Trailrunning Schedule 2025: Innsbruck Alpine Trailrun Festival

Overview

The Innsbruck Alpine Trailrun Festival is an annual Trailrunning competition that takes place at the heart of the alps in Innsbruck. You can choose to compete in one of several different races with varying degrees of difficulty ranging from 15km for rookies up to 110km for the experienced.

I had already planned to take part in the 42km race last year, however, due to scheduling conflicts with my Tennis team in Vienna, I was not able to compete in the race.
This year is different though: My apartment is about 5 minutes away from the starting line of the race and I have successfully managed to keep the weekend free from all appointments and other obligations. There is no more excuse not to attend!
In a moment of foolish arrogance, I decided to register for the 85km race with about 4000m of vertical climbing instead of the 42km race which I planned to run last year.
There are mainly two reasons for this decision: I figured since I finished the GGUT with close to 60km last year, I had to challenge (or torture?) myself even more this year. The GGUT takes place in July and consists mostly of high alpine terrain around the Großglockner, which creates especially challenging circumstances. In contrast, the Trailrun Festival takes place at the beginning of May with much cooler conditions reaching a maximum altitude of about 2000m. I am wishfully assuming, that these objectively easier conditions will help me during the race.
Another reason why I opted for the 85km is, that it starts at midnight, which means competitors have to run in complete darkness around the beautiful city of Innsbruck. Due to my experience with alpine expeditions in the last years which usually start sometime around 3am to 4am, I am quite used to moving in alpine terrain in the darkness guided only by headlights. I am especially looing forward to this aspect of the race.

The Race Course

The race starts on Friday at midnight at the city centre of Innsbruck, very close to its famous landmark, the Goldenes Dachl. It takes off quite slowly along the Inn for the first few kilometers until the first steep ascent towards Hungerburg. Turning west, the race continues beneath the mighty Nordkette until Kranebitten where we cross the river Inn.
From there we continue up the hill towards the village Birgitz, where the first real challenge awaits: A tough vertical climb of close to 1000m of altitude towards Mutterer Alm! It is there where we reach the highest point of the race. We continue traversing around the Nockspitze peak followed by a steep and technical descent into the Stubaital.

The race then turns back in northern direction towards Innsbruck. Just after passing the Bergiselschanze, a famous ski jumping venue just outside Innsbruck we turn east and continue racing beneath the Patscherkofel and Glungezer mountains while passing through the village of Aldrans. It is about there, where the 101k race splitss up from the 85k. Participants of the 101k get to enjoy another 1000m ascent up to Patscherkofel following along the stunningly beautiful Zirbenweg.
Well, maybe next year...
On the other hand, participants of the 85k will get to enjoy the rather easy trails until we reach Hall in Tirol, where we cross the Inn another time.

For its final section, the race continues through the village of Absam with a steep ascent of about 300m onto the Nordkette once again. If your legs are still able to move at this point you can try enjoying the last 10km of easy trails back towards Hungerburg and then, finally, Innsbruck city centre.

Below, I shared the offical race course on Strava, where all details of the race can be seen:

Goals

I usually set myself four different goals for such a long and demanding race:

The first and foremost goal is to finish the race without major injury. This is easier said than done, since after many hours of racing in the mountains, fatigue settles in eventually and the tiniest lack of concentration on a steep descent can quickly lead to a nasty fall.

Assuming I survive the race unharmed, I have prepared three different times in my head: A maximum time of 15 hours, should I ecounter heavy fatigue or some form of injury during the race hindering my progress.
Based on my traing results and without major problems along the way, I assume the race will take me about 13,5 hours.
If everything goes perfectly, I feel fit and energized throughout the race, my dream goal would be to finish in about 12 hours.