TDS (145km, 9100m D+)

This year's supposed running season highlight was the TDS, UTMB's less popular and more rugged redheaded step-brother. Not expecting to actually get a bib through the lottery, my brother and I had signed up just for shits and giggles (cannot let those precious running stones go to waste). But, probably due to a runner having died at the TDS last year, the number of entrants was so small that everybody who applied got in, so there was nothing else for us to do than to buckle up and face a UTMB-like challenge a couple of years ahead of schedule. The TDS starts in Courmayeur and then runs clockwise around the Mont Blanc massif back to Chamonix, with some overlap with the UTMB course in the beginning and the end. With race leaders finishing in about 18h, I thought that I was looking at roughly 27h on the course, which would mean finishing at 3am during the second night. 

KAT100 Marathon Trail, Fieberbrunn, Austria (49k, 2500m D+)

As a tune-up race for this year's main event in August (TDS), I revisited the KAT100 Marathon Trail in Fieberbrunn, near Kitzbühel. The course had been altered somewhat, now covering only 48km and going up the same mountain (Wildseeloder) twice, albeit from different directions. Having done some competitor research ahead of the race, it seemed like my ITRA score could put me on the podium this time, after missing it narrowly at the Trail Grand Ballon by about 2 minutes. I deviated from my normal race strategy of running my own race and rolling up the field from behind accordingly, which did not quite pay the dividends I expected.

Lavaredo Ultra Trail (120km, 5800m D+)

With too much luck in the 2022 draws, the Lavaredo Ultra Trail in Cortina D'Ampezzo was the second out of three 100k+ races me and my brother had foolishly signed up for this year. The course runs through a very scenic part of the Italian Dolomites mountain range, going around the famous Tre Cime di Lavaredo and passing several popular passes in the mountains close to Cortina. While the first half is righfully considered to be mostly runnable, the second part cranks up the difficulty particularly on the downhills. Motivated by missing my target time at the Transgrancanaria by about 4 hours and having to run in the dark twice, I was determined to finish the Lavaredo Ultra Trail way before nightfall within 18 hours which seemed a fair goal given the ITRA score of previous 18h finishers. During the tapering period ahead of the race, again various niggling injuries emerged, of which a tendonitis or inflamed ligament in the left foot was particularly annoying. Even when I was just hiking, I could virtually not do a single step without some level of discomfort. But this would be manageable for 18h, or so I thought.

Trail du Grand Ballon, Le Markstein, France (48km, 2100m D+)

My greatest failure, and yet my greatest triumph... As a break from 120k+ races, I entered the Trail du Grand Ballon 48k race in the Vosges mountains in May, located just about a 1.5h drive from my parent’s place in the Black Forest. With a 7am start (6am for my brother who did the 70k distance), we arrived the night before in an area looking exactly like how I imagined the old GDR to look – dilapidated houses, closed shops, dead dogs in the streets (almost). A pizza of questionable quality from the only local restaurant set us well up for disaster the next day. The next morning, a short drive took us to the starting line on the Markstein, a hilltop about 5k from the eponymous Grand Ballon. One peculiarity of the race is that it starts at almost the highest point, and sends runners into a downhill for about the first 8k. The trail was described as very runnable, which, after my experiences in Gran Canaria, would be a very welcome change of terrain. Seeing my brother off at 6am, I strolled around a bit, visited the excellent mobile toilets (France is decades ahead of Germany when it comes to mobile toilets), and then took a place pretty close to the front of the field.

Transgrancanaria Classic (126km, 6900m D+)

Una meta, un sueno - the motto of the Transgrancanaria translates roughly to "A goal, a nightmare". This race was supposed to be my annual excuse to escape the dark German winter for a sunny spring week on the Canary Islands. As preparation I had bought a training plan from Sage Canaday who was planning to participate as well, but pulled out on short notice (he may have had a dark premonition). This meant twelve 90km+ weeks, run mostly after dark in icy and snowy conditions, so exactly the opposite of what the Transgrancanaria required - or so I thought. The training regimen took its toll - on the last short run two days before flying to Gran Canaria, I had to limp back home as the left foot decided to quit, and various niggling knee and calf injuries appeared during the taper (never trust the taper), so everything was set for a peak performance.