Pick one of the seven Majors with published elevation data, enter your goal finish time, and the tool builds a table of splits for every kilometre or mile of the real course. Uphill sections get a slower target pace and downhill sections a faster one, and the splits still add up to your goal time overall. Print the table or screenshot it for race day.
A pace band is a card or wristband listing the cumulative time at each mile or kilometre marker. An elevation adjusted, or grade adjusted, version changes the target pace for each segment based on how steep it is, using a running economy model, so effort stays even even though the raw pace numbers move up and down with the terrain.
The published Minetti et al. (2002) energy cost of running model, from the Journal of Applied Physiology. It fits a fifth order polynomial to the metabolic cost of running, in joules per kilogram per metre, against gradient, measured on a treadmill from minus 45 percent to plus 45 percent grade. This tool scales your flat pace by the ratio between each segment's actual gradient cost and flat ground cost.
Net yes: Boston's course profile shows about 187 meters of descent against 84 meters of ascent, mostly from the steep drop out of Hopkinton. But the Newton hills between miles 16 and 21, capped by Heartbreak Hill, add climbing right when fatigue sets in, which is why Boston pace bands typically run faster than goal pace early and slower through the hills.
Tokyo, Boston, London, Sydney, Berlin, Chicago and New York City all have measured elevation profiles in our data. Cape Town does not yet have an official elevation figure published for its course, so it is left out of the race picker rather than guessed.
By total ascent, Chicago is the flattest of the seven Majors with profile data here, climbing only about 16 meters over the full 42.195 km course. Berlin, at about 51 meters, and London, at about 76 meters, are close behind, which is part of why fast times and world records cluster on those three courses.