Races in Colmar

Between Strasbourg and Mulhouse, Colmar sets its half-timbered houses along the banks of the Lauch, in a canal landscape nicknamed Little Venice 🚣. The city plays a double game for runners: the cobbled lanes of the historic center on one side, vineyard trails and Vosges foothills on the other. Here, every stride crosses a piece of Alsatian history.

Capital of Haut-Rhin, Colmar weaves its web between Kaysersberg to the north, Eguisheim just below, Ribeauvillé further along the Wine Route, and Mulhouse as an industrial backdrop 🏭. Strasbourg keeps its heading to the north, while the Vosges watch over the whole plain, facing the German Black Forest visible from the heights in clear weather, on the other side of the Rhine.

The semi-continental climate brings pronounced seasons: cool, dry winters, hot summers, and bright springs and autumns that remain the perfect windows to pin on a bib. Morning mist over the vineyards in October is already part of the local runners' folklore ☁️.

The Colmar race calendar revolves around the Colmar Marathon, whose pretzel-shaped course crosses Wintzenheim, Wettolsheim and Eguisheim before returning to Place Rapp 🥨. The Trail Alsace Grand Est by UTMB takes runners to around twenty fortified castles, from Haut-Koenigsbourg to Hohlandsbourg—a trail reference in the Grand Est region for anyone who loves ultra. More low-key, Wettolsheim's Run'in Night Trail lights up headlamps on the heights of the vineyard, in a night format for an evening 🌙. Head to neighboring Germany for a change of scenery: the Black Forest trails nicely round out a cross-border training camp.

On the cobblestones of the old town, it's hard to forget that Auguste Bartholdi, a native of Colmar, sculpted the Statue of Liberty before leaving part of his work to the museum that bears his name 🗽. Marathon regulars also tell the story of those indefatigable finishers who haven't missed a single edition since it began, completing the northern loop every year without faltering. The Unterlinden Museum houses Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece, just a stone's throw from the winstubs where the smell of flammekueche fills the air 🥨. Between the Christmas markets that take over Little Venice in winter and the grape harvest that sets the rhythm in autumn, Colmar cultivates its identity all year round—well beyond the race season alone.

First half-marathon, a night run among the vines, or a big pretzel-shaped marathon: every runner can find their race in the Grand Est region. Colmar, a city of trail and heritage alike, is already holding out its start line to you 🏁.