Napf Marathon: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The route is a closed loop. From Trubschachen it climbs over Risiegg to the Napf, which forms the midpoint, and comes back via Niederänzi, Hochänzi, Lushütten and Schynen. The Napf-Marathon is held for the 37th time in 2026, starting and finishing on the sports field of the Hasenlehn schoolhouse in Trubschachen in the Emmental. The event includes a spaghetti evening the night before, a marquee open throughout and the prize-giving at 3 p.m. Timing and entry run through TrackMaxx. The surface is mostly unsurfaced farm track plus asphalt, hiking paths and what the organiser himself calls Trampelpfade, beaten paths; in the wet he explicitly advises extra care.

The profile carries 1,501 metres of ascent and as much descent over 42.195 kilometres, which is 36 vertical metres per kilometre. Barely eleven per cent of the route is level, while around nineteen per cent each counts as steep ascent and steep descent. The climbing splits into eight identified ascents. The longest begins at kilometre one and runs four and a half kilometres at 7.1 per cent for 320 metres of gain; it is the only category 3 climb on the course.

What comes after the Napf is what decides the day. Between kilometre 19.7 and 25.8 sit three short, brutal ramps: 72 metres in 400 at 18 per cent, then 134 metres in 780 at 17.3 per cent with pitches of 28.7, then another 57 metres at nearly eleven. Anyone who took the return side for a descent is corrected there. A final 56-metre rise waits at kilometre 35.5, and after that the road drops to Trubschachen. The cut-off is 4 p.m. and the gun goes at 9:20.

Pacing Strategy

The big mistake here is to treat the climb to the Napf as the race. At four and a half kilometres of 7.1 per cent it is the longest single block, but it is even and eminently runnable, and that is exactly why almost everyone climbs it too hard. Twenty kilometres in, at the summit, it should feel as though you have plenty left.

Because the real work starts at the Napf. Between kilometre 19.7 and 25.8 come three ramps averaging 17 to 18 per cent with pitches near 28, and they come after the long climb, on tired legs. On those sections brisk hiking is faster and far cheaper than running for most people, and it should be a planned decision rather than a surrender.

The third trap is the descents. Eighteen per cent of the route is steep downhill on farm track, hiking path and beaten path, often wet in October weather. Letting yourself run these uncontrolled wrecks your quadriceps for the last ten kilometres, which still hold a climb at kilometre 35.5. Braking costs time, but a destroyed quad costs more.

Training plan for Napf Marathon: 12-week build

A mountain marathon with 1,500 metres of climbing takes roughly four to six and a half hours depending on your level. Unlike a flat marathon it is not an even threshold race but an alternation of long climbs, short very steep ramps and technical descents across six hours.

The training core is long runs with vertical: sessions of two and a half to four hours carrying 800 to 1,500 metres of ascent, ideally on the same mix of gravel, meadow and forest path. Add deliberate hill intervals of eight to fifteen minutes for the long climb, and short very steep repetitions of two to four minutes on a slope above fifteen per cent for the ramps after the Napf.

Descent training is not an extra here, it is compulsory. Eighteen per cent steep downhill over 42 kilometres means more than an hour of eccentric loading on the quadriceps. From about twelve weeks out, put a controlled descent session in every week and build both duration and steepness gradually; it is the single most effective measure against the classic collapse after kilometre thirty.

Then the conditions: mid-October in the Emmental, a 9:20 start, a summit at around 1,400 metres. It can be mild in the valley and wet, windy and far colder on top. Train with the pack or belt you will actually carry, test a waterproof jacket while running, and choose shoes with real lugs, since the organiser himself warns about the beaten paths in the wet.