From boulders to mountains – that’s the path taken by German Marcel Höche. The 29-year-old grew up in the Harz region of Lower Saxony, with the “Brocken” - which translates to boulder - at 1,141.2 meters above sea level being the highest elevation in the region by far. “I’ve always loved being active outdoors and because my parents didn’t drive me to soccer practice, I took up mountain biking and running,” Höche tells us. “Endurance sports have always been something I enjoyed.”

His recent move to Innsbruck seems somewhat logical. The combination of urban living with all it has to offer and the proximity to high mountains has fascinated him for a long time. It’s not surprising then that he participated in the Innsbruck Alpine Trail Festival five times, winning the 15.5-kilometer distance in 2018 and the marathon distance in 2020.

Once the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships are on, Höche can expect to have almost something like a home advantage. “I obviously know quite a few routes here, however, the trails at the WMTRC are going to be markedly steeper, and the terrain markedly more alpine than what I know from the Trail Festival,” he says. “When I won the marathon trail in 2020, it took me 3:32 hours to complete the route. The Trail Short that I am hoping to run in June will take at least half an hour longer, even though the route only covers an additional 2.4 kilometers in distance.” It is one of the reasons he wants to run and inspect the routes in detail prior to the event - thus proving that the proverbial Teutonic thoroughness is an actual thing.

By the way, he didn’t move to Innsbruck just for the WMTRC’s sake. “I am planning on making it my base for the next few years.” On the one hand, he is studying at the local university - a combination of sports science, material science and innovation management. “On the other hand, living here makes it easy for me to find training partners, even if I aim to run a kilometer in less than 3 minutes.”

“The passage through the Kalkkögel mountains is an absolute highlight, and my anticipation is increasing by the day.”

That being said, contests are not all that important to him, as he realized during the pandemic. “I came to notice that I don’t need contests.” Makes sense, seeing as he isn’t a pro; he earns his money as a project manager, working remotely for a German advertising agency. His setup was practical during the lockdown, both financially and mentally. “I have friends who make their living as professional athletes; all of a sudden there were no more contests, and many of them went through a real existential crisis and they struggled mentally,” Höche reminisces. “As such it really helps to have a second mainstay.”

Yet: The love of being active in nature has and always will take center stage. “I just love being outdoors for long periods. It has always been that way.” It’s something he has enjoyed even at 15 years old, growing up in the Harz region. As already mentioned, endurance sports has long held a fascination, so much so that he, together with his biking and running mates, went on a truly special adventure, namely a 100-kilometer run. “We ran in teams of four, and passed right by my house,” Höche says. “It wasn’t easy to convince the organizer to let me, a minor, participate.” While he may have been a minor, all his team buddies were at least 30 years old. 

A similar race in Vietnam a few years ago left an equal impression: “We started at 11:00 PM, the field thinned out rather quickly and it didn’t take long before I was running through the jungle on my own, aiming to reach the Chinese border,” he says. In his headlamp’s glow he saw the trail veering right, passing a rock. “I kept close to the rock, when it suddenly started moving. Turns out it wasn’t a rock after all but a water buffalo with massive horns,” Höche tells us, laughing. Luckily, both him and the buffalo got a fright and had the impulse to run away from each other. “The buffalo wanted to get away from me; I wanted to get away from the buffalo. That was lucky; otherwise it could have ended in a different way.”

He expects Innsbruck-Stubai in June to be a special event too - if he gets nominated by Germany, that is. “You need to qualify for World Championships; you can’t just sign up, which makes it especially alluring,” Höche says. “And if the WMTRC are only remotely as well organized as the Trail Festival, we are bound to have a blast.” Even without a water buffalo for extra excitement.