He was a professional footballer, played for KSC, for 1860 Munich, won the cup with 1. FC Nürnberg. Now the former center forward Markus Schroth is an ultra mountain runner. He has just covered 122 kilometers and 8,000 meters in altitude in the Karwendel.
It's Thursday morning, shortly after 8 a.m., and Markus Schroth, who used to be life for football, doesn't know what everyone else in Germany knows: how Bayern played against Lyon in the Champions League the night before. But of course: He was up on the mountain, “the television”, he says with a smile, “didn't work there”. And he had his own program: “I sat down, switched off my headlamp and looked at the silhouette of the mountains in the starlight. Fantastic. "
Markus Schroth, now 45, made famous as a Bundesliga striker and goalscorer (Karlsruher SC, 1860 Munich, 1. FC Nürnberg), later still co-trainer at the Löwen and working for them in marketing, achieved a tremendous amount this week. He started walking in Mittenwald on Wednesday at 10:33 a.m., and arrived there again on Thursday at 5:46 p.m. His GPS watch shows that he has covered 122 kilometers and climbed 8,000 meters in altitude. 8000 positive (uphill), 8000 negative (downhill) - that's what it is called in the language of trail running.
Markus Schroth discovered this sport when he was on vacation in Chamonix a few years ago and the UTMB, the run around the Montblanc massif, was taking place there - 170 kilometers. The spirit of the scene captured him: people who test their limits without any financial motivation. Many of the participants sleep in their cars or come in campers. In 2017 and 19 he was there himself and was on the road for around 42 hours, you walk through two nights. For him it was a comeback as an athlete after he had to end his football career after an infection in his knee and several operations.
Schroth also wanted to register for one or two big runs in 2021. But then Corona came and almost everything was canceled. A desert run in Oman appeared to be an option for some time - but would you even be able to travel? Markus Schroth and his wife Petra came up with an alternative plan: If there isn't a trail run, then we'll do one. “Show initiative, take things in hand, create something,” says Markus. It has been poured into a motto: “I am the force.” This is what it says on the T-shirts they wear and on the start and finish banners they put up.
Even when Markus runs the route solo, the Schroths act as a team: Petra takes care of the logistics, drives the camper to the accessible parts of the course, takes care of catering. Markus' 12 liter rucksack he walks with is jam-packed. Before he goes into the night, he gets something warm to eat. Petra sits in the car half the night, drives around the Karwendel, no one sits at the toll booths on the mountain roads anymore. "Without Petra, the project would not have been possible," he says, "after all, I can't go to any hut at night. They are then closed." With a regular run, you can rely on the organizer and that there will always be a refreshment point. Now he's on his own.
They invested two and a half months in preparation. They knew parts of the Karwendel because Markus Schroth had prepared for the Mont-Blanc run here last year. He puzzled a track together. On the German and (mostly) Austrian side.
As a professional footballer, Markus Schroth had floodlit games, those were the festive moments. When running in the mountains, he wears a headlamp, the cone of which cuts through the darkness and illuminates the next few meters. To be out and about alone in alpine terrain at night, if possible at a run - you can imagine that this involves dangers. Schroth says: “I was surprised how clearly I could orient myself.” Because he had studied the route beforehand and it was his, he didn't have to look for markings, as would have been the case with an organized trail.
In the morning haze he sees another headlamp in the distance, but he is completely alone for hours. The Bavarian TV camera team, which, under the direction of ski and soccer commentator Bernd Schmelzer, is filming a report that will run in the legendary mountaineering magazine “Bergauf-Bergab” (broadcast date still open), is now keeping the legally prescribed night's sleep and will be off the next morning back on the e-mountain bikes. Schroth himself films how the sun rises, he was given a GoPro.
The clock keeps on running, but that's not that important in trail running. Not even in the competitions. Not at the top of their performance, but in the field there are occasional pauses. You connect with nature. Markus Schroth says that when running in the mountains he is concerned with the here and now, with nothing else.
He has the track under control. After four hours he says coolly: “Not much has happened yet.” He runs some passages a second time - for the better picture later in the film. On Thursday morning after 80 km he looks relaxed and not like a person who would be unbearable because he was not allowed to sleep. At the last short stop in the afternoon in the Austrian border town of Scharnitz, he says at 28 degrees: “It was drizzling up there until noon. Didn't think it would be that warm. "
His most demanding run so far was the “Tor de Geants”. 330 kilometers long, around the Aosta Valley. 23,000 vertical meters, 136 hours straight, he only slept four and a half hours. Well, at the finish in Mittenwald, he says his legs are a little tired, but it doesn't hurt. He stands bolt upright. He is happy. The Schroths embrace.
After a competition, everything dissolves quickly, and the participants hurriedly leave the venue. Markus Schroth has always handled it differently. After the UTMB he stayed in Chamonix for a week to process what had happened, and he and Petra hang out for a few days in the Karwendel as well. To enjoy what has been accomplished.
Markus Schroth is no longer a footballer, he doesn't always have to keep going.
