Hochkönigman Marathontrail: From “0” to 48K!
If you would’ve asked us at the beginning of 2016, whether we would be running more than a marathon distance plus over 2500 height meters on trails in less than six months, we would’ve fliped you the bird… But after the great experience with the Trail Half-marathon at Innsbruck Alpine Trailrunning Festival in April, which we completed so surprisingly easy and with so much fun, we were tempted to try more!
The Hochkönigman Marathontrail seemed to be the perfect event: ~48K, 2730hm and with Maria Alm as the hosting town, a lovely little village on foot of the Hochkönig mountain range in the Berchtesgadener Alps, only a 2 hours drive from Munich – WE HAD TO SIGN UP! 😉
Staying at Hotel Niederreiter, the venue of the event, made it really comfortable! 🙂
We were right at the well and had only a few steps to registration, carbloading and briefing – and from our balcony we were able to watch the whole festival area. The evening before we picked up our fully loaded Goodie bag and our bib numbers. At that time we realized that we forgot to read the checklist and didn’t bring all the obligatory equipment… Thanks again at B´jak and the whole Orga-Team for helping us out!
We than watched the start of the Endurancetrail at 12pm at night… And actually were the only competitors not running the Endurancetrail that were still awake at that time. Once more we felt (as always) really not-so-well-prepared… 😀
After a short-nights sleep we had breakfast and briefing at the hotel and before we knew where we were, we found ourselves at the starting line of the Hochkönigman Marathontrail 2016!
Trailrunning through all four seasons
At that time we were already famous 🙂 – for Anja carrying a PRETZEL STICK in her Camelbak and filming the gear check, we were already known as “the girls” in the whole competitor field. 😀
The first section of the Marathontrail took us from Maria Alm over the first mountain with around 500 height meters up and down to Hinterthal, where the first tansit time checkpoint and food / water supplies were waiting after 9km. The sun came out right at the start and we ran through misty forests, green pastures and even did some trampoline jumping. 😉
Leaving Hochthal at around 9:30am, we made our way straight to the ropeway station in the lovely little village of Dienten, where the Marathon- and the Endurancetrail met and endurance distance runners had dropped their gear bags. On the way we met many horses and enjoyed lovely forest trails and views over the green rolling hills of the Hochkönig area. 🙂
After Dienten, the what we called “long ascent” started: over 1000 height meters straight UP, UP and UP!
In the beginning we had awesome weather and it was almost a little hot, but while making our way up the mountain, it got colder, misty and wet. At some point we even had to cross small snow fields, which were secured with a rope.
The third checkpoint was at K32 at Statzer Haus, right after passing the Hundstein (2117m). It was the highest livestation with a Cut Off Time of 4pm. With the Hundstein, most of the height was covered and only a few smaller hills were to climb before heading down to the last and fourth checkpoint.
Grand Finale in Maria Alm!
The last 7km from transit station 4 passed by really quickly and on the last 5K Maria Alm was already in sight. We both passed the finish line in the village center and felt like stars! 🙂
We both would have NEVER ever thought that we could do an almost 50km run without any struggle and problems. And we are so thankful that we were couraged enough to sign up for this great event ultra-last-minute! The feeling back in Maria Alm was great and although it was raining, many people in the streets cheered and claped at us. 🙂
We decided to stay for another night to be part of the winners ceremony and pasta party and had an overall great and ultra-satisfying weekend. We met so many inspiring and super-tough, strong people that we will be back in 2017 for sure. And we made a promise the evening before the race: If we both can make it, the next step is ULTRA! 😉
We decided to stay for another night to be part of the winners ceremony and pasta party and had an overall great and ultra-satisfying weekend! 🙂
We also took a nice little video which you can find on our brand new YOUTUBE-Channel, have fun watching:
In friendly cooperation with Hochkönigman and Tourismus Hochkönig. More information: www.hochkoenigman.at and www.hochkoenig.at – thank you!
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