Kerzerslauf: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The gun goes at 11:36 in the Vordere Gasse at around 450 metres, in blocks seeded by predicted time. The first kilometre already takes you out of the village and some twenty-five metres up onto the farmland plateau, where the route keeps climbing gently and steadily for the next four kilometres. At kilometre five comes the first real bite: three hundred metres at a good nine percent, with pitches above thirteen, onto the high point at 525 metres.

The course then drops for two kilometres down to the water and runs flat along the Aare reservoir through the Niederried-Oltigen nature reserve, the lowest part of the lap. From kilometre 9.2 the section that defines this race begins: a good kilometre averaging 5.5 percent with ramps above fifteen, close to sixty metres of unbroken climbing, back up onto the plateau. The closing four and a half kilometres tilt gently downhill through the neighbouring villages and along the Vordere Gasse into the finish at the Herresrain.

The surface changes constantly: village streets, gravel, farm track, forest floor, lakeside path. The Kerzerslauf has been run since 1979, reaches its 49th edition in 2027 and drew almost eight thousand entries in 2026, with women making up a good forty-five percent of the field. It was the first Swiss event to be certified for sustainability and today meets the ISO 20121 standard; the return rail journey is included in the entry fee.

Pacing Strategy

There is barely a neutral section on this lap. Just under thirty percent of it is flat, thirty percent runs uphill and thirty-five percent downhill, and it keeps alternating. An even split is therefore the wrong target: pace on effort and accept that kilometres one to five will be slower and kilometres six to eight faster than your average.

The race is decided on the climb from kilometre 9.2. It arrives straight after the flattest and fastest part of the course along the reservoir, lasts four to seven minutes depending on your level, and steepens towards the top. Hammer the two flat waterside kilometres before it at race pace and you arrive up there with nothing left, losing more over the remaining four and a half kilometres than the fast flat section ever gave you.

The second trap is the long descent between kilometre 5.8 and kilometre eight. Sixty metres of downhill invite long braking strides on gravel and farm track, and that is exactly what costs you the quadriceps for the climb that follows. Take it with a high cadence. Then there is the wind: most of the course runs unsheltered across open fields, and in March a north-easterly is no rarity. On the exposed kilometres a group is worth more than any solo effort.

Training plan for Kerzerslauf: 12-week build

For a committed age-group runner this race lasts roughly an hour to an hour and a half. The demand is not that of a steady threshold run but a sequence of changes: four or five longer climbs, two long descents and only about a third of the distance genuinely flat. For long stretches you sit clearly above or clearly below threshold and have to find an economical rhythm again quickly after every rise.

The key training content is climbing at race duration rather than hill sprints. Repetitions of four to seven minutes at five to seven percent reproduce the decisive climb from kilometre nine. Put them at the end of a longer run on a regular basis, because that is exactly where it falls in the race: two thirds of the way in and straight out of a fast flat section.

The transition from downhill back to flat matters just as much. Between kilometre 5.8 and kilometre eight you give back sixty metres, and a two-kilometre flat stretch follows in which the legs have to produce pace again immediately. Practise controlled downhill running at a high cadence and add two to three minutes at race pace to each repetition. Since a good share of the course runs on gravel and farm tracks, those sessions do not belong on asphalt alone.

Conditions are the second training factor. The Kerzerslauf is a mid-to-late March race, the end of winter preparation and for many the first hard effort of the year. Cold air, wind across open fields and a possibly soft surface come with it. Plan at least two or three outdoor tempo sessions in exactly those conditions and use them to test clothing and shoe choice; grip and wind protection decide more here than on a city course.