SportScheck RUN Nuremberg: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

The 5 km course is the short version of the same idea: from the Frauentorgraben past the main station along Bahnhofstraße and the Prinzregentenufer to the western end of the Wöhrder See, and back on the opposite side. It is therefore almost entirely a city course and only touches the lake at its town end.

There is virtually no climbing – about 30 metres of ascent spread as ripples over the whole lap, with asphalt underfoot throughout. What shapes the course is the changes of direction: the way down to the Pegnitz and back brings several tight hairpins and bridge ramps, which cost noticeable speed over a distance this short.

The 5 km is the last start of the day, once the longer races are long finished and the city centre is filling up again in the afternoon. In late October you run it in cool air and low sun, on dry or damp asphalt, but without any climbing to explain the time.

Pacing Strategy

Five flat kilometres run as one single, uninterrupted effort – there is no climb on which to save and no descent on which to recover. Set the pace deliberately in the first kilometre and hold it; go out four seconds per kilometre over plan here and you pay it back twice from kilometre three.

The race is decided between the Prinzregentenufer and the turn at the lake. That is where the tight hairpins and the bridge ramps are, and every change of direction breaks the rhythm: braking into a corner and getting back up to speed afterwards costs more than the two seconds on the clock suggest. Run the corners wide and accelerate out of them early rather than attacking them.

The classic trap is a fast start on the wide Frauentorgraben with a fresh field around you. The 5 km is also the last race of the day, when you have already spent hours at the venue – your legs are colder than they feel. A full warm-up with a few strides is not a luxury here, it is half the result.

Training plan for SportScheck RUN Nuremberg: 12-week build

For an age-group runner the 5 kilometres take somewhere between 20 and 35 minutes depending on level. It is a short, uninterrupted hard effort at or just above threshold: on a flat lap with no recovery sections the pace has to be carried from the first kilometre to the last.

Training should therefore emphasise speed endurance on level tarmac. Intervals of 400 to 1,000 metres slightly faster than goal race pace, tempo runs of 20 to 30 minutes and a weekly easy long run as a base cover this course completely; it has no need for hill work.

What the course does additionally demand is cornering. Several tight hairpins and bridge ramps over five kilometres mean repeated braking and re-accelerating. Build in short surges – 30 to 45 seconds hard from a standstill or from slow running – so that each change of pace does not cost you, and put a few sessions on a twisting city loop rather than on a straight track.

Then there are the conditions: an afternoon start in late October in cool, often damp air, after a long day on your feet. Practise warming up in the cold and plan the day's fuelling so that you can still run sharp in the late afternoon.