Delmenhorst 24-Hour Burginsellauf: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

The course is a measured 1.34-kilometre lap around the Burginsel and through the Graftwiesen, part gravel, part asphalt, traffic-free and shaded for much of its length. The profile is as flat as northern Germany gets: about five metres of gain per lap, no gradient worth the name, and an overall distribution that reads as roughly 60 percent flat and a quarter gently downhill. The only change of rhythm is the small rise at the castle mound, and the lap runs out again straight after it.

The whole circuit stays inside the green belt in the heart of Delmenhorst. The Graften are the moats of the town's former castle and the Burginsel is where it stood; start and finish sit right beside them at the Marktplatz. Because every lap passes the start and finish area, your aid station, the tent camp and the physio are never more than 1.34 kilometres away. The station is open around the clock and the course is lit at night, though a head torch is still advised for the darkest sections.

The race is run by Laufclub 93 Delmenhorst and reaches its 23rd edition in 2027. In 2026 it hosted the German 24-hour championship of the DUV and sold out with a closed waiting list, which says a good deal about both the depth at the front and the demand for a place.

Pacing Strategy

Plan in hours, not kilometres. Over 24 hours the sustainable intensity sits well below what feels easy in the opening laps: a relaxed conversational pace on Saturday afternoon is almost always still too fast. Because the course is completely flat there is no gradient to rein you in, so the discipline has to come entirely from you.

The classic trap is the daylight start in the heat. The race begins at midday, the warmest part of the day, and the shaded stretches of the Graftwiesen disguise how much fluid you lose in the first six hours. Run those too hard and you pay for it between two and five in the morning, when both core temperature and alertness bottom out.

The race is decided in the second half of the night and on Sunday morning. Work from the start with a fixed lap rhythm of running and short walking breaks, and with a fuelling routine you execute every time you pass the start and finish area, rather than reacting once your stomach or your legs have already given up.

Training plan for Delmenhorst 24-Hour Burginsellauf: 12-week build

The duration is the task itself: 24 hours on your feet at a low aerobic intensity with no hard efforts at all. That makes the demand the opposite of a road marathon. What limits you is not speed endurance but the sum of muscular fatigue, gut tolerance and sleep deprivation.

Because the course is flat and repeats every 1.34 kilometres, nothing about the terrain ever gives you relief. The same muscles work for hours in exactly the same pattern, and your feet take an identical load in an identical place with every stride. That, far more often than a lack of endurance, is what ends a first 24-hour race. Long, monotonous sessions on level ground belong in the plan, as does thoroughly testing shoes, socks and sock changes over many hours.

The second focus is fuelling. Practise eating solid food while running, using several flavours and warm options, because the aid station beside the start and finish is open round the clock and a stomach that refuses everything after twelve hours ends a race more reliably than tired legs. Rehearse a clear lap rhythm of running and walking segments too, since over 24 hours that is the most durable way to control your pace.

That leaves the night. The race starts at midday in late June heat and runs through the shortest night of the year, brightly lit but still dark. Schedule runs after 10 pm and at least one session that finishes in the early morning hours, and add heat exposure for the early afternoon start. Neither is a detail: they are the part of the preparation that decides your last six hours.