PUMelchen gives runners the Piesberg stair treatment without requiring the full PiesBERG-Ultra-Marathon distance: 49 km, 1,750 meters of climbing, and 2,830 steps around Osnabrück, Germany. It is an April trail race option inside the PiesBERG-Ultra setup, with the longer version stretching to 59.5 km, 2,100 meters of climbing, and 3,396 steps. Both distances share an 11-hour time limit, and runners have to start their final lap by 17:00.
The route uses gravel and natural paths after an asphalt start, then repeats laps on the Piesberg, where the stair sections do much of the damage. PUMelchen works as an automatic scoring category: runners who do not want the full distance, or who realize the cutoff is getting tight, can stop one lap early without a separate registration. The updated course is slightly shorter than before, but test runners said it flows better, and the small participant limit of 120 keeps it more like a hard local ultra than a big-city mass race.