team inov-8s Morgan Donnelly finishes 11th at the 2009 World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships

The World Mountain Running Association (WMRA) had chosen the Kaisermarathon (42.2km with 1,900m of ascent) to be the 2009 World Long Distance Mountain Running Championship.



Teams from all around the world pitched up for the race including separate teams from England, Scotland and Wales and I lucky enough to be a member of the England team.

The race itself has two disctinct sections with the 1st being flat (lightly undulating) road race, almost all on Tarmac and second section the race takes in two big hills giving approximately 1,900m of total ascent and 700m descent. The race finishes at the top of an 1829m hill adjacent to Austria highest church!

Jon Duncan (also Team England and World Orienteering Champion) & I almost caught Ricky Lightfoot (Team England) up towards the end of the 1st climb, but he spotted us and that seemed to wake him up significantly given that he then finished 3rd!. I started to go to pieces on the top of the first climb (after we bizarrely had to run through a restaurant/bar?!) and almost thought I would not make it to the finish. However I managed to keep going and then actually made some progress on the 2nd climb!

The atmosphere was fantastic with lots of folks out supporting us runners, whilst ringing their cow bells or just jumping up and down shouting. The noise from the spectators along the last 200m was deafening. The England team was second team.


This was my first attempt at this type of race, which appears to be a popular format in the Alps.

I was 11th and fellow team inov-8 runner Jethro Lennox was 10th

Full results here

World Long Distance Mountain Running Championship returns in 2010 taking place at Poiks Peak in Colrado USA.