Exactly one week before the 2 hour marathon barrier was broken in Vienna, Austria, I was in the county for a race of an entirely different variety. The Kaisermarathon (don’t you love how German smashes two nouns together) is a beautiful mountain trail race in the Wilder Kaiser region of Tyrol, in the Austrian Alps.
The race starts in the small village of Söll and winds its way onto a well-known (in that region) mountain called the Hohe Salve 1,829 meters (6,000 feet) above sea level. On this long awaited trip to Austria I was ready to trek through postcard-perfect scenes of Alpen paradise.
It rained relentlessly. Continue Reading →