“Aiming for goals and achieving them is something very pleasing. It fills us with pride and contentment, but it also provides our lives with structure. However, goals may change, which is why they should be considered in a somewhat flexible way, according to the situation, so to speak. Otherwise, determination may quickly turn into dogged ambition.” Vroni Haas knows the feeling and the emotions that come with reaching goals, but at the same time she also knows that those goals may change over the course of one’s life. Her athletic goals for this year, however, are known. She wants to participate in the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships 2023 Innsbruck-Stubai and represent her home country.

Even though she started running in her youth, she only took it up in a serious manner once she finished school. While she moved to Vienna to study philosophy and latin, she always looked forward to spending her weekends in her native town of Krems an der Donau (Fels am Wagram) in Lower Austria, and to running along her favorite, hilly, routes along the Danube in the Wachau wine region.

She ended up in the “competitive scene” by chance. Her qualification as an aerobic and fitness coach from the Sports Institute at the university in Vienna, completed during her student days, allowed her to better structure her roadwork. Without ever having planned for it, over the years she finished several races on the podium and went on to celebrate a number of victories. “When I started out running, I never thought that I would be any good.”

Her love for mountain running grew along with the distances and the number of achievements. “When I started running at the age of 18, I only participated in classic road races that covered a distance of 10 kilometers. Eventually, the distances got longer and I even participated in marathons. Before I knew it I tried mountain running - and what can I say: It was the best decision.” Due to her passion for running, she found her true calling in her student job. Even though she successfully completed two doctoral programs (in Philosophy and Latin), Haas has been working as a coach for various fitness-, running- and trail running courses for the past 15 years; in addition she offers camps and workshops as well as online courses and coachings. (www.vroni.run)

Mentioning a possible participation in the At the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships 2023 in Innsbruck-Stubai her enthusiasm and anticipation become evident.

“When I look at the footage of the routes in the WC region Innsbruck-Stubai, my levels of anticipation for this unique athletic experience are rising a notch. Being able to represent one’s home country at such an event in one’s home country is an immense honor and at the same time it serves as the best motivation to get prepared over the next few months.”

At the Ultra Trails WCs in 2016 and 2018 in Portugal and Spain, Haas put her ability to the test in the longest distances, and she would like to do the same at the WMTRC 2023 by competing in the Trail Long, on June 9, which covers a distance of 85.6 kilometers and a total of 5,554 meters in ascent and 5.966 meters in descent.

Considering her casual approach to mountain- and trail running, where winning was never the main goal, the number of Haas’s athletic highlights speaksfor itself. She can add a total of three participations in (Ultra) Trail World Championships, the “Transalpine-Run” (247 km), the Großglockner Ultratrail ( 4x in total, covering various distances), a total of four triumphs at the “Ötscher Ultramarathon”, a personal marathon best of 2:59:23, 4 victories at the Salzkammergut-Marathon and the title of National Mountain Marathon Champion to her various 2022 top-3 rankings, which may count even “more”, considering that it was the year of her comeback after her pregnancy. Her victory at the Veitscher Grenzstaffellauf, third place at the GGUT84, victories at the Petra Desert Marathon in Jordan, at the Eilat Desert Marathon in Israel as well as at the Salzkammergut-Marathon are just some of the highlights from that year.