How time flies! Five years ago, the idea was born to organise a stage race across the Alps which finally was tackled by almost 100 teams in 2005. In 2009, the first small jubilee of the GORE-TEX® Transalpine-Run, which already enjoys a cult status reputation in the running scene despite its short time of existence, is on the agenda. Next autumn, the fifth anniversary will be celebrated on the Western route from Oberstdorf (GER) to Latsch (ITA) from September 5^th to 12^th.

The prestige of this hard-running challenge retracing Hannibal’s footsteps mainly bases on two facts: for one thing, the routing with its almost 240 kilometres in distance and about 14,000 metres of elevation gain to be covered in seven stages and one mountain sprint speaks volumes. For another thing, the attendance figures were consistently going up since the debut of the run from Germany to Italy across the Alpine divide. In September 2005, 93 teams of two were ready for this first; one year later 111 pairings had trained hard in order to manage this exhausting running event. 41 more teams entered the third edition last year before the 2008 Transalpine-Run, which was held for the first time on the Eastern route from Ruhpolding (GER) to Sexten (ITA), narrowly missed the “sold-out” status. 241 of possible 250 pairings had applied to start.