and back into Cubbon park crossing the State library on your left. You will cover 16th through 20th kms. and now is the last spell of the race coming out of the gate towards the finish line, set your mind right and your strides straight. Give yourself a pep talk, get the best of the downhill, and cross the finish line with a champion’s smile. For the marathoners, you go through the same drill twice!
PACING THE RACE
Given the course has rolling elevation profile, a steady pace is probably not ideal. We’ve put together a pace calculator based on the race elevation profile. You can use the calculator to arrive at the kilometer wise split paces based on your goal time.
Check out the pacing calculator here
| Laps | Elevation Gain (in m) | Elevation Loss (in m) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | 0 |
| 2 | 8 | 3 |
| 3 | 12 | 2 |
| 4 | 1 | 6 |
| 5 | 2 | 6 |
| 6 | 8 | 0 |
| 7 | 3 | 3 |
| 8 | 0 | 4 |
| 9 | 8 | 0 |
| 10 | 0 | 11 |
| 11 | 3 | 3 |
| 12 | 8 | 5 |
| 13 | 4 | 5 |
| 14 | 5 | 1 |
| 15 | 5 | 8 |
| 16 | 6 | 5 |
| 17 | 5 | 5 |
| 18 | 10 | 0 |
| 19 | 1 | 10 |
| 20 | 2 | 7 |
| 21 | 0 | 5 |
| 0.1 | 0 | 0 |
GPX, Strava Route
If you are feeling Geeky, here is the GPX file!
Post finish: Your medal will be handed over shortly after crossing the finish line. Wear it proudly. Use the space inside the Kanteerva stadium to cool down – don’t stop after the race, walk for a bit, do your stretches.
Once you have caught up with your friends and taken enough pictures for social media, don’t forget to have a warm & delicious breakfast.
The event tried to be green to the maximum extent, so please ensure you do your bit. If possible avoid throwing your plastic bottle and use the same for refills.
Check curated races by Runners on geeksonfeet.com/races
geeksonfeet.com/races
Race Finder - Curated races by Runners
Prepared by Team GeeksOnFeet for the love of running