gurtenCLASSIC: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The gun goes at 12:00 at the Schulhaus Morillon in Wabern, 564 metres up. The climb to Spiegel starts after just three hundred and fifty metres, a good kilometre at 5.4 percent, and from kilometre 2.3 the second and far harder one follows immediately: 1.2 kilometres at 9.6 percent onto the farmed Blinzern plateau and into the open country around the Gurten. After the first half's high point at around 710 metres the route drops into the secluded Gurtentäli.

The middle of the race keeps changing direction: across to the Ulmizberg, back over the Schliernberg, two more climbs of some sixty metres each and descents in between that give it all back. At kilometre 11.8 comes the decision, what the organiser himself calls the punchy final climb: 1.4 kilometres averaging eleven percent with ramps above sixteen, one hundred and fifty-six metres of unbroken height. Two short steps remain after it before the finish at Gurten Kulm at 845 metres.

The surface is asphalt, farm and forest track and meadow path, which in October means ground that turns soft and slippery after rain. The race has existed since 1981, was simply called the Gurtenlauf then and has never changed its founding idea: start in the valley, finish on top. Spectators line the closing two kilometres, and the summit opens the panorama across the Jura, the Emmental, the Bernese Oberland and the Fribourg alps. Kit bags are carried to the finish and the descent is by Gurtenbahn.

Pacing Strategy

Barely fourteen percent of this course is flat and almost twenty-three percent of it is steep uphill. There is no race pace here in the usual sense: you steer on effort from start to finish. The useful quantity is the time you spend above your sustainable output on the climbs, and on this hill your budget for that is limited.

The first mistake happens at kilometre 2.3. The second climb at 9.6 percent comes early enough to still feel cheap and costs one hundred and eighteen metres. Race it and you will have nothing left nine kilometres later for the section where the result is actually settled: the final climb from kilometre 11.8 at an average of eleven percent. Eleven percent means walking and running in turns for most starters, and that is not a defeat but the faster option.

The trap in the middle is the descending. Between kilometre three and kilometre twelve you give back a good two hundred and seventy metres, part of it on meadow and forest paths. In late October those turn slippery after rain or leaf fall, and nobody wins the race there while it is entirely possible to lose it. Run the descents under control with a high cadence, save your quadriceps for the closing climb, and use the last two kilometres among the spectators for what they are: the part where caution in the first half pays out.

Training plan for gurtenCLASSIC: 12-week build

For a committed age-group runner this race lasts roughly seventy minutes to just under two hours. The demand is that of a mountain race with interruptions: seven climbs, descents between them and almost no flat ground. You therefore move constantly between well above and well below threshold, and after every descent you have to put force into a climb again straight away.

The key training content is long hill intervals rather than short attacks. Repetitions of eight to fifteen minutes at seven to eleven percent reproduce the closing climb, and because it arrives after nearly twelve kilometres they belong at the end of a long run. Deliberately practise fast walking on the steep sections too, since above ten percent a good walking technique is more economical than a laboured running stride for most runners.

The second requirement is eccentric strength. Two hundred and seventy metres of descent on unsealed ground with tired legs asks for muscles that are used to it; without preparation they announce themselves on exactly the final climb. Build downhill running on forest and meadow paths into the last eight weeks regularly and add a short climb directly onto each repetition, because the course asks for that transition several times over.

Then there is the date. In late October the start sits in the valley at 564 metres and the finish three hundred metres higher: it is colder, windier and often wet up there while you set off warm below. Expect soft ground and choose shoes with grip, because road shoes are the wrong call on the meadow sections. Since kit bags are waiting at the finish and the descent is by Gurtenbahn, you can and should plan warm dry clothing.