Leipzig Marathon

The organiser calls the course a Rundkurs that marathon runners run twice. From the start on Am Sportforum, beside the city’s two stadiums, it goes past the Neues Rathaus to the Augustusplatz with the Gewandhaus, the opera and the Krochhochhaus, then down Prager Straße towards the Grassi Museum. Further on come the old fairgrounds, the Völkerschlachtdenkmal, the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, the old Großmarkthallen the Leipzigers call the Kohlrabizirkus, and the Clara-Zetkin-Park, before the road returns to the Sportforum.

Half way is a cut-off as well as a landmark: a marathon runner who needs more than 2:40 h for the first 21.1 km is taken out of the race.

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Leipzig sits on a plain, and the course barely leaves it. The start is at 109 m. The one real rise of each lap comes in the first 6 km: from about 118 m at km 4 to the high point of the course, 141 m at km 6.3, on the way to the old fairgrounds. After that the road drifts down through the Südvorstadt to 111 m by km 20 and back to 109 m at the finish area by km 21.1.

The second lap repeats it, with its own high point of 141 m near km 27 and the lowest point of the course, 108 m, at km 37.2. Counted over a 1 km window the race climbs 98.1 m in all, so a little under 50 m on each lap. A watch that adds up every short rise will read more; the 1 km window counts only the sustained climbs.

Measured

The last stretch of each lap runs along Marschnerstraße, past the Institut für Angewandte Trainingswissenschaften, the Landesgymnasium für Sport and the sports science faculty of the University of Leipzig. The organiser calls it one of the longest and most atmospheric finishing straights in Germany: almost 800 m, more than half of it lined with thousands of spectators.

Marathon runners get it twice. On the first lap it leads into the second round; on the second it is the finish.

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The call for entries for 2027 states that the loop is measured by certified DLV and AIMS measurers, and that marathon, half marathon and 10 km results are eligible for the German best lists. It also says the course meets the qualifying standards of the Boston Athletic Association for the Boston Marathon.

The call for entries is still marked as to follow, so the rules may change before race day.

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