Nordschwarzwald Triathlon 2026

Schwarzwald sounds like the name of an end-of-level boss, and honestly, we’re not that far from reality 🤓. Welcome to the Nordschwarzwald Triathlon, every year in August in Nagold, a town in Baden-Württemberg that decided summer holidays were too much, and it’s better to welcome people who’ve come to suffer voluntarily 🏃‍♂️. We’re in the north of the Black Forest, an hour south of Stuttgart, and spoiler: it climbs, A LOT ⏫.

The event takes place over two days : one to warm up, the other to really suffer 🥵. The base of it all is the Kleb municipal park in Nagold and the town’s riverbanks, which serve as base camp between formats ⛺️. Seven races on the program, ranging from the basic triathlon for the curious to the Long Distance for those who read “2,200 mD+” without moving on to the next race 🫵. There are even bike time trials in case swimming and running are a hard pass for you 😆. Ah yes, "to each their own road, to each their own path" 🎶.

On the schedule, we start with a S Triathlon : 400 m of swimming, 20 km of cycling, 5 km of running, around the aquatic center in Nagold. It’s ideal if you want to challenge yourself without leaving your entire soul there 👀. And on day 2, you’ve been warned: time for the machine. The "Long Distance" starts with 3.8 km of swimming in the Nagold dam, made up of two 1.9 km loops with an exit onto land 🤿. It’s beautiful, it’s cool—enjoy it, it’s the calmest moment of your day. Because next comes the bike: four loops of 45 km between Altensteig, Oberer Wald and Nagold, with about 2,200 mD+ in total 📈. Yes, yes, four laps, with the same climbs, the same trees, and you still moving forward. To keep you going, there’s a fan zone in Mindersbach, after a solid climb, and it’s not there by chance—it’s almost essential to get you pedaling 🚴. We finish with a marathon split into six loops of 7.032 km. Once again, yes... 🫢 Six laps, six times the same climb, six times the same trees, with plenty of time to reconsider your life choices 🤣. By the way, if you’d rather suffer with company than alone, you can also do these two formats as a relay! 🤝

Whew, that was quite a program, but chaining the three disciplines might not be everyone’s idea of fun. And the real originality of this event is that there are other options 📋. If you’ve decided running shoes are a questionable invention, you can go for the Aquabike 💦. 3.8 km of swimming and 180 km of cycling. A solid athlete’s menu 🍽️. Finally, if you don’t exactly feel like a fish in water, there are two time-trial bike courses: the NST 50 and NST 100. Here, we’re waiting for speed and the clock, without transitions that break your momentum! ⚡️ 50 km or 100 km—either way, we won’t call it a Sunday ride 🧘‍♀️.

Top it all off with the fact that after the race, Nagold takes care of you 💆‍♀️. The old town is the kind of place where happiness hits you right in the face, especially when you watch other people manage to walk normally, without limping 🙂‍↔️. You can recharge your batteries in the superb park municipal Kleb, a real gem that you’ll be able to admire slowly this time 🙃. And a historical break is always welcome, so don’t miss climbing up to the famous ruins of Hohennagold Castle, which proudly overlooks the whole valley 🏰. We can’t wrap up without talking about the well-earned gourmet break. What could be better than an authentic slice of Black Forest cake 🍰.

Conquering the Black Forest in a triathlon on an August Sunday—we promise not many people can say that 😎.