SportScheck RUN Cologne: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

From the Rheinboulevard in Deutz the lap first runs north along the right bank of the Rhine and then turns up into the Rheinpark: around kilometre 0.8 comes the only real climb of the course, just under 400 metres at a good three per cent for twelve metres of ascent, past the Tanzbrunnen and along the edge of the trade-fair grounds. It then returns south on the same line to the Hohenzollernbrücke.

The bridge is the heart of the course: on the foot and cycle deck beside the railway you cross the Rhine with the cathedral straight ahead, drop down into the Rheingarten on the old-town side and follow the riverside promenade south past the historic town hall until the Deutzer Brücke takes you back to the right bank. Two river crossings per lap mean four ramps, and that is where the roughly 66 metres of ascent come from – climbing almost nobody plans for before the race.

The race is run on a September evening, starting at dusk and finishing in the dark in front of the lit old-town skyline. The surface is asphalt and paving throughout, in places on narrow riverside paths. Instead of a race number the official event shirt is the entry ticket, and timing is by shoe transponder.

Pacing Strategy

Five kilometres with two river crossings do not run as an even lap but as four short waves. Set the pace on the flat first kilometre along the bank, but on the climb into the Rheinpark at kilometre 0.8 hold the effort constant rather than the pace – a good three per cent over 400 metres costs more over 5K than it looks.

The Hohenzollernbrücke decides the race. The deck is narrow, the field bunches there, and the ramp up arrives exactly when you have not quite recovered from the Rheinpark. If you want to gain places here, you have to be positioned before the bridge, not on it.

The trap is the way home: after the Deutzer Brücke the last kilometre along the bank looks flat and fast, but by then your legs have four ramps behind them. Keep something back for that section instead of spending it on the old-town side, where the riverside promenade invites you to overcook it.

Training plan for SportScheck RUN Cologne: 12-week build

For an age-group runner the 5 kilometres take somewhere between 20 and 35 minutes depending on level. Despite the short distance the effort is not even: four bridge ramps and a 400-metre climb break the race into waves that each go briefly over threshold and then back under it.

Two things therefore belong in training. First, speed endurance on level tarmac – intervals of 400 to 1,000 metres and tempo runs of 20 to 30 minutes. Second, short climbs at race pace: five to ten repeats of 200 to 400 metres on a ramp or a bridge, where the point is not maximum strength but running on over the top without a break in rhythm.

Conditions are a topic of their own. The race starts late in the evening, in the dark, partly on narrow riverside paths and paving along the Rhine. Move some sessions into darkness, run them without looking at your watch, and test your shoe choice on damp paving – in September the surface by the river is often clammy at night.

Because the course is entirely on hard ground, it is worth looking at calf loading in the final weeks, particularly if you normally train mostly on soft surfaces.