Uphill Diaries: Frohnleiten - Hochtrötsch - Schöckl

Sunday 24.10.2021 - around 01:30 am

The first hours of the Sunday, October 24. Around 1:30 am. ABBA is playing in the loudspeaker. I am standing, dancing, moving around. Hanging out with my friends. People are dancing on a big table. A friend of mine calls me to hand him his gin tonic. Meanwhile less than 7 hours later I have to wake up to get ready for my 40k run: Riding the train to Frohnleiten, coming back to my apartment in Graz crossing the mountains.

I am thinking: "I should've had respect to my run, to the mountains that I am going to cross. I should have been in a retreat the whole day, eating well, drinking a lot of water, and going to bed early."

I hear one of my friends calling me: "Ataaa take a photo of us!!!"

At least I didn't drink too much. Only a beer, early in the night. At least I was drinking water consciously. I know hydration a day before a long day in the mountains is important.

Sunday 24.10.2021 - 8:30 am

I went to sleep last night at 3 am. And without the sound of the alarm, I woke up by myself at 8:30. I know that if I wake up in these hours it is impossible for me to go back to sleep. I also cannot afford going back to sleep. So I stand up.

I already prepared my equipment for this run. I knew that the night before could become wilder than expected. So I made a full list of all the equipment, and already had them together. Including my food to take. I filled my water bladder (2 lt), took energy bars, and went to the bus station to get to the train station.

I took the train which would move at 10:01 (S-1). At 10:33 I arrived in Frohnleiten. I got ready and without wasting time, I started to run.

The thing about these long runs is that I can convince myself that I do not need to be fast. This is not a race, this is something only for myself. This is a ritual. I turn my phone in airplane mode. This state of mind brings a lot of calmness to me. Which in turns makes the whole run more enjoyable. The first km is on the road to the beginning of the first hilly section: the way to the Hochtrötsch, which takes around 7 km from Frohnleiten, with around 800 m of elevation gain. I am having fun. I don't think about my many km ahead. But I can feel the sleep deprivation. I didn't have a chance to get a proper sleep. A sleep that such a run deserves. I am blaming myself, but at the same time I am thinking about this run as an experiment.

As expected (due to the slope and also my weirdness due to sleep deprivation) the climb to the top was slow. But I was not suffering. I was feeling I am doing what I am supposed to do. "This is what I live for".

After reaching the top of the mountain, to descend there is a beautiful, very steep but unfortunately short downhill section. From there I reached to a kind of plateau until Schöckl. On this part of the run, until the climb to the second (and the highest) mountain of the run, the road is mostly asphalt. I follow a lonely asphalt road. But I don't feel lonely.

During the climbs, in which it needs more effort than just "running", I didn't listen to music. This makes me focus on the thing that I need to do: to climb. But when I am running on mostly flat sections I listened to music. Because flat is boring.

The climb to the Schöckl (which is around 400 m of elevation gain from where I started) took me shorter to finish. When I reached the top it was cloudy (as it was in my first time). However I could still spot the Hochtrötsch (my first mountain). I ate my second (and last) energy bar, drank a lot of water, took a group photo of some young people who asked me to do it, and hit the road to descent towards Graz.

During the way to Graz it became sunnier. Warmer. I was still in this state of calmness. I call this "the state of endurance". Not pushing too much. Effortless. The feeling that you can just go on forever.

However, whenever I felt myself close to the finish (the last 2 km), I started to feel tired. I felt this rush to get to my apartment as soon as possible. This is an interesting feeling which I get in the last section of any long distance run. I am pretty sure this fake "tiredness" is a made-up feeling by myself.

At home, lying on my yoga mattress, I was trying to contemplate what I just did. It was a beautiful day.

Final addition: I finished all my 2 lt of water on the way, and ate only 2 energy bars.