47°45'28.2"N 12°27'40.2"E

Chiemgau Trailrun

The alarm clock shows 5:30 in the morning. Get up, get dressed, brush teeth, coffee and go. Probably for most people, this is not the desired time to get up. Turning over again and continuing to sleep doesn’t sound bad to me either. But the idea of a sunrise on the top of a mountain is stronger and on top of that, standing up there is even my job today. Because today is race day for the Chiemgau Trail Run. And at 6 o’clock the first runners start. There are different course lengths. 10 km and 21 km are the two shortest. Although even these two are not necessarily easy. The longer distances are a 42 km marathon or the 60 km. Both lead through the Chiemgau Alps. More precisely over two mountains. The Hochgern and the Hochplatte. For those who want more numbers: in 60 kilometers you run here more than 3500 hm.

But I myself was not a participant in the run. I was one of those who drag all their camera gear up the mountain before sunrise to document the whole thing. And of course we wanted to be on the summit before the first runners, so we wouldn’t miss anyone. Jonas and I drove up as far as we could by car to get a little head start. The road itself was an adventure in the half dark. In general, it went steeply on one side into nowhere. After we arrived at an alpine pasture, we continued the rest on foot to the summit. Not necessarily a relaxing start to the day, but the sunrise was well worth it. Would I do it all again. 

After some time, the first runner arrived. I had already expected that the guys and gals are really fast. But I did not expect such a speed. Try to run 60 km in 7 hours. And in the mountains, too. That was what the fastest runner achieved in total. Throughout the day, many others ran past us. The cool thing was that the field was very diverse. Women and men, young and old. All in all, a successful day in the mountains.