Arco / Walchensee - It is really not easy to keep your training motivation for months without the prospect of a competition.
"I can deal better with the cancellation or postponement of a race than with the uncertainty of whether I can even stand at a start line," said Walchensee trail runner Marcel Höche, describing the psychological stress of the past eight months.
Despite this uncertainty, the 27-year-old recently increased the intensity of the training, after all, the Garda Trentino Trail lured with the prospect of a first competition after the long compulsory break.
And indeed: after completing a number of documents, Höche finally stood at the starting line in Pieve di Ledro to tackle the Ledro Trail with 42 kilometers and 2500 meters of altitude.
The first two kilometers under seven minutes
"Pronti, partenza, via ...", rang the countdown from the loudspeakers, and Lauterbacher, who moved to his new adopted home Walchensee in December last year, made himself confident, motivated and perhaps a little too excited with almost 300 other runners on the way to Arco. Despite the undulating terrain, the first two kilometers were covered in under seven minutes before the first incline blew up the field. Initially, Höche found himself within the top ten, while the incline gradually became so steep that the runners fought either with ultra-light carbon poles or with their hands on their thighs towards the highest point of the route at 1790 meters. Cool fog below the Cima Sclapa offered a mystical atmosphere and at the same time a pleasant cooling. The eventual winnerLuca Arrigoni (final time 3:30 h) from the Italian national team was already alone at this point.
Fall on treacherous ground ends lightly
Höche used his new strength, running on technical trails, to secure a top five position in the first downhill.
Since the runners of the ultra distance had largely already passed this section, the soil, softened by heavy rain, had mutated into a treacherous slide.
Höche also fell in a tricky overtaking maneuver, but was uninjured.
"It slowly became clear that it was the fight for third place that I had to concentrate on," said Höche, who had already dueled with Roberto Gheduzzi for many kilometers.
"Sometimes he was a few meters ahead, then I."
I had to concentrate on the fight for third place. "
Marcel Höche
Undulating terrain, peppered with two more steep but less long climbs than the first, cost a lot of strength on the second half of the distance. Here it was also the heat that made Höche troublesome. Especially on one of the last difficult downhill sections, the runner from the Adidas Terrex team lost his strength for a short time. Gheduzzi seized the moment and pulled away. “A fourth place is also very good,” Höche shot through his head. After all, it wasn't just the placement that was important to him, but above all the world ranking points.
The longed-for 800 points would bring qualification for the mountain running world championship in Thailand a big step closer.
This thought mobilized the last strength of the Walchensee.
And so the impossible happened: The third-placed Gheduzzi reappeared in Höche's field of vision, and there were two more steep climbs - the chance to exchange blows.
In the last step on the last ramp, Höche caught up with the Italian and was even able to extend the lead in the winding, steep and narrow alleys of Arco.
Over 800 points for the world rankings
After the last bend, a long avenue of palm trees opened up, an almost infinitely long home straight with the overtaken one in tow.
Höche gave everything: “After all, I didn't want to let the hard-fought podium place be taken away from me.” After 3:43 hours, he crossed the finish line in third place with a nine-second advantage.
“You can hardly imagine a more beautiful finish”, Höche looks back.
“The podium was a dream.” The placement became even more valuable when a few days later the evaluation of the trail running world association ITRA arrived.
“Unbelievable, 811 points,” cheers Höche.
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