WILDMAN Harz

The WILDMAN Harz is a trail race created in 2026 in Wildemann, a small mountain town in the Upper Harz, Lower Saxony. Organised by Robert Strecker, it brings together a range of distances from 15 to 70 km over a single weekend in early September, plus a children’s race. Everything revolves around a base camp at the Pension (R)Auszeit on Am Sanickel, which hosts the start, finish, bag drop and changing rooms; the town’s swimming pool, a few hundred metres away, doubles as an aid station and shower block.

Saturday opens with the WILDMAN Pro at 7 am: 70 km and 2,500 m of climbing, with a 13-hour limit. It combines the Classic, Lite and Fun loops, so around 20 km are covered twice, and it has nine aid stations spread between Seesener Straße, the fire station, the pool, the base camp and the Maaßener Gaipel. The WILDMAN Lite (15 km, 400 m of ascent, 9 am start, 3-hour limit) and the WILDMAN Classic (35 km, 1,300 m, 9.30 am start, 7-hour limit) complete the day. On Sunday the WILDMAN Ultra starts at 8 am for 55 km and 2,100 m of climbing within 10 hours, running the Fun course followed by the Classic; the WILDMAN Fun (20 km, 800 m, 4-hour limit) goes off at 9 am, followed at 9.15 am by the WILDMAN Kids, a loop of about 3 km on road and forest track.

Singletrack dominates: punchy climbs, technical descents, roots, rocks and natural ground, with only short stretches of road. The altitude is modest, but the short hills come one after another and wear the legs down as the kilometres add up. The Lite and Fun suit regular runners trying trail for the first time, the Classic calls for solid trail experience, and both the Ultra and the Pro are for seasoned trail runners able to manage a long effort on broken ground. Anyone racing on both days enters a combined ranking, the Weekend Trophy, offered in six combinations, from Trophy 35 (Lite and Fun) to Trophy 125 (Pro and Ultra).

Wildemann is a former mining town in the Upper Harz, set in the Innerste valley and surrounded by spruce forest. The trails run beneath these dark woods before opening onto upland meadows that give the course an almost alpine feel. The Harz, a range of rolling uplands in northern Germany, has kept a strong forestry and mining identity, and the little town still bears its mark. The Lower Saxony State Forests are a partner of the event, much of which runs across their land.

The atmosphere is relaxed and sociable, with a pasta party on Friday evening, barbecues from midday on Saturday and Sunday, and a closing drink on Sunday evening. Bibs are collected at the base camp on Friday late afternoon and on each race morning up to 30 minutes before the start. Parking at the base camp is very limited, but several car parks around town are within walking distance. Without a car, Wildemann is served by HarzBus routes from Goslar, which has a railway station, and from Clausthal-Zellerfeld. The organisers recommend downloading the GPX track shortly before the race, as courses may still change.