Marathon Compass

Race intelligence for runners with a goal

Your fastest marathon isn't always your best Boston qualifier.

Compare course shape, race-day weather, the BAA downhill adjustment, entry odds, and your own fitness to find the race where your goal is most achievable.

Races
40

28 marathons · 12 halves

Verified
37/40

audited July 17, 2026

Race-morning climate
40

22 from NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals, 18 from 10 years of Open-Meteo history

Why 40 races, not 4,000

Every race here was checked by a human.

Directories scrape every race they can find and let you sort by date. That is a different product. A race-day date that is quietly a year stale, or an elevation figure copied from a listing nobody checked, doesn't just mislead you — it invalidates every number computed from it, which here is all of them.

So the catalog is deliberately small and audited. 37 of 40 verified at the official source; 3 carry a projected date because the organiser hasn't announced one yet, and say so on their page. It grows when a race has been verified, not when one is found.

How every score is computed →

01

Discover

Every major US marathon and half, each rated on what it's best for, how hard it runs, and how much hassle it is to enter and reach.

02

Decide

The BQ Course Finder folds course, weather, and the BAA downhill adjustment into one estimated effect. Head-to-head compares pick a winner by goal — not a dead heat.

03

Prepare

Connect Strava for a plan built on your real fitness — paces tuned to you, adjusted for race-day heat, graded against every session.

Every race is rated on four independent axes — what it's best for, course difficulty, planning friction, and data confidence. How we rate races →

Find the race that fits your goal.

Browse the catalog free, then connect Strava when you're ready to train.