Off-Season, On-Startline
Uphill as the Only Way Forward
Off-Season, Yet on the Startline
It’s off-season. By design. I’ve ticked every running box I wanted this year, and I’m content. Full. Satiated. The kind of fullness where the body and the mind agree: take a step back, breathe, recover.
And yet tomorrow, I’ll stand at a startline.
Under less-than-ideal conditions.
The Handbrake Knee
Real talk: my knee is still not what it should be. Not broken (I'll provide a more precise update in an upcoming Das Z Letter), but not free either. Like a handbrake that’s never fully released. You can still drive, but you feel the drag.
So why race?
Reason One: Because I Can
Tomorrow’s Mountopolis Vertical ist part of the Ultraks Mayrhofen (AT) racing weekend and features 8.5 kilometers running distance, 1,250 meters of climb.
Pure uphill. And uphill is the one thing my knee doesn’t complain about. On climbs, it’s like the handbrake lets go. No irritation. No holding back.
Reason Two: Unintentional Preparation
Since finishing the Zugspitz Ultratrail (ZUT) in June, I’ve been running uphill more than ever. Week after week, vertical meters stacked like coins in a jar. In fact even more than during my ZUT “A-race”-preparation. And for a Vertical, “D+1” is really the only currency that matters.
But what’s a Vertical (VK) anyway?
SNIP
Vertical 101
The race format in one line
Run straight uphill until your lungs file for bankruptcy (hashtag “storno”).
Official specs of the International Skyrunning Federation (ISF):
1,000 m vertical gain
≤ 5 km course length
Average grade ≥ 20%, with sections steeper than 33%
Uphill only. No descents. Poles allowed, some races include ropes
How fast ist fast?
Men: 28:53 — Philip Götsch, Fully VK (Switzerland, 2017)
Women: 34:44 — Christel Dewalle, Fully VK (2014)
Typical finish: elites ~30–40 min, mortals 45–75+
Why runners love it
Short, fast, hard
Heart rate redlining in the first 90 seconds (something you usually only get at track races)
No downhill pounding (knees say thank you)
Strips running down to one raw skill: uphill economy
Born in the Alps in the 1990s, now exported everywhere mountains rise
Tomorrow’s playground — Mountopolis Vertical
8.5 km / 1,250 m climb
From Mayrhofen town hall (650 m) to Penkenbahn top station (1,790 m)
Route: Astegg → Gschöss → Kuli-Lift → classic ski slope finish
A little longer than the textbook VK, but with all the steepness you need
SNAP
Reason Three: The Pull
The harder part to explain: I just want to. Something in me misses racing. Not the pace, not the splits, not the result sheet, but the feeling. The moment of standing among others, waiting for the gun, when the air is thick with anticipation and you know the next hour and a half will strip you bare.
It’s the longing for uncertainty. For not knowing how the body will respond when the gradient hits. For discovering which version of yourself shows up when it hurts.
Racing erases the trivial noise of everyday life: deadlines, messages, routines. All that vanishes. What remains are raw emotions, unfiltered, inconvenient, and real.
Fear. Drive. Joy. Doubt. The simple honesty of effort.
I can’t fully explain why that draws me in, and why now, but it does. It’s the pull of a space where nothing is guaranteed and everything is felt. That’s what I miss. That’s what calls me.
The Question of Sense
So…. is this smart? Probably not. Would it be wiser to stay off the grid until the knee is fully healed? Almost certainly. But looking back, I do not regret most of my unwise choices in running. I’d say it’s 50/50.
ZUT was proof: I adapted, I compromised, I accepted cautious downhill running, but I still raced, and I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.
Maybe running, the way I live it, will always carry a streak of unreasonableness.
The Art of Reckless Care
There’s courage in stepping onto a startline when everything isn’t perfect. There’s also foolishness. The trick, maybe, is finding that thin strip of ground where courage and high spirits don’t tip into damage. Running boldly, but not blindly.
The line between reckless and brave? I’ll find it tomorrow, somewhere between Mayrhofen town hall and the Penkenbahn.
Everything Not Running
My running brand, Willpower, will celebrate its 10th anniversary on September 20th. The thought is both strange and wonderful to me.
To celebrate in style, we will reissue ten shirt designs from the past ten years that are no longer available. We will offer them for pre-order on September 20 as a limited anniversary edition.
However, more than 100 designs have been created in Willpower's 10 years. So, how do we choose the right ten for the anniversary?
Quite simply, we'll let the Willpower community vote on it. Without them, Willpower wouldn't even exist. We call these loyal supporters the "Willpower Circle" because they are more than just customers who occasionally order from Willpower. It goes much deeper than that. The people in the Willpower Circle strongly identify with the brand and its values, and they feel a close connection with other Willpower Circle members. A good number even got Willpower tattoos.
I am happy and proud that such a wonderful community has formed around Willpower. When I founded the brand, I couldn't have wished for more. It's truly invaluable.
If you want to vote, you can do so online until tomorrow.
On Repeat
I first heard of Fever Ray, also known as Karin Dreijer, at the Kullamannen race in Sweden. To be precise, it was at the start of the race, in the middle of the night, when a knight rode (correct, a knight on a horse) toward me with a torch. As you can imagine, that moment was quite memorable for me, and I didn't even take part in the race myself. Since then, Fever Ray's music has been inextricably linked with ultrarunning for me. Especially in the night, fog, or storm.
The song that hit my ears at full volume at that special moment was "If I Had a Heart." And this song is one thing above all else: atmospheric.
It's incredible how this track puts me in a different frame of mind after just a few seconds. From the first notes, a veil descends over my thoughts, and my vision blurs.
Honestly, anyone who can vibe with a song like "If I Had a Heart" doesn't need drugs.
acumulative altitude gain in meters
Hard fun!
Good luck!! Have you noticed, that the Mountopolis graphic got 2 times 1000m on the left?