Austria Backyard Ultra – Seekirchen am Wallersee: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

Start and finish sit directly on the water, at the Strandbad Seekirchen lido. The loop runs on asphalt and gravel beside the railway line and the Wallersee, passes the lake huts after about a kilometre and a half onto a narrow shoreline path, and turns at the car park of the bathing beach in Wallersee-Zell. It comes back through the same corridor, and before the finish line there is a small loop through the lido grounds by the campsite. 56 percent gravel, 44 percent asphalt.

The elevation profile is the real story: around 35 metres of climbing per lap, more than half the loop completely flat, and not a single section that counts as a climb. The three short bumps the organiser mentions are exactly that, short bumps. For a backyard format that means two things. The loop is fast, and running it in 40 minutes leaves 20 minutes in camp. It also means every stride is the same stride, lap after lap, with no change of terrain to spread the load.

In 2026 Seekirchen is also the venue for Austria's team at the Backyard Ultra Team World Championship, run every two years as simultaneous national satellite races and originating at Bell Buckle, Tennessee. The open race starts at 09:30 on precisely this championship course, the qualified Team Austria at 14:00. The field is capped at 250 places.

Pacing Strategy

In the backyard format there is no race pace, only a 60-minute lap budget. On a flat loop that is precisely the danger: 6.7 kilometres without meaningful gradient can be run in 35 minutes without effort, and for the first few hours doing so feels entirely right. It is the most expensive mistake this format offers.

A sustainable pattern is closer to 45 to 50 minutes per lap, a pace that feels almost embarrassingly easy, leaving ten to 15 minutes of rest. The breaks are the second discipline: a fixed order, eat, then drink, then feet, then clothing, everything laid out at the chair. Buying very long breaks with very fast laps is tempting, but by the water it cools you down and you start the next lap stiffer.

The real trap on this loop is its sameness. With no climb to force you to walk, you repeat the identical movement pattern hour after hour with the identical load on calves and Achilles tendons. So build in the walking breaks the terrain will not give you here, perhaps a minute per lap from the very first one. And plan for the light: with a 09:30 start in mid-October, darkness arrives around the ninth lap, and then stays for roughly 13 hours.

Training plan for Austria Backyard Ultra – Seekirchen am Wallersee: 12-week build

In a backyard ultra the duration is open, from eight hours to well past 24 depending on how long the field holds. You therefore train not for a distance but for repeatability: many hours at very low intensity, broken by short rests. On this flat loop the demand is notably monotonous and sits deep in the aerobic range throughout.

The key building block is sessions in race format: for three to six hours, start a loop of roughly 6.5 to 7 kilometres on every hour, and sit down and eat in between without fail. That trains the body and the routines together, above all the underrated art of starting to run again after a break. Make your practice loop as flat as you can so it matches the race.

Because the terrain varies nothing here, load tolerance deserves particular attention. Calves, Achilles tendons and foot arches take the same stimulus for twelve hours, with no climb and no technical section to ask the muscles for something different in between. Regular foot and calf strengthening, and long runs on gravel and asphalt rather than soft trail, prepare for that far more specifically than any hill work.

On conditions: mid-October at the Wallersee means a very long night section and cool nights by the water, while running at a little over five metres of climbing per kilometre generates little heat of its own. Plan spare clothing for several temperature steps, two headlamps, and fuelling you can tolerate over twelve hours, because in a backyard real food beats gels. Practise running in the dark too: on a loop you already know by heart in daylight, night becomes mostly a question of staying awake.