Heel-Lauf: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

The first four kilometres are the quiet part. After the start on the works site the route turns after barely a kilometre into what the organiser calls the grüne Einfahrt, a tree-lined stretch partly accompanied by the little river Oos, which on a June evening at seven o'clock delivers one thing above all: shade. The gradient lifts gently but steadily out of the valley floor towards town.

Then comes the break. Around kilometre five the course climbs for a good four hundred metres at almost ten per cent on average with pitches near fourteen; the roughly forty metres of the Hochstraße are the only real climb of the day and they sit exactly in the middle of the race. At the top the work is done: the route drops into the Kurgarten past the Trinkhalle and the Kurhaus with its casino, loops through the pedestrian zone over the Leopoldsplatz, and then runs out along the Lichtentaler Allee past the Museum Frieder Burda to the Klosterwiese.

In total there are 116 metres of climbing against 79 of descent, so the 10 km finishes a good thirty metres higher than it started. The surface is asphalt throughout, water is handed out on the Hochstraße and at the Klosterwiese, with cooling showers at the same points. The finish is directly in front of the Theater Baden-Baden and the prize-giving follows at 20:30 in the Kurgarten. 6,159 people took part in 2026; the 10 km is the main race of that programme and is open to runners only.

Pacing Strategy

Plan this race in two halves with a hinge at kilometre five. The first half through the grüne Einfahrt is fast and tempts you into treating the flat pace as race pace, it is only the approach to the climb. Run those first four kilometres two or three seconds a kilometre under target and there will be nothing left on the Hochstraße.

The race is decided in those four hundred metres. At ten per cent on average, holding pace is not an option; expect to lose well over a minute and run on effort rather than on the watch. What matters more than the climb itself is the crest: the descent into the Kurgarten follows immediately, and taking thirty seconds up there to find the rhythm again costs more than the whole climb.

The real trap is the closing section. After the Kurgarten come the pedestrian zone with its narrow lanes, corners and changing paving, and then the dead-straight Lichtentaler Allee, both invite an acceleration the legs will not support after the Hochstraße. Add the time of day: a 19:00 start in late June often still means high-summer warmth, as it did in 2026, and the climb falls exactly where heat costs most. Use both water points, including the second one at the Klosterwiese.

Training plan for Heel-Lauf: 12-week build

For a well trained age-group runner the 10 km takes roughly 38 to 60 minutes. The demand is not even: about half the course is genuinely flat, just under a third climbs, and the decisive load is a single hard spike in the middle third. This is a tempo run with a hill interval built into it rather than a steady threshold effort.

What decides the race is the Hochstraße at kilometre five and what happens immediately afterwards. Train it as short, steep repetitions with an active continuation: four to six times two to three minutes on a gradient around ten per cent, but each one carried two minutes past the crest at race pace instead of stopping at the top. That transition is what sets the finishing time.

The second emphasis is pace changes on flat asphalt. The course is built from long fast straights, the grüne Einfahrt and the Lichtentaler Allee, interrupted by a twisting inner-city section. Fartlek with two to five minute changes on road and park path reproduces that better than even-paced steady runs, and a few sessions with tight turns prepare you for the pedestrian zone.

Among the conditions, the date matters most. A Friday in late June starting at 19:00 means a full working day already in the legs, warm evening air, and a course that begins in the Oos district before it reaches any shade. Move part of your hard sessions into the early evening rather than the morning, deliberately get used to heat over the closing weeks, and rehearse the drinking strategy in training, two water points across ten kilometres is thin when it is hot.