SportScheck RUN Berlin: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

Start and finish sit on the apron in front of Tempelhof's old terminal building. From there the lap first runs south along the western edge of the field and joins, through the south-western access, the long straight of the former runway, which carries you roughly two kilometres east in one unbroken line. At the eastern tip of the field the course turns north in a tight hairpin and sweeps back west along the northern taxiway; the closing metres cross the open apron again, with the curved terminal facade and the Berlin Airlift plane parked in front of it in view.

Underfoot it is concrete and asphalt of the old airport infrastructure the whole way: wide, even, with no kerbs and no tight turnarounds. There is virtually no climbing. The field lies between 46 and 55 metres above sea level, more than 95 per cent of the course counts as flat, and one lap gathers about ten metres of ascent. What the field does offer is wind: on the open ground there is no tree, no building and no embankment to hide behind.

The race is held on an October evening, with dusk already settling over the field, on a lit lap with no road traffic. Instead of a race number the official event shirt is the entry ticket, timing is by shoe transponder, and the organiser fields pacers on net time.

Pacing Strategy

On a lap with no gradient the effort spreads out almost evenly – the structure of the race comes from the wind, not from the elevation profile. So split the course into its two long halves: the southern straight heading east and the northern return. One of them you run with a tailwind, the other into it, and the flags in the start area will tell you which is which.

The eastern straight decides the race. At roughly two kilometres it is the longest stretch without a change of direction, and because nothing distracts you there – no climb, no corner, barely any spectators – your sense of pace slips faster than anywhere else on the lap. Into a headwind, sitting on a group costs far less than holding the pace alone.

The classic trap is the start. The surface is fast, the first metres across the apron feel effortless, and the flat lap looks harmless. Over 5 kilometres that means running evenly from the gun, budgeting for the wind in your splits, and only really pushing on the final taxiway section back west.

Training plan for SportScheck RUN Berlin: 12-week build

For an age-group runner the 5 kilometres take somewhere between 20 and 35 minutes depending on level. That is a short, uninterrupted hard effort at or just above threshold: on a flat lap with no recovery sections you run one pace from start to finish, because neither climbs nor descents break the rhythm for you.

So train exactly that – speed endurance on even ground. Intervals of 1,000 to 2,000 metres at target race pace, tempo runs of 20 to 30 minutes, and the odd session where you have to hold goal pace without looking at your watch, prepare you for the long eastern straight far better than any hill work, which this course has no use for.

Conditions belong in the plan too. Wind on open ground is a discipline of its own: for a few hard sessions deliberately pick exposed terrain – a dyke, a farm track, an airfield or a large park – instead of the sheltered forest loop, and practise staying even into a headwind rather than forcing the pace. Then there is the time of day. An October evening start means cool, damp air, falling darkness and a day on which you have already worked and eaten; move some key sessions into the late hours and find out there what and how much you can take beforehand.

Because the surface is hard throughout – concrete and asphalt, without a single metre of soft ground – it is worth looking at shoe choice and calf loading in the final weeks. If you normally run mostly on forest floor, do at least your fast sessions on tarmac.