German marathoner believes he's better than pro trail runners, runs one & ends up 43rd in race!!

The female champion Sophia is from Salt Lake City (UT). Not exactly the Alps, but plenty of great mountain running in the Wasatch too.

this is hill running, or mountain running. If it were about the trails, you'd have some races on flatlands.

In the real world, it's best and fastest to get from point A to point B on a flat route, even if there is no road. There may not be as many flat trails, but there seem to be nearly zero "trail" races on flatland. Instead the massive change in elevation is the general theme. And that suggests poster is right that it's for people slow in ordinary flat running.

Even if that’s true, it’s also true that the fastest flat runners won’t be the fastest on hills, and since most trail races involve hills…

Shaheen wasn’t quite as fast as Bekele in a flat 5k (though still elite). But that doesn’t mean Bekele would have beaten Shaheen in a steeplechase.

In the real world, it's also nice to get from point A to point B in the fastest possible way, instead of trying to go around or through a 330-lb DT. But football obeys a different set of criteria.

In the real world, I like having elevators and escalators. Mondo can do something different, but I suppose the cadre of chuckleheads would berate him for doing things that don't obtain in the real world.

Sports set up their own rules. You can think they're worth pursuing or not. But if you can't take a sport on its own terms and excel, don't berate those who do.

a sport's value is in testing athletic abilities useful IRL. Rarely does going from point A to B require choosing the toughest, hilliest route, or getting around a LB.

Pole vault is indeed stupid. Mondo can't pole vault onto the 2nd floor unless he brings a portable, whatever that hole is that braces the pole.

Unlike the way the phrase gets bandied about IRL, that's literally begging the question.

But if that's your position, we truly have nothing useful to say to each other on this point. I'm off to watch some retro hurling and curling vids.

In a pre-race interview with the Sub Hub, Sophia Laukli was asked about what parts of the course she was excited for. She said she didn't know. She never looks at course profiles until the night before races.

Her legs looked really solid out there, more so than most her competitors on the downhill. That's from summer nordic ski training - rollerskiing, biking, and running about two times per week. Skiers know her uphill talent. She was third in the last stage of the Tour de Ski (up Alpe Cermis ski area) this past winter, the only hill climb race on the World Cup.

i propose a week ban for fab maro for posting false information and another week for refusing to own up

^^^Anyone care to translate this drivel??? 🤦On second thought, don't bother.

Lmao this made me laugh. Classic lets run thread and early reply. Danke, German speaking brother

Pfeiffer ran in his carbon plated road shoes not even trail shoes

@OP: Here's another quote, about the difficult downhill running at Zinal:
"I haven't trained for this, but I'm not afraid of it either. Of course, I might lose 20 or 25 minutes to the best, but maybe not. That's what makes it so exciting." (laufen.de)
He anticipated that well, finishing 41st in the elite field and losing about 24 minutes. That's no disgrace, by the way, for someone who doesn't train mountain running. I've read that even Kilian Jornet has spent virtually the entire season in 2019 specifically targeting the course record previously held by Jonathan Wyatt.
@athletisme: PBs of mountain running legend Jonathan Wyatt: 4:01 (Mile), 13:27 (5000m), 27:56 (10000m), 2:13 (Marathon).

Ukrainian Olympic Marathoner placed 7th or 8th he’s a 2:11 guy I think. Did well oh and he’s 41yrs old.

Really? Great. Strong. Maybe he is a much more talented mountain runner and went all in. Pfeiffer is training for Berlin next month and wants to qualify for the Olympics. Perhaps he did not take too much risk. Perhaps it was a controlled effort. And yeah, why not, perhaps he is a 2:10 marathoner but not a good mountain runner. I don't know.

Top end road runners are more talented than elite trail runners (it's just a numbers thing - there are way more road runners, from way more parts of the world).

However, it does take specific training and ability to excel on the trails. Not to mention, so much of the motivation a road runner has, comes from being on pace and pushing for that meaningful performance. There's nothing more disheartening than being 3 1/2 hours into a race, feeling like sh*t, and looking down - only to see that you're moving at 13:00/km (regardless of how steep or technical the climb is). It's a different sport.

He's the one who entered the NYC Marathon in 2022 as a non-elite to say he won the amateur race, in spite of having a 2:10 PB? hahaha
Apparently he's not as good as he claims, 2:22 in NYC and 2:12 in Boston this year, non-flat marathons are not for him! So how on earth would he be good for trail running?
Another big mouth...

Mostly true. Many of my accomplised running friends relfect how good they would have been if they did trail races when they were younger. And, your statement does reflect a large portion of us road runners who find trail races less competitive, and much less stress.

Where did you get the information about saying that he entered the NYC amateur race to be able to claim that he won it? Doesn't match what he was saying on his podcast. To paraphrase he was basically saying that the Frankfurt marathon 7 days before NYC was his goal race, someone (IIRC his sponsor Puma?) came up with the idea of him doing NYC for publicity/marketing/whatever (pacer?) reasons, but NYC wouldn't let him into the Elite field anymore, that's why he was entered as amateur. He never stated any ambitions about running a good time or even winning the amateur race. He also said that of course NYC was one of his dream races so couldn't turn this chance down, even if not racing it.

I think you have to understand that he is a little bit like a german version of Yuki Kawauchi in his training approach. He does a lot of things besides just training, trains high milage, and likes to race often for training purposes and/or to challenge himself. Example: besides NYC and Frankfurt he raced three more marathons in 2022.

We can discuss whether racing often and under weird circumstances (Sierre-Zinal) is the best approach to optimise your marathon performance, but Pfeiffer doesn't do it to show off, he does it because he likes to challenge himself.

Disclaimer, I have never met Pfeiffer in person but I live in the same town as him, and he is very active in the local running community, especially in regards to establishing a local/regional (semi-)professional running group.

Sophia Laukli would very much disagree that you need to live in the alps to win alpine trail races.

Actually, you don't even need to train like a runner to win trail races. She trains like a XC skier and has won everything this year.

Just like Killian Jornet who barely runs at all during the winter and just skis.