Unbelievable, but true: Markus Brennauer missed the World Cup ticket at the Ultra Trail in Franconia because he went the right way — unlike the competition, who took a shortcut.
Ebermannstadt – Markus Brennauer remained a gentleman, although he had every reason to freak out.
At the "Ultra-Trail Franconian Switzerland" the 43-year-old from TSV Penzberg missed the qualification for the Trail Running World Championships in Innsbruck at the beginning of June under really outrageous circumstances.
Markus Brennauer third overall in Ultra-Trail
The third place over the 66 kilometers (with 2700 meters in altitude) was ultimately not enough.
The gap at the finish to the two in front of him, Alexander Dautel (20 minutes ahead) and Adrian Niski (12 minutes ahead), who bought the World Cup ticket, did not at all reflect the balance of power on the track.
Both, that much is pretty certain, only ended up in front of the Penzberger due to an unintentional shortcut.
And what did Brennauer do?
He didn't lament, but congratulated fairly.
He begrudge them their placements.
"I hope that both will be nominated for the World Cup," says Brennauer.
Because the athletes "deserve it".
The decisive situation happened after 40 kilometers.
At this point, Brennauer had gained a lead of 45 seconds over Dautel (German trail running champion 2021) and Markus Mingo (German trail running champion 2022).
After the fourth aid station, at kilometer 38, the Penzberger had pushed the pace.
"I felt really strong," said the 43-year-old.
Markus Brennauer trusts the GPS watch
However, at a crossroads in the forest, there was no arrow marked on the ground, so it was not possible to tell whether to turn right or go straight.
A plastic tape on a tree signaled to Brennauer that he had to turn.
“When I turned right, my GPS watch immediately reported.
It indicated that I had left the track.
After walking 50 meters, I turned around and followed the navigation on my watch.”
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The competition saves meters in altitude and a lot of time
So it happened that Brennauer was back on the right track.
Despite the loss of time, he didn't see his competitors.
On the subsequent downhill section to the Wiesent river and the subsequent steep ascent through an extremely narrow gorge, he continued to put the pressure on.
When he was almost at the top of the rise, he suddenly saw Mingo and Dautel running along the edge of the ravine.
"I was absolutely perplexed and couldn't believe what I was seeing." As it turned out after the race, the two of them had taken a wrong turn at exactly the same place as Markus Brennauer had before, but then continued down the wrong path.
Someone had obviously intentionally wrongly marked the path at this point.
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Markus Brennauer (TSV Penzberg) at the Ultra-Trail Franconian Switzerland after about 57 kilometers.
© Sportographer
In the end, Mingo, Dautel and Niski saved themselves not only the 110 vertical meters down to the Wiesent and back up to the track, but also exactly 3:20 minutes compared to Brennauer thanks to their unintentional shortcut.
"When I was out of the gorge again, I couldn't see her anymore and was completely mentally down," says Brennauer.
He tried to close the gap up front, but gave up a few minutes later.
"The mixture of exhaustion, cramped muscles and the knowledge that the others were ahead of me because of a shortcut was too much for me," said the secondary school teacher.
Removed tag as problem
In the “Frankish Switzerland Ultratrail”, it wasn’t just the leading group of men with Markus Brennauer who were affected by the apparently intentionally removed directions.
The winner of the women's ranking, Karola Rennhack from the "Allgäu Outlet Team", went wrong several times, "because there are such idiots who remove the markings," as she wrote on Instagram.
Her target time was "unattainable and the frustration great".
She lost almost 20 minutes.
With 7:36:02 hours, Rennhack still won ahead of Anna Jansen (7:39:10).
The organizers of the trail run apologized publicly to Brennauer via Instagram.
"We are extremely sorry that you became the victim of the willfully changed route markings." At the same time, they thanked him for his "sovereign handling of this totally stupid situation.
Confusion already during the run – the motivation only returned for a short time
To make matters worse, marshals told him that he was fourth, which Markus Brennauer couldn't understand at all, after all he hadn't seen Niski at any point in the race.
“I only saw Alexander (Dautel) and Markus (Mingo) from the gorge.
At that point, Adrian (Niski) was already with them,” explained Brennauer after the race.
Between 42 and 55 kilometers the Penzberg lost almost ten minutes to Dautel and Niski.
When, after 55 kilometers, he suddenly saw Mingo in front of him, who was visibly struggling, his motivation returned a little.
"I was back in competition mode for a brief moment," said Brennauer, who on the third to last climb of the race overtook his competitor with whom he had been leading the race before Dautel joined them after 25 kilometers.
Shortly after overtaking Mingo, Brennauer was struggling with the unusually high temperatures of around 23 degrees Celsius and the sun.
Like most of the other participants, he had been drinking too little and consuming too little salt.
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Brennauer runs 66 kilometers in 6:20 hours
He was only able to cover the last few kilometers to Ebermannstadt “at a slow pace”, reported the Penzberger.
Brennauer needed 6:20:14 hours for the 66 kilometers with 2700 meters in altitude and a total of 1500 steps, winner Dautel exactly 6:00:14 hours.
Niski had arrived after 6:08:12 hours.
In the end, Mingo “only” finished fifth (6:34:49).
200 men and 41 women were judged, many gave up.
Only at the finish did the Penzberger learn that the race had served as a World Cup qualification.
His competitors had found out about this before the race from the head of the German trail running team.
"Of course, it is pointless to discuss whether the race would have turned out differently without the unintentional shortcuts taken by the others and the knowledge of the possible World Championship qualification," said Brennauer, who was initially happy about his third place in the top-class field.
He will now focus fully on the German ultratrail championship at the end of June, which will be held at the "Sachsentrail".
You can find more current news from the Weilheim-Schongau district at Merkur.de/Weilheim.
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