Ottawa Marathon

The organiser describes the 2026 route like this: runners began at Ottawa City Hall, travelled west along Wellington, crossed into Gatineau on the Chaudière Bridge, looped through downtown Gatineau, returned over the Alexandra Bridge, continued along Sussex, and then followed Colonel By Drive before finishing on Queen Elizabeth Drive.

The Chaudière Bridge comes at about km 9.2 and the Alexandra Bridge at about km 15.6. Between them the race is in Quebec, a different city and a different province from the rest of the course. The recap calls this the new route introduced in 2025. That is the 2026 course; the race itself is on 30 May 2027.

Measured

From City Hall the road is at its highest, 74.6 m at km 0.6, and then it runs downhill almost without a break: 60 m by km 5 and 51.1 m, the lowest point of the course, at km 9.1 beside the river just before the Chaudière Bridge. That first 9 km loses about 20 m and gains about 18 m in small rises along the way.

In total the marathon climbs 99.3 m, and the relief from lowest to highest point is 23.5 m. The finish on Queen Elizabeth Drive, at 68 m, is about 3 m lower than the start. The 99 m is what the sustained rises add up to, not every short rise a watch would count.

Measured

After the Alexandra Bridge the course follows Sussex Drive and the road climbs from about 56 m at km 15.6 to 73 m at km 20.9. Most of that comes in one place: from 60 m at km 19.8 to 73 m at km 20.85 is 13 m in just over a kilometre, the steepest kilometre of the race. It falls back to about 62 m by km 22.4.

From the Pretoria Bridge area at km 27.4 the road never goes below 61 m or above 71 m, along Colonel By Drive to the finish at 68 m on Queen Elizabeth Drive. That is the last 14.8 km of the marathon inside a band of 10 m. The organiser’s checkpoint at the 27 km marker is in the same Pretoria Bridge area.

Measured