4-Day Baltimore Marathon Training Plan

The 2027 Baltimore Marathon is scheduled for October 16, 2027, so the 18-week window opens around June 12, 2027. Weeks one through 17 keep the normal weekly rhythm and Sunday long run; only the final race week shifts to the event's actual weekday. If that date has already passed, do not compress 18 weeks of mileage into a shorter window.

Use some of your Baltimore Marathon long runs to practice controlled descending on tired legs. Add downhill exposure gradually; the goal is durable quads, not turning every easy run into a hard one. Train for the Baltimore Marathon on rolling terrain with descents you run rather than survive. The course spreads its 977 feet of climbing across the whole route instead of stacking it in one place, so the fitness you actually need is the ability to climb, recover on the move, and descend under control, again and again.

Four run days can be enough when 15 miles in week one is not a sudden jump and you can protect the long run most weeks. This schedule builds to a 40-mile peak and a 20-mile long run. A runner chasing an aggressive time or already supporting more volume may fit a higher-mileage plan better.

Yes. The Baltimore Marathon climbs 977 feet and descends 985 across 26.2 miles, topping out near 345 feet, with no sustained flat until the Lake Montebello loop around miles 16 to 20. It runs slower than a flat city marathon, and the constant changes in grade cost more than the total climbing suggests.

After the Lake Montebello loop. The flat lap between roughly miles 16 and 20 tempts you into speeding up, and the miles that follow are rolling on tired legs. The final five miles trend downhill toward the Inner Harbor, which is only a gift if your quads survived the first twenty.