Stadtwerke Lübeck Marathon: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The first kilometres belong to the old town. From the Kohlmarkt the course runs to the Holstentor, down to the Untertrave waterfront, through the Engelsgrube and over the Koberg to the Große Burgstraße, leaving the old town across the Burgtor bridge. It is the only part of the day with frequent changes of direction, and it holds the only noticeable change in height: a good 15 metres from the river bank up into the old town.

The Travemünder Allee then takes over and runs as the B75 for roughly 18 largely straight kilometres towards the coast. On the way the route crosses the Trave through the Herrentunnel and passes Kücknitz before reaching the Baltic at Travemünde and rounding the old lighthouse on the mole. Across this entire passage the profile stays within a band of a few metres; the ramps at the bridge and the tunnel are the steepest thing on offer.

The return uses exactly the same axis, and that is the defining feature of this marathon: no change of terrain to unload the muscles, no gradient to alter your stride, just 42 kilometres on which you generate the pace entirely yourself. One thing does arrive at the very end, when the final few hundred metres climb the same 15 metres from the waterfront back up into the old town to the finish.

Pacing Strategy

A flat out-and-back allows exactly one sensible strategy, and that is evenness. There is no climb on which too fast a start shows up early, and no descent that covers a mistake later. The pace of your first ten kilometres is therefore a promise you have to keep over the last ten.

The race is decided on the way back, between kilometres 26 and 36 on the Travemünder Allee. The stretch is long, straight and visually monotonous, and most of the time lost there is lost not to the profile but to a collapsing rhythm. It helps to break the return into blocks: to Kücknitz and the Herrentunnel, from there to the Burgtor bridge, then the old town.

Two traps remain. The first is the opening: the loop through the old town is tight, crowded and runs gently downhill to the waterfront, which makes a pace feel easy that is too fast for 42 kilometres. The second is the wind. On a straight axis to the coast it pushes one way and holds you back the other, so run the outward leg by effort rather than by the watch, or a tailwind will sell you a finishing time you cannot defend on the way home.

Training plan for Stadtwerke Lübeck Marathon: 12-week build

Most age-group runners will be out between three and a half and five hours. The demand is one continuous, even aerobic effort: no climbs to lift the heart rate, but equally no descents to unload and no change of terrain to vary the muscular work. Across four hours that means the same stride on the same surface throughout.

The critical phases follow from exactly that. The first is the turn in Travemünde, where it becomes obvious how realistic your pace has been. The second is the long straight return, where the unvarying stride becomes muscularly expensive. And right at the end comes the short rise back into the old town, which feels far steeper than it is after 42 flat kilometres.

Preparation should therefore aim at repeatability rather than at vertical metres. Long runs of 25 to 32 kilometres on flat ground with the final third at goal pace match the demand most closely. Add extended tempo sections of 8 to 15 kilometres until goal pace is automatic and does not have to be rediscovered every kilometre.

Two details pay off particularly on this course. First, strength work for calves, ankles and trunk, because no change of terrain redistributes the load. Second, deliberate practice in wind and cool air, since an October run out to the Baltic coast and back is rarely a still day.