Alt-Attnanger Martinilauf: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

The start is on the Wolfseggerstraße by the kindergarten, above the village. The first 400 metres or so are pure approach, running down the road to the lap, which is then covered twice. The lap itself measures a good 2.5 kilometres: out of the village northwards via Bäckergasse, Badgasse and Mühlweg, then onto a field track that runs along the edge of the fields at the forest margin to the lowest point of the course, and back up on the Linzer Straße. Friedhofweg, Pestalozzigasse and Schulweg close the loop. The finish is not at the start but a little further down the same road, at the ABZ STIWA.

This is a village race in the literal sense: put on by the ÖVP Attnang-Puchheim, based at the Dorfzentrum Alt-Attnang on Linzer Straße 1, with parking at the cemetery the course itself runs past. Timing is done without chips through the TIME2WIN app, there are trophies for the first three in each category and a medal for everyone who finishes. The team competition is the race's own quirk: teams of three are scored, and the winner is not the fastest but the one closest to the average time of all teams. The children run first, at one o'clock, over 250 and 500 metres.

The course is not hard: 63 metres of climbing over 5.8 kilometres, and the whole terrain spans just 26 metres of height. A good three quarters is asphalt, roughly a sixth is the field track, in November the one section that can be soft and slippery.

Pacing Strategy

The first six minutes are the real test. From the start on the Wolfseggerstraße the road runs downhill for some 600 metres, close to 17 metres of drop; over a race this short that is enough to settle into a pace you cannot hold once the ground levels out. Run the approach deliberately slower than the gradient invites.

After that the course is close to flat for a long stretch, and the lap repeats exactly: whatever you spend on the first lap is served back to you unchanged on the second. Two short ramps of roughly 9 and 12 metres sit in every lap. They are too short to cost real strength, but long enough to break your breathing if the underlying pace is too high.

The genuine trap is the footing and the date. The field track at the forest edge is the only unpaved section, and in early November it is soft after rain; trying to hold pace there in road shoes costs more than the asphalt can give back. Add a half-past-two start on a November afternoon, with cold damp air and the light already going.

Training plan for Alt-Attnanger Martinilauf: 12-week build

For a typical field the race takes 25 to 40 minutes. The demand is hard and largely even: a short distance without real climbs means sustained intensity at or just above threshold, broken only by two short ramps per lap. No section of this course hands you a recovery.

The emphasis therefore falls on tempo work on the flat. Intervals of 800 to 1,000 metres at target race pace with short jog recoveries match the demand more closely than easy running alone, and a weekly tempo run of 20 to 25 minutes builds the feel for a pace that has to stay level for half an hour. Because the same lap is run twice, a session built as two identical blocks with a short break between them is the most honest simulation.

The race is decided on the opening descent and the short ramps within the lap. Train both deliberately: controlled downhill running in which you actively cap the pace instead of letting the slope carry you, and climbs of 30 to 60 seconds that you enter at race pace and return to race pace immediately afterwards.

The conditions deserve preparation of their own. A 2:30 p.m. start in early November means running in single-digit temperatures and damp air, with a warm-up that must not be allowed to wear off before the gun. The field track asks for grip: a few sessions on soft wet ground, and the decision between a road shoe and something with tread, belong in the preparation rather than on race day.