Braving rocky and muddy terrain, a top Bahraini athlete represented the kingdom as he completed one of the most gruelling ultramarathons in the world.
Running alongside nearly 400 top runners, Shaikh Salman bin Khalid Al Khalifa participated in the 51km marathon trail of the Kitz Alps Trail (KAT100), starting and ending in scenic Fieberbrunn, Austria.
“I’ve always loved endurance sports and long-distance running, so building on my previous participation in the Iron Man 70.3 triathlon, I wanted a unique challenge – so I decided to take on an ultramarathon, in which we ran a distance longer than the marathon distance of 42.195km,” the 29-year-old athlete told the GDN from Austria, after becoming the only runner from the GCC to compete in the race this year.
According to the official results, Shaikh Salman completed the gruelling 3,220-metre elevation run in 10 hours, four minutes and one second, emerging 262nd out of 372 finishers overall and 94th out of 116 amongst the men aged 20 to 34.
The young tech entrepreneur, who recently started a new company to encourage others to take up endurance sports, has competed in more than seven marathons, the most recent of which was in Palma De Mallorca, Spain, in October 2023, before running his second Ironman 70.3 in Bahrain in December last year.
The KAT100 is a different challenge, however, since it takes places in the natural terrain of the Austrian Alps, along five routes, ranging from the ‘Easy’ 8km to the ‘100 Miles’ 173km trails, with the ‘Marathon’ track that Shaikh Salman ran at the midway point between the two.
“This was my first time running the KAT100 and it was a completely new type of race, because of the elevation, as well as the mixed terrain,” he added.
“Even before the race began, it had started to rain, so the rocks were slippery and the trail got muddy. Compared to the marathons I have run, there were also fewer people running this race – just around 600, as opposed to thousands, so at many points, you are just running on your own and have to navigate on your own.”
Runners in the Marathon Trail had a maximum of 12 hours to cover a 1.1km-elevation 10.1km-long jaunt to Wildseeloderhaus, followed by 6.8km to Larchfilzhochalm, 6.1km to Lauchsee, 5.1km to Parkplatz Herrgottbrucke, 15.2km back to Larchfilzhochalm, 6.1km to Lauchsee and a final 2.2km hike back to Fieberbrunn.
To train for the run, Shaikh Salman, while based in Bahrain, could only use incline treadmills with weighted vests to get his body used to the mountainous running, but the uneven terrain brought unique challenges, which helped the runner grow as an athlete.
“Every long-distance competition like this teaches me more about myself, as well as the challenges I can overcome,” he explained.
“With this race, I also am hoping that others see this as motivation to get moving, so we can all instil within ourselves the mentality to be active and improve over time.”
Although he was coy about which race he plans to run next, he is taking a break now, for at least a couple of weeks, before he begins planning for his next challenge.
naman@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))