I have to admit, before I left a Zurich on a golden October day to travel to Chiang Mai, Thailand, I felt like the advertisement “Amazing Thailand” World Mountain & Trail Running Championships 2022 (WMTRC) was a bit of an overstatement. Admittedly though, I had not had the time to learn about country & culture beforehand, so I just decided to go into this 10-day trip with an open mind- to embrace both the foreign country and my first international championship to the fullest.
The experiences of the last days definitely exceeded any expectations I had and I can now confirm that “amazing” is a very fitting attribute to this South-Asian kingdom. From the first day I arrived, together with the Swiss mountain running team, jet-lagged and stiff after a long overnight flight, I felt a warm welcome of this city- quite literally.
While the temperatures hovering around 32 C with high humidity were tough at the beginning, I felt like I adjusted quickly and then enjoyed the mild evenings and beautiful mornings. Where else in November are you able to enjoy purple sweet potato pancakes or fresh Pad Thai noodles outside on a terrace surrounded by lush green plants while slurping on an iced mango shake?
The first days were quickly spent exploring the uphill and up& down courses with my Swiss “foster” teammates in the mornings and then exploring the city of Chiang Mai in Tuktuk cars in the afternoon, admiring the beautiful temples and various markets. Especially the Sunday night market in the old town offered everything from colored linen clothing, assortments of teas and coffees, carefully carved wooden figurines and a myriad of smells and opportunities to try Thai food. Being vegan was not an issue anywhere and in some instances a nice excuse to neglect the fried crickets. Highly recommended are fresh coconut water or one of the various fruit shakes (nothing more refreshing on a hot afternoon), the purple coconut pancakes, pumpkin-curry served over blue butterfly pea rice, the refreshing summer rolls or a mango sticky rice for dessert, just to name a few of the local specialities. The unbelievable density of little restaurants and food stands makes it easy to try and share food with friends. Amazingly, the best meals were usually at the cheaper, more traditional places and served with a warm smile.
With every day running through the tropical forest or through the streets of Chiang Mai and its beautiful university campus, strolling through the busy city and then lingering long over fresh Thai dinners with my Swiss and German teammates, I felt deeply content even before the World champs started officially on Nov. 3rd. For environmental reasons, I attempt to minimize plane travel, and thus tried to embrace this opportunity both as an important race, but also as a chance to meet people, connect with friends and experience it as a vacation. Truly, I could not imagine a better way to spend my holidays anyways than within the running community…
With a beautiful celebration, the Parade of Nations, the WMTRC officially started in the evening on Nov 3rd. Fireworks sent us athletes off to our first competition on the next day. Coincidentally, I raced a challenging uphill mountain course (8.5k, 1046m ascent) largely on single tracks through the jungle on my 26th birthday. My race strategy worked well, I could pass more and more women on the last kilometers of the race and reached the top in 10th place after a sweaty 59 min of running and scrambling uphill. This greatly exceeded my expectations, as I saw my strength more in the up&downhill race two days later. The rest of the day was spent recovering- ice baths, food, loosening the stiff muscles up in the pool and supporting my two German teammates on their preparation for the 80k trail race the following Saturday.
Cheering my friends on the next day provided an equally gratifying and exhausting experience, but I was happy to capture the emotions of Rosanna Buchauer and Benedikt Hoffmann crossing the finish line after 8+ hours of running through the mountainous terrain. With a light run, ice bath, massage and finally supporting my teammates as they crushed their races, I didn’t really think much about how my sore legs would be able to handle my second race on Sunday, Nov. 6th.
The final up&down competition had us start out flat and then climb steeply on rocky trails through the jungle before returning downhill as swiftly as possible without breaking our necks. The last 1.5k were flat on asphalt, but the sun burning our sweaty faces made the finish stretch seem to last forever. The women from Uganda flew over the 11k course with 475m of ascent/ descent to finish first and second with a good lead, but I fought for every place and was more than happy to cross the line in 7th trailing a great performance from my Swiss “second” teammate Judith Wyder. I gave my best on both days and only can now only debate what was more painful- the race or the Thai massage the day after 😉
With sore legs, physically exhausted, but deeply inspired and completely happy I am returning home- ready for three weeks of downtime and at the same time full of inspirations for the upcoming season. What I will keep are the countless memories: of sticky group runs, breakfasts with athletes from around the world, the smells and tastes of Thai food and the friendliness of the people I met. This is what I love (mountain) running competitions for!
Thank you, amazing Thailand!
Click here to get to the homepage of the WMRA: Home (wmra.info)
Click here to get to the article on leichtathletik.de: https://www.leichtathletik.de/news/news/detail/77323-drei-top-ten-platzierungen-fuer-deutsche-berg-und-trail-laeufer-in-thailand
Click here to get to the article in the Stuttgarter Zeitung: https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.erfolgreich-bei-der-berglauf-wm-hanna-groeber-liebt-auf-und-abs.f136a178-0925-4685-a59e-c7c512205641.html?reduced=true
