ATHLETE PORTRAIT・REPORTAGE
MICHAELA PILAT — ATHLETE
About Michaela, her training and the WMTRC 2023.
Born on February 23, 1992, Michaela, who lives in Upper Austria together with her daughter and her husband, aims for a life she truly enjoys. She loves to run and compete with other runners. At first, she participated in races on the street but since the COVID-19 pandemic stopped all of those events, she started to train and participated in trail running competitions which luckily mostly took place during the pandemic.
Even though she lives in a place where there are no mountains, but smaller hills, she really tries to make the most out of it. She said: “If you really want to, you can gain enough altitude in your training without any real mountains. Often this means, running up and down the same hill several times within one training session.”
Still quite regular, she trains in the regions of Salzburg and Styria to get used to the higher altitude and often more technical terrain.
Based on her strong results, she was nominated to be in the team Austria for the second World Mountain and Trail Running Championship (WMTRC) 2023 in Innsbruck and Stubai, Austria.
Training in Maria Alm, Thomas Bosnjak and the Hochkönigman.
Before Michaela started at the WMTRC in June 2023, I documented a training session of her in Maria Alm. It was at the end of May when she helped to mark the course for the Hochkönigman race. Normally she would have started here, but because of the WMTRC, which started just a few days later, that was not possible this year.
When she started participating in trail running events, she focused on long distances (80 km and longer). The results were great, but it was her coach Thomas Bosnjak who stopped and recommended her to focus on the marathon distances (usually 40 to 50 km). In his career as a professional runner and coach, he has seen many young athletes who were not able to run at a high level for many years when they started to regularly participate in long distance races too early. It’s very stressful for the body and many burn out.
Thomas is the organizer of several trail running events, including the Hochkönigman. For Michaela’s career in trail running he plays a big role, and she is very happy that he supports her.
“If you really want to, you can gain enough altitude in your training without any real mountains.”
Michaela Pilat
Trail Short at WMTRC 2023 and support of her family and friends.
It was the 8th of June 2023 when the Trail Short took place as port of the WMTRC. The start was in the city of Innsbruck and all athletes were here to show their best performance.
Until the finish line in the Stubai valley, 45.2 km, +3.132 m and -2,719 m of elevation lay ahead of the athletes.
Before the start I placed myself in the warm-up area of the athletes. Michaela was nervous and excited at the same time. Her family and some friends were there cheering her on before the race started.
On Michaela’s arms and feet, her daughter drew some lucky charms to accompany her throughout the race. When I saw this, I got goosebumps!
9 AM. Finally the race started and from the beginning everything went well for Michaela. She was able to take over some runners and find a good group to run with.
On the trail, you could almost always see how much Michaela enjoyed running. When I caught her on the trail, she smiled at me every single time.
On the final descent to Neustift in the Stubai valley, she showed how much she enjoys running downhill and was even able to overtake some runners after being on her feet for over 5 hours.
Great result and many emotions.
It was almost 3 PM when Michaela arrived in Neustift. She crossed the finish line as the 48th woman. 5 hours, 54 minutes and 28 seconds. Her fans cheered for her and celebrated the great result.
It was very emotional to see her friends and family congratulating her.
You can be proud. We definitely are!
