Epic360° Cami de Cavalls Menorca (190km, 4400m D+)

During the build-up to the UTMB, my brother and I decided that we would likely want to escape Germany's dreary November weather and run a race on the Baleares isle of Menorca that both of us had not visited before. 190km and 4400m of climbing at sea level in 3 stages sounded manageable, but we were in for a surprise, particularly as my brother got diagnosed with a stress fracture only days after signing up and making all travel arrangements, which meant that he did virtually no training for the 4 months leading into this event. We definitely went into this event overconfident and under-prepared.

Transvulcania (72km, 4600m D+)

At long last, the time for the race that got me into trailrunning had come. I may have become a little sidetracked on the way, with about 20 races between thinking that running Transvulcania would be nice, and toeing the starting line, but at least I could consider myself well prepared. Transvulcania runs the length of La Palma and then some, starting at the lighthouse of Fuencaliente, crossing the highest peak called "Roque de los Muchachos", dropping down back to sea level and ending in the aptly named Los Llanos ("The plains"), a very hilly city on a very mountaineous island.

Trail du Petit Ballon, Rouffach, France (52km, 2200m D+)

For the first race in 2023, I combined a visit to my parents with a trip to the nearby French Alsace where I had managed to score a 4th place at the Trail du Grand Ballon. This time, my brother and I had signed up for the nearby Trail du Petit Ballon in March, which hosted 4000 starters across all distances and 900 runners in the 52k distance in Rouffach, making it one of the largest trail running events in France.

Mayrhofen Ultraks (51km, 3230m D+)

As a fan of the Zillertal ever since an autumn vacation in Mayrhofen, signing up for the Mayrhofen Ultraks as last race of 2022 was a no-brainer. The manageable distance of 51km also made a finish much more likely than at Courmayeur's TDS, ending the race year on a high note. As the race was part of Austria's National Golden Trail Series, plenty of almost-pro athletes were in the starter field, removing any unnecessary pressure to achieve any top rank.