the Gampern Run: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

From the Veranstaltungszentrum 4KANTER at 511 metres the lap heads east out of the village and loses height steadily: at kilometre 2.3 it reaches its low point at about 466 metres, just past Weiterschwang. The route then turns north-west, runs flat for a good kilometre and starts climbing again at kilometre 4.28 - 930 metres at 3.8 per cent on average, up to 6.7, 35 metres of gain in one piece through Haunolding and back to the line.

Then the same again: the second climb begins at kilometre 8.98 and feeds straight into the finish. Over ten kilometres that makes 118 metres of climbing, with a third of the course flat and a good 36 per cent uphill - but nothing that counts as steep.

The race is run on an early Saturday evening in September on the lanes between Gampern, Weiterschwang and Haunolding, in the middle of the Hausruckviertel. Start and finish are at the Veranstaltungszentrum 4KANTER, which also houses the changing rooms, showers and the runners' buffet of cake and drinks. The main race closes an afternoon that begins at 13:00 with the village relay and the children's races; alongside the age groups, the Gampern village champions are scored too.

Pacing Strategy

The lap is asymmetric, and that governs the pacing: the first two and a half kilometres of each lap fall, the last one and a half climb. An even per-kilometre split is therefore the wrong target here - even effort is the right one, with roughly ten to fifteen seconds between your fastest and slowest kilometres.

The race is decided on the climb at kilometre 8.98. It is identical to the one at kilometre 4.28, but it comes after nine kilometres and runs straight into the finish with no flat before it. Run the first lap more than 30 seconds faster than the second and you will not be running that climb the second time round, only surviving it.

The trap is the opening two kilometres. Downhill, in a dense field and with the Hobbylauf starting simultaneously on the same course, the early pace feels effortless. The most reliable checkpoint is the low point at kilometre 2.3: if it still feels there as though you have a clear gear left, the split is right.

Training plan for the Gampern Run: 12-week build

For an age-group athlete the main race takes 38 to 55 minutes; the quickest in the field come in at a little over 33. Its character is a sustained effort at or just above threshold, interrupted by two climbs of four to six minutes each that pull the heart rate up a few beats every time.

That repetition is what decides the race, so train it directly: hill efforts of four to six minutes at three to four per cent, run at 10k race pace rather than as hill sprints, and continue straight into two or three minutes of flat running with no break. That reproduces the transition from climb into finish that sets the time here.

The second emphasis is downhill running under pace control. The course falls only gently across two kilometres of each lap - too little to brake against, enough to get carried away on. Long steady runs over undulating ground with a deliberately controlled descending pace train exactly the self-regulation this circuit asks for.

Conditions are late-summer: a 15:30 start in early September, which in the Hausruckviertel often still means a warm, open afternoon with little shade on the country lanes. Move part of your intensive work into the afternoon over the final weeks and plan your drinking before the start - the loop is short enough that most runners take nothing on course.