The 4th SALOMON ZUGSPITZ ULTRATRAIL, an annual summer solstice trail-running race, has no doubt grown into its own. Attracting more than 2,000 racers from 46 nations this past weekend is a tremendous success given the short time since the inaugural event in 2011. Apart from mere figures, however, it is the spirit of the competition that seems contagious and draws trail lovers from all over the world – including the world elite. ULTRATRAIL winner Anne-Marie Flammersfeld raved about the scenic qualities of the course and the rugged beauty of the Northern Alps. Arguably, an affirmative compliment from an athlete who calls world-renowned St. Moritz, Switzerland, home and who has ran in many beautiful parts of the globe. Similarly, the course seems to have been to the liking of Stephan Hugenschmidt, who was victorious among the men and stole the show with a new course record of 10:36 hours.
The appeal of the event seems to extend across the whole spectrum of race participants. Even those who arrived barely within the time limit of 26 hours were glowing about the loop trail straddling the German-Austrian border and an impeccable race organization. Elke Gutermann of Nuremburg jested ”it had been a long time since I enjoyed such a satisfying all-nighter”. Gutermann had initially registered for the BASETRAIL course but in a spur-of-the-monent decision upgraded to the ULTRATRAIL distance. “At first I thought I wouldn’t ever make it. The climbs were excruciatingly tough”. The German was the last female racer to arrive at the finish but still ahead of Hungarian Lazlo Helmos, who also was in great spirits and jokingly fretted about “not taking a single fall along the trail – probably because I was too slow”.
True to the adage “so the last shall be first”, the latest arrivals were met at the finish in Grainau with thunderous applause. Droves of spectators had convened Sunday morning to take in the award ceremonies for the winners (all of whom had arrived at least 12 hours before). So the last finishers, fatigued but exulted, reaped the benefit of the spectators’ enthusiasm over their accomplishment of persevering on 100 km of trail.
Elisabeth Schwibs of Germany was one of them who revelled in the limelight. She had decided on taking part in racing the 100 km course just two days before the event. Her courageous determination was rewarded 20 km into the competition when her poles broke. “Luckily a family witnessed the mishap and spontaneously offered to sell me their pair of poles. Otherwise I probably would have had to call it quits right there” Schwibs shared, still overwhelmed by the positive event spirit and the dramatic scenery of the local mountains.
Trail-running as a birthday present? A concept that apparently appealed to Helmut Sirtl who turned 65 just after the race and made him the oldest ULTRATRAIL participant. Not exactly a newbie to the event, Sirtl had taken part in the race around the Zugspitz massif twice before and shared with some pride that he managed to improve his times from year to year. By his own admission it still didn’t come easy to him. “It was really tough, regardless of up or down, it turned out to be pretty extreme”.
Someone to have shared that assessment would have been Gritt, the significant other of trail-running legend Harald Bajohr. The latter had returned to the finish hours after his own arrival to cheer his partner’s imminent arrival. Harald got increasingly nervous as time passed. Had there been a mishap on the last descent, a fall, may be? Eventually, though Gritt arrived at the home stretch, somewhat unsteady but determined. After kissing the finish line, she fell into Harald’s arms – the conclusion of a lifelong ambition moving the odd spectator to tears at the close of the SALOMON ZUGSPITZ ULTRATRAIL 2014.
Soundbites picked up beyond the finish line of the SALOMON ZUGSPITZ ULTRATRAIL:
BASETRAIL:
Peter Fankhauser (1. Overall): “This was like a training run for me. It certainly wasn’t my intention to run for victory. I didn’t want to give 100 % to save energy for the upcoming races. But coming from the Zillertal [Tyrol] gives me one advantage – running downhill comes easy!”
Andrew Syme (2. Overall, 1. Master Men): “I am so happy with second place. After all I’m 20 minutes fatser than last year. Never would I have guessed that. My goal was to arrive in first place at the summit station of the Längenfelder [chairlift] which I managed. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hold Peter back after that. Keep in mind that, I’ve running trail for only two years. Up to then I wasn’t a specialized trail runner”.
Tina Fischl (1. Women): “Simply sensational! This was my first competition of more than three hours. And then victory right away – eating the winning time of 2013 by 36 minutes. I didn’t know what was waiting for me. I had problems on the downhill sections when it got technical”.
Uta Jurkschat (1. Master Women): “Just great! I didn’t even figure I was in the lead for my age category the whole way. Towards the end I got pretty tired given that I had raced 70 km at the ‘Rennsteig’ just a few weeks ago. But I was able to bite off seven minutes of my 2013 time. I had some concerns though. In 2013 there was so much fog up high that I couldn’t see how steep the terrain is. This time around I was able to see how impressive the course really is”.
Egon Heider (1. Grand Master Men): “Everything went without a hitch. Early on, I used poles on the uphills and in the end I was 16 minutes faster than last year. I’m really thrilled about victory since I didn’t have much of a fighting chance in 2013 when there weren’t enough racers in my age category [and we were ranked with the young bucks]”.
Manfred Claaßen (2. Grand Master Men, oldest participant at 74 years of age): “Pretty strenuous but just sensational. I’m thrilled about making it to second place in my age category”.
SUPERTRAIL:
Martin Schedler (1. Overall): “ I was in the lead right from the first kilometer but never knew by how much. At the Längenfelder [chairlift station] I was told I had eight minutes on the others. But you can never be sure. The specialists can often bite off lots of time on the downhill. Victory in Grainau was not just my best performance yet but also the season’s highlight. That’s what I had trained for this year. But I never would have guessed that I could win”.
Steffen Walk (2. Overall, 1. Master Men): “We lost Martin [from sight] pretty much right away and ran in a posse of three for the longest time. Right around Kilometer 45 Michael Arend couldn’t keep up the pace any longer. I knew it was going to be a tight race downhill – After all I could see my pursuers at all times”.
Rudi Schöpf (1. Senior Master Men): “I didn’t encounter any problems and ran almost the whole race with a guy from Hungary and two women. The course really is first-rate. On some fire roads, however, you don’t know whether to run or walk. That’s no fun then”.
Eva Färberböck (1. Overall Women, 1. Master Women): “I was on it today and it didn’t feel that hard today. Of course I knew that Kathrin Schichtl who is great on the downhills was on my heels. But that didn’t seem to be an issue today”.
Kathrin Schichtl (2. Overall Women, 1. Women): “I’m just so happy to be on the podium”.
SUPERTRAIL XL:
Anton Philipp (1. Overall, 1. Master Men): “At first, I ran with Erik Wilde, an American. But he was nowhere to be seen from a certain point on. Other than that all went really well. I didn’t have an issue with the high temperatures. From here, I’m off to the SALOMON 4 TRAILS, then the SwissAlpine and as the season finale the GORE-TEX® TRANSALPINE RUN”.
Stefan Zäh (2. Overall, 2. Master Men): “Kudos to Stephan Hugenschmidt – I couldn’t have imagined doing the 100K today. After Kilometer 60 it got brutal for me and I strolled lots after that”.
Zsofia Palos: (1. Overall Women): It was extreme for me. It wasn’t until the last food stop that I was able to pass Kristin Berglund who at some point had managed to have an almost 15-minute lead on me”.
ULTRATRAIL:
Stephan Hugenschmidt (1. Overall): “Even though it may not look like it I’m really pretty tired now. After all this was my first 100 K race. I knew that I was in shape for it but 100 kilometers are that – very long. You know at Kilomter 20 that you have another 80 clicks to go. And that final climb up to the Alpspitzbahn [funicular station] is constantly in the back of your mind. It wasn’t until I was up there that I knew victory was within reach. I didn’t concern myself with times but naturally it is great that I was able to beat the course record by so much”.
Anne-Marie Flammersfeld (1. Overall Women): “The whole race I had Simona Morbelli of Italy ahead of me and I was sure that I was going to be second. All of a sudden she was gone and nobody was able to tell me what had happened”.
INFO: SALOMON ZUGSPITZ ULTRATRAIL
