Sihlseelauf: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The start at Schulhaus Brüel sits at a good 900 metres, and the opening kilometre already drags upwards along the Etzelstrasse before the course drops to the level of the lake. From kilometre 2.3 two ramps follow back to back, 25 and 30 metres of gain with pitches around ten percent, topping out at the high point of the opening third. A long, steady descent then leads to the lowest point of the loop at 881 metres, right at the water's edge.

That is where the hardest section waits: 600 metres averaging 7.4 percent and touching 12.6, lifting you out of the basin towards Egg. Past the dam road the course reaches its summit of 933 metres at kilometre 7.5. From there the loop rolls back along long flat stretches of unpaved shoreline road until a final climb of just over a kilometre begins at 11.8, only 3.6 percent on average, but with a pitch around twelve percent. The closing kilometre falls back to the Brüel.

The Sihlsee is Switzerland's largest reservoir by surface area, dammed in 1937 to feed the Swiss Federal Railways' Etzelwerk power station, and this loop by KTV Einsiedeln, run for the 38th time in 2026, traces its front basin. That means an open upland valley at around 900 metres, little shade on the shoreline kilometres, and wind coming unbroken across the water.

Pacing Strategy

Almost 40 percent of this loop points downhill and only a good fifth of it is genuinely flat, which means there is barely a section where a pace simply holds itself. Plan in effort rather than in kilometre splits, and accept that the ramps cost a minute or two per kilometre while the descents hand it back. The opening kilometre climbs straight off the start line, and that is where the most expensive mistake is made.

The race is decided between kilometre 5.8 and 7.5. The steepest ramp on the course starts at the lowest point, immediately after a long descent, and runs on into the pull to the summit with no real recovery in between. Go over threshold there and you pay for it on the shoreline kilometres that follow.

The real trap comes afterwards. From kilometre 8 the course runs long and flat on unpaved road beside the water, and it feels as though the work is done, until the final climb and its twelve-percent pitch arrive at 11.8. Take the aid station at kilometre 11.3, keep a light, quick stride rather than a driving one on the loose surface, and save something for that last rise.

Training plan for Sihlseelauf: 12-week build

For 14 kilometres with around 220 metres of climbing, expect roughly one to one and a half hours of racing depending on your level. The demand is not that of a steady tempo run: five short climbs and just as many descents force constant changes of rhythm. What you need is an aerobic base solid enough to absorb repeated spikes near threshold and settle back to race pace straight afterwards.

The decisive sections are the 600-metre ramp at 7.4 percent just before halfway and the final climb from kilometre 11.8. Both are short enough to overcook, and both sit where the mistake only shows up later. Hill intervals of two to four minutes on a comparable gradient, run at the top end of threshold, prepare exactly for that, and at least one such session belongs at the end of a longer run.

The descending is what usually gets underestimated. Almost 40 percent of the course runs downhill, much of it on loose unpaved road. Downhill running under fatigue, deliberately with a high cadence and an upright posture, protects the quadriceps and turns those kilometres into a genuine gain rather than braking work.

Then there are the conditions of the Einsiedeln upland: a late-morning start in the last days of August at around 900 metres, with the shoreline sections open to sun and wind. Put part of your long sessions into the middle of the day and run them on gravel and farm tracks rather than asphalt, so that neither the surface nor the warmth is new on race day.