By: Robert Hoffmann.

Race Date: 12/04/2026

Venue: Bochenheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

The Deutsche Weinstraße Marathon is held every two years.

Was this the year for a marathon or for a family outing? Well why not both. Two years ago my brother and his wife ran the Deutsche Weinstraße Half Marathon, then it was a hot day and they had plenty of fun, so we all decided to run this one together this year, my brother and his wife doing the half, and me, the full marathon.

Training went alright, l just continued my very random and even more unstructured “not a training plan”, basically putting some decent mileage down and doing hills or sprints or hill-sprints as my mood dictated (prioritising having fun whilst running). I also didn’t really bother with a proper taper. Yeah, and I didn’t have a target time in mind either.

This suited me just fine, my goals for this race were having fun, running hard and seeing how far I can get before hitting the wall. In other words, finding out what my potential for future races is.

So off I went to meet my family for a mini break, watched my nephew and niece (being very decent runners) racing on the Saturday and then coming back on the Sunday for a wee bit of a marathon race.

The weather was perfect: cold enough to enjoy fast running and hardly any wind. The course was less perfect, 495m elevation with some not-so-nice hills. So out I went, running with 8/10 effort and on the flat parts a maybe 3.25-3.30h marathon pace. Just running, and seeing as the plan was to enjoy it, soaking up the atmosphere. I confess that I did behave, I stayed clear of the wine offered at the drinking station, although I went through the “Wein” shower (yes there was a wine shower on the course!).

The wall hit me in the end after about 35km, to be honest I was hoping of hitting the wall a few km later but, well, I guess I ticked off all my goals. I carried on running deciding to enjoy the suffering as much as possible (after all running should always be fun). Enjoying the views and then I hit the jackpot at km 39, just before the last hard climb. On a bench just off the course was a beautiful cat alone watching the race. Me being me, and loving animals went straight over to that cat and had a pet-stop recharging my energy with some cuddles. I found out that cat cuddles are better for refuelling than any gels. For the last two miles (including the last hill) I ran with the biggest smile I ever had during the finishing miles of a marathon. So it was that I managed to hit the wall, enjoying the hilliest marathon I had ever done and running my 3rd fastest marathon ever.

My brother and his wife both ran half marathon PBs. And for a brief moment I met a beautiful cat. Oh, and I definitely celebrated with some wine at the finish.

The race was won by Eric Nies (TV Maikammer) in 02:36:11 and Sophia Wunsch (LG Region Karlsruhe) in 02:51:42 .

Strider’s Result: