2019 season
thomas.wagner • December 28, 2019
....my first in the M40...
....this is what Instagram reminds me of the 2019 season... maybe 9 pictures are not really representative... So some words below:
2019 meant I entered the M40 category, not that it really bothered me, but somehow I was worried to lose some of my speed. Not that I ever had any really. However, the plan was to enter some “shorter” races and remind my legs that there is another way to propel forward than just the “shuffle”. Interestingly, the season turned out to be ok looking at the shorter races, not so much when looking at the longer distances? Don’t know exactly how it all came together, but likely there is a hint that I should work more on my “slow and steady” as this is the “secret sauce” mentioned more than once in “Training for the UPHILL ATHLETE” by Steve House, Scott Johnston and Kilian Jornet.
What went ok, what not so? Actually, there is no complaining really, as I managed to finish all the races I entered in 2019. So, I didn’t DNF any. However, some races required me to walk them in instead of racing them. And yes, these races/ runs are great in their own ways as they helped me to fail forward. Isn’t this a reason we are all entering a challenge or two!?
• Lindkogel Super Trail (32.8km, +/-1300m): 2:44:17 h; 9th place 😉
• 100 Miles of Istria (168km, +6539/-6818m): 26:19:32 h; 44th place
• Transvulcania (74km, +/-4350m): 9:59:10 h; 71st place
• Schwarzach Trail (47km, +/-2600m): 5:11:12 h; 4th place (1st place in the relay with my Salomon Team mates!) 😉
• Mayrhofen Ultraks (54km, +/-3830m): 6:00:23 h; 8th place 😉
• DoloMythsRun Sky (22km, +/-1950m): 2:39:27h; 97th place 😉
• TransRockies Run; summer camp for big kids (6days, 120 miles): 17:52:34 h; 1st place team category with Daniel Jochum! 😉
• Festvial des Templiers - Endurance Trail (107km, +/-4850m): 14:39:50 h; 60th place
The Lindkogel Trail
was a season warm-up. A gathering with friends and a fun run. Loved it and felt good.
The 100 Miles of Istria
did not disappoint as we had some fun in the snow early on. This was however already when my race ended and hiking the preferred way towards the finish line. I felt good the first 25k and was even in the lead then (stupid, right?!); in the end I was so far behind my planned time that even a nap on an aid station bench felt appropriate. At least I now know that a 5 minutes power nap doesn’t kill me!
At Transvulcania
again, after some 25-30k I needed to slow down considerably. This time it wasn’t the cold for sure, as it wasn’t at all. Maybe it was the high elevation? Maybe it was just me being not well prepared. Yet, after the high point of the course (Roque de los Muchachos; 2421 m a.s.l.) descending down to Tazacorte I felt some energy again and could enjoy it some more. The last climb to the finish was sort of a mental game, as back in 2013 I ended in the medical tent then, which wasn’t an option this time. It wasn’t the race I hoped for, but enjoying a good time with friends and my girlfriend (who crushed the marathon) made up for a wonderful experience.
After some recovery from these “longer” races, the Schwarzach Trail
allowed me to run not far from home in a super friendly atmosphere and in addition be part of a relay team with some of my Salomon team mates. This was really fun and although the first section I felt like sh*#!, I was able to bounce back and finish kind of strong (4th place is ok IMHO). BTW: we made it atop the podium in the team, thanks to my team mates!
Mayrhofen Ultraks,
another shorter race not too far from home in the beautiful Zillertal! 54km and a bit of vert. And yes, a bit of snow downhill. Although my uphill performance could have been better, the downhill was so much fun that I count it as a successful run. But next time, I might use poles for the uphill!
And then something really short and intense: DoloMythsRun Sky,
from Canazei up to Piz Boè and back down again. A Golden Trail Series race and a stacked field as expected. I ran my race and enjoyed my way up. But it was until the downhill when the real fun of this race started. Allowing the gravity to do the work and somehow trying to keep upright was all we had to do, knowing that after some 1800 m of elevation loss, the race will be over. I’m actually a bit proud of that old body of mine to get into the top 100 there. Would I do it again? I would love to!
And then a hop over the big pond. TransRockies Run,
a summer camp for big kids! Yes it was! Daniel and I were able to win the team category after 6 days of EAT (&drink), SLEEP (in a tent), RUN (pretty cool trails!), REPEAT. We worked together as a team and definitely had fun on and off trail. It was an experience I am really grateful, as landscape, runners and volunteers made this a really special event. Some more details about it can be found in the 06/2019 edition of the Trail Magazin. All in all, super happy about the rather fast and short runs each day. Looks like recovery is still fine besides getting older ;-)
At the end of the season another try on the longer distance: Festvial des Templiers,
the 107km Endurance Trail. Again with friends and my crew/girlfriend. And yes, we all ran a race. How fun was that. Unfortunately, mine was over 40k in. Again, energy levels dropped quickly and this time I really had to dig deep, as my quads did not carry my body weight anymore. Lucky me I was able to lean on my poles for the remaining 67k. Needless to say, the time wasn’t anywhere near planned. My focus was somehow to catch up to Silke who ran the 62km and enjoy the final few kilometers together. Unfortunately, she was too fast and finished some 15min earlier than I did. What went wrong this time?
Took some time off from training after TransRockies and likely ate too much things I should not.
Turned out that besides being vegetarian for some 22 years (more than half of my life now!) my body has a hard time with eggs, almonds, gluten, avocados, cashews and some other nuts. I was pretty strict on my “diet” before Dolomyth and TransRockies, not so much before Templiers. However, this is only a piece of the puzzle and there are numerous things that need to come together for a solid performance. During the time I did dirt bike races, there was the saying that you need two screw-nuts to win a race, but 20 to actually keep you in the race. Looks like I need to work on these 20… (translation: getting that vacuum cleaner back to a bigger (=aerobic) capacity)
But most importantly, it should not be forgotten that the process of failing your way forward should be a fun one. As long as you enjoy / love to do it, it is all good! ...focus on the process and not the outcome.
So, 2020 here we come! There is still so much to learn. Some more fails forward towards success.
Good luck to us! 😉
Season recap / stats / wrap-up, the “mandatory” year-ending thing that everyone seems to be doing. In the end, it is fun to look back and see what 2024 told/teached you and also a good reminder of what can/should be done (differently) in 2025, right? No worries, this will not be a philosophical nor a boring race list thing. Some simple stats that are not your usual Strava numbers: - Season 20 of running ultras: does not necessarily mean I am old, just maybe a little wiser; maybe. - Only a single person showing up regularly at my #5amclub runs: me. - 0 runs indoor (100% outdoor, no matter the weather!). - 5 races run, from sea level to 3000plus, from hot to cold & wet; from very short to super long. Would not want it any other way. Well, I missed a VK this year. So let’s do one in 2025! - Got accompanied by my awesome crew of two ladies as much as possible and really enjoyed the finish line emotions during ZUT running it in with our little bundle of joy. Made it so much worth it. - 2 poles (a pair) was all I needed for the whole PTL, expected it to be at least double of it. Wiser, maybe. - Some good old friends met along the year; so grateful for those moments as those are precious. - Some 2900 Gu Roctane Sea Salt Chocolate Gel equivalents consumed (obvioulsy not all Gu gels, but equivalent to 290000 kcal burned) throughout the year in running according to by suunto watch stats. Carbs mainly. The rest was mostly coffee and oat milk; my #5amclub necessities. - Final one: more than 90% of my runs this year were done with a headlamp on. Cool, insane, stupid. Whatever. Now the obvious thing. A little race recap . Skip that paragraph if races are not you thing. “Only” 5 races done, ranging from less that 20k to more than 300k. 2 x 50+k and a 100k. From a performance disaster at the ZUT 100k to a 2nd place at UTMBs PTL together with the one and only Trailbeard, it was a fun 20th season of running Ultras (and shorter races obviously). An early season start with a crazy wet (and cold) La Corsa Della Bora S1 Trail (58km, +/-2120m): 6:12:16 h, 9th place. Loved that one, don’t know yet if I want to start the next season that early again. Followed by a nice warm outing through the woods during the Lindkogel Ultra Trail (54,5km, +/-2370m): 5:25:16 h, 4th place (1st in age group). It does not need to be alpine to make a cool race cool. Our Salomon team meeting in Bad Reichenhall was a perfect excuse to race on the short end of the spectrum: oh what fun that was. Hochstaufen; City&Trail (18,7km, +/-1350m): 2:13:08 h, 36th place (age group 2nd place). Back in Garmisch-Partenkirchen I was excited to give that loop around the Zugspitz another go as 2012 I ended up there at the podium (that made me “rank” elite on some weird lists back then). Well, this year was a disappointing race due to some breathing issues, nonetheless worth the experience and basically walked it in to secure a Western States qualifier. Worth it. Even more so as I crossed the finish line hand in hand with our little bundle of joy. Zugspitz Ultratrail (106km, +/-5080m): 15:55:57 h, 46th place. After some recovery, I made it to the startline of the PTL, Leon’s little walk in the park so to speak. Well, it turned out to be loads of walking (a.k.a. Power hiking) but also scrambling, crawling and napping along the trail. It took all our mental power (speaking here also for my partner in crime) to get that beast done: PTL with Trailbeard (300km, +/-25000m): 110:01:59 h (of which we slept some 5 1/2hrs), 2nd place. What a finish line emotion that was. Almost felt like we accomplished something cool. I guess we did, even if it officially does not show up in any race lists or indices. Who cares. At least some as we got the trail hero award later that year. Nice. No racing thereafter as my body and mind needed some break, and somehow I felt fine not racing anything else that year. Listening to your body may sometimes be ok, right. What else to say? Well, a huge thank you to all making this possible. First and foremost to Luisa and Silke, allowing me to somehow squeeze in those runs between our busy work lifes and obvious parenting duties as well as family “obligations” such as skiing, swimming, camping, climbing, hoarse riding, painting and so much more that the little one loves to explore that makes a day (or night) usually way too short. Thanks to all the other family members and friends supporting in one way or the other what I like to do. Special thanks to you dad for all you made possible. RIP and may you join me on many more trails. Thanks to all those brands and people supporting me along the way with pretty cool stuff and goodies. This is no hobby that will make one rich if you are looking at your bank account, but it will enrich your life with all the memories you collect along the way. Thankful also to my body and mind to handle the daily pounding / grind. This year made me realize that it is by no means guaranteed that running ultras for 20 years (and hopefully for another 20 years) is something one can assume to be given. Grateful, to say the least. With that, happy trails and hope to see many of you along the trails in 2025. Happy, healthy and trail-infused new year! Tom
Lately, g0t that message delivered by vari0us pe0ple. My reply usually is the f0ll0wing: “…or maybe simply 0ld en0ugh t0 kn0w h0w that shit is d0ne right?!”
everyone is familiar with those indexes / indices, right!? and so what!? top 1%? ok, sounds cool. nothing more. grateful that I live a life where running is a fun side hassle that allows me and my fam to explore some awesome places. speaking of awesome places: sooo excited to toe the line at Western States Endurance Run 100 Miles this June. so better focus on the training and once again apologize for not being very active on this / my site. but I will keep trying... best and happy trails, tom
pretty cool to see your own self on a cover of a trailrunning mag, right!? honored to make the cover of the current issue 01/2021 of the Trailrunning Szene ;-) ...potentially not only the cover is a good one but also the content; go check it out!
...there is actually a load of cool gear out there and I'm fortunate enough to be able to play with much of it; but actually my gear of the year 2020 is a pretty simple, but pretty important one. No; its not a shoe, but likely an even more important piece of gear for a (trail)runner: a handheld! Some sort of a bottle with some sort of a strap to attach it to your hands.
I’m actually pretty bad in bragging about myself. Anyway, I was nominated for the Austrian Trail Awards due to my 2020 performance; especially because of winning the Chiemgau 100 Miles . Nothing too special IMHO (a german version of a race report from the local press can be found here ). By actually thinking about it a bit more in detail, this individual win in this strange period of COVIDian times simply could imply a bit of luck that day on my side and not many other runners chasing that win… …maybe. But there is actually a bigger picture to look at. Not only 2020 in itself and not a single performance for sure. So, as I am anyway super late in writing a “race report” about the Chiemgau 100 (s)Miles, I thought I might as well use this “opportunity” of being nominated for the Austrian Trail Awards ( find out all about the nominated girls and boys here ) and dig a little deeper why this performance is at least in my opinion not only luck but maybe also some hard work over years; actually decades... Running 100 miles during COVIDian times can actually be seen as sort of the most appropriate way to practice “distancing”. Starting blocks during the Chiemgau 100 aren’t introduced in 2020, but are a way of allowing us runners to choose the right time window for the first “loop” to be ready for the second part that aligns with the 100 km course. Every full hour between 2 (this year 1) PM and 8PM, a small group of runners departs… At 7PM, it was only 3 of us. And no, we did not take it slow and easy really; although Flo (the winner of the 2019 edition) and I at least tried to convince the other one of that. So the night was sort of “hot” already and the next morning did not bring us any cooler temps really. In the end it turned out to be a pretty hot day and thanks to my crew chief a lot of ice in my hand bottles, in my neck bandana and under my hat made me keep moving forward. Long story short, after 22:09:32 h I made it back to the start line in 1st place. Super happy about it! So grateful about another 100 miles victory; about another awesome long day out on the trails. That was now number 7 in total and besides a win (my 100 miles PB in 19:49:43 h) and then course record at the 100 miles of Istria in 2016; it was my 6 th win here at the Chiemgau 100 Miles. And this is where likely luck does not explain the whole story anymore. My first win was back in 2011 (a decade ago!). Again in 2012 (tied with Lars Donarth), 2015 , 2017 , 2018 (still the course record in 21:19:44 h) and this year, 2020. In 2014 , I managed to hold on for a second place behind Rudi Döhnert. And yes, I also DNFed at this race once; after ~100k in 2013 . Figure 1 shows my times over the course of a decade (!) running/finishing the Chiemgau 100 Miles. And although this is not how trend analysis should be done properly, it is at least reasonable to argue that I did not get much slower over the course of a decade. That’s sort of cool and please allow me to be a little proud about that “trend” ;o) ...I will do my very best to keep that trend alive in the years to come. Long may you run !
super excited to join this group of atheltes and learn from the past! for more details see https://alpfronttrail.com/
Matthias Krah and I, after finishing / winning the 100 km and 100 miles, respectively. Super happy with the long day out (22:09 hrs) and likely will take a day or two to process it all. ...a little "report" will follow asap! in the meanwhile, happy trails to all of you! photo credit and big thanks to @summitsforthesoul (Florian Schütz)
...this will be awesome! virtually AWESOME ! HERE is a link to the detailed programm! ....don't know how I made it into that list of all this badass athletes around me ;-) Go an check out the line up and register early! will be great fun to listen for sure and I'm sure that the one or the other thing can be learned from any of us! keep running single tracks and keep showing up! happy trails in the meantime and stay healthy!
