My marathons

Cologne Marathon

Run on 4 October 2026. Next race: date not out yet. Cologne
Cologne Cathedral
© OpenStreetMap Cologne Cathedral. Photograph by Jiuguang Wang, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons . Course line © OpenStreetMap contributors

The course

Pick a place, or drag along the profile

Flat to km 11, flat from km 23 to km 36, then a slow rise of 15 m home.

StartFinish

© OpenStreetMap contributors

  2. Photo: aachim3, CC BY 3.0
  3. Photo: Erwin Quedenfeldt, Public domain

km 0.8mile 0.5

Deutz Bridge

The organiser lists the Deutz Bridge at kilometre 1, with a panoramic view of the cathedral and the Old Town.

Height drawn many times taller than life. Heights: GEDTM30.

Course elevation profile, 8× vertical exaggeration Elevation along the course from km 0 to km 42. The trace runs between 44 and 62 metres, a range of 17 metres, drawn at 8 times vertical exaggeration so the shape is legible. Smoothed over 1 km before this profile was derived. An unsmoothed urban surface carries the buildings and would assert a climb that is not there. The dashed stretches are bridge decks: Deutzer Brücke, km 0.6 to 1. A bare-earth model reads the ground or the water beneath a bridge, not the deck the runner is on, so those runs are interpolated between the ground either side rather than measured, and they under-report the real climb across a span.
0 10 20 30 40 km
0 10 20 26.2 mi

Dashed: bridge

  • flat to 11
  • flat 23 to 36
  • slow rise home

Your 5 gels, at the orange marksFor a 4:00 finish, one every 40 minutes

  1. km 7mile 4.4
  2. km 14.1mile 8.7
  3. km 21.1mile 13.1
  4. km 28.1mile 17.5
  5. km 35.2mile 21.8

Get them on AmazonAmazon partner link

The course in short 3 lines
  • Over the Deutz Bridge, then south and backAcross the Rhine at km 1, south to Rodenkirchen, back through the Südstadt.
  • Flat from Deutz to the cathedral, with a late riseA flat course: 18 m of relief, the high point near the cathedral.
  • Rudolfplatz three timesThree passes of the same square, and the loudest stretch at km 24.
Course notes 3 short reads on the course
km 0 to 14LandmarkOver the Deutz Bridge, then south and backAcross the Rhine at km 1, south to Rodenkirchen, back through the Südstadt.

The start is in Deutz in front of Ottoplatz. At km 1 the Deutz Bridge gives a panoramic view of the cathedral and the Old Town, and at km 2 the course passes the Rheinauhafen with the Chocolate Museum, the Sport and Olympia Museum and the Kranhäuser crane houses. It continues through Bayenthal (km 5) and Rodenkirchen (km 7), turns along Alteburger Straße (km 9.5) and comes back into the Südstadt at km 12 through Severinstorbogen over Severinstrasse.

Sourced

km 0 to 42.2GradientFlat from Deutz to the cathedral, with a late riseA flat course: 18 m of relief, the high point near the cathedral.

From Ottoplatz in Deutz at 46 m the road runs along the Rhine at about the same height for the first 10 km, and the lowest point of the course, 44.5 m, comes at km 2.2 by the Rheinauhafen. It then eases up to about 55 m in the Südstadt near km 12 and stays between about 47 m and 55 m across the middle of the race, through Lindenthal, Ehrenfeld and Nippes.

The one climb worth naming comes late: from 46 m at km 36 the road rises to 56 m by km 40 and 62 m at km 41.5, the highest point of the course, before the finish at the cathedral at 61 m. Across the whole marathon the road climbs 81.8 m, roughly 20 m in each of the last three 10 km stretches and 18 m in the first.

Measured

km 14.5 to 40CrowdRudolfplatz three timesThree passes of the same square, and the loudest stretch at km 24.

The organiser lists Rudolfplatz at km 14.5 “for the FIRST time”, at km 24 “for the SECOND time” and at km 40 “for the THIRD time”, with spectators for the last kilometres. Around km 24 the course runs over Hohenzollernring to Friesenplatz, which its description calls Cologne Marathon’s heart, “a mass of people, a feeling like in Alpe d’Huez!”. Neumarkt, at km 40.5, is where the organiser says the crowds cheer again before the finish.

Sourced

Race fuel

Energy gel
An energy gel sachet
Illustration · drag to turn

5 gels for Cologne, plus 1 spare

Finish

One every 40 minutes, the orange marks on the profile. Cologne stays within 17 m56 ft of height, so they go by the clock:

  1. km 7mile 4.4
  2. km 14.1mile 8.7
  3. km 21.1mile 13.1
  4. km 28.1mile 17.5
  5. km 35.2mile 21.8

Our pick: SiS BETA Fuel gel, box of 6, strawberry and lime. 40 g of carbohydrate a gel, about twice a usual gel, from two kinds of sugar your body takes up side by side.

Easy to forget on race morning: pack them with your bib the night before.

Get it on Amazon

We earn a small fee if you buy through these links. The price is the same.

In Canada the button opens GU Energy Gel, Salted Caramel, 24-pack, the best seller there.

Outside the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the UK and Ireland, Spain and Portugal, Italy, the rest of the EU and Canada the button opens GU Energy Gel, Chocolate Outrage, 24-pack on Amazon.com, the best seller there.

Anti-chafe
Compeed Anti-blister stick
Photo: Compeed

Compeed

Compeed anti-blister stick, 8 ml

Best selling on Amazon amazon.nl, read 2 Nov

An invisible layer before the start keeps seams, straps and shoes from rubbing skin raw.

Put it on before you leave for the start: heels and toes, inner thighs, under a bra or heart-rate strap.

Try it on a long run first, like everything you use on race day.

Get it on Amazon

We earn a small fee if you buy through these links. The price is the same.

Number belt
A race number belt
Illustration · drag to turn

Compressport Race Belt

Holds your bib without safety pins through your top, with loops for up to 8 gels.

Clip the bib on the night before, so it goes on with your shorts in the morning.

Keep the number on the front, where officials and photographers can see it.

Get it on Amazon

We earn a small fee if you buy through these links. The price is the same.

Electrolytes
A tube of electrolyte tablets
Illustration · drag to turn

SiS Hydro electrolyte tablets, tube of 20

One tablet in a bottle puts back some of the salt you sweat out.

One tablet in 500 ml of water in the hour before the start.

Only if you have used them in training: nothing new on race day.

Get it on Amazon

We earn a small fee if you buy through these links. The price is the same.

Blister plasters
Compeed Blister plasters, medium, 6
Photo: Compeed

Compeed

Compeed blister plasters, medium, 6

Best selling on Amazon amazon.nl, read 2 Nov

One in a pocket cushions a blister if one starts.

Put it on clean, dry skin and leave it until it comes off by itself.

Give a couple to whoever comes to cheer, so they are there at the km you need them.

Get it on Amazon

We earn a small fee if you buy through these links. The price is the same.
distance
42.2 km26.2 mi
climb
81.8 m268 ft
first held
1997

A point-to-point course starting in Deutz on the east bank of the Rhine and finishing beneath the twin spires of Cologne Cathedral.

The Cologne Marathon is a point-to-point course of 42.2 km with 81.8 m of climbing. Its lowest point is 44 m and its highest 62 m above sea level.

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Questions about the Cologne Marathon

Is the Cologne Marathon course flat?

Not entirely. It has 81.8 m of climbing over 42.2 km. The highest point is 17 m above the lowest. It finishes 14 m higher than it starts.

How do I enter the Cologne Marathon?

The 2026 race is sold out. Entry closed on 20 September 2026. Entry details on the organiser’s site

In the news

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Sources and licence

Last checked.

Course line matched onto OpenStreetMap road geometry: (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database License 1.0 (ODbL). Elevation sampled from GEDTM30, Global Ensemble Digital Terrain Model at 30 m (v1.2): Elevation: GEDTM30 (Ho & Hengl, OpenGeoHub), CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

Elevation gain computed by us from that line, smoothed over 1 kmsmoothed over 0.6 mi.

The line follows the road down its middle, so it measures 1.63% longer than the certified distance, which is measured on the shortest legal line through every bend.

Date and entry information from Kolner AusdauerSport GmbH.

Every source and licence behind them →

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