Hello, on June 20th 2015, you’ll be organizing the mozart 100. Can you tell us where it is located?
mozart 100® takes place in Salzburg, Austria. Salzburg has one of the best-preserved city centers north of the Alps. Salzburg was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and tourists frequent the city not only for its historic center but also for the scenic Alpine surroundings.
And – as the name of the event mozart 100® says – Salzburg was the birthplace of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
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How old is the race and why was it created in the first place?
mozart 100® will take place for the fourth time on 20 June 2015. It is an event I created with my friend Micky. We are both passionate runners who have also finished several ultra run classics, such as the Marathon des Sables, Himalayan Stage Race, Jungle Marathon and Rainforest Run. After all these great experiences we wanted to establish an international ultra running event in our home country.
What kind of route have you set up for the runners? How would you describe it?
mozart 100® takes the participants from the city center of Salzburg through the great variety and beauty of the Sound of Music region. It guarantees a unique, unforgettable running experience through one of the most magnificent regions of Austria with its beautiful forests, meadows, hills, gorges, rivers and towns to the Fuschlsee Lake and back again.
50 % of the course is on country roads and 50 % on trails, which are not technical at all.
How many runners do you expect on Saturday morning? What type of runners do you plan to attract?
Overall we expect around 1.000 participants for all our races. Around 400 of them will be challenging the ultra events Scenic 100 (102,5 km) and Scenic 55 (56,2 km).
Our participants are both experienced ultra athletes and runners of every class respectively.
Do you organize other races during the weekend? If so, on what distances?
Participants can choose from four distances and seven competitions.
The supreme discipline of mozart 100® is the Scenic 100 (102,5 km) for individual athletes.
The Scenic 55 (56,2 km) is a suitable challenge for ultra novices. For those who gradually want to work towards those distances, the Scenic Light (25,6 km), the smart® City Trail (11,5 km) or the three different team competitions offer an equally impressive experience.
At that time of the year, what kind of weather can we expect?
In the past years we had moderate early summer weather, ranging from sunny to overcast, little wind and temperatures around 20 to 25 degrees Celsius (70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit) in the daytime.
Have you planned festivities around the race?
The start and finishing area is on Residenzplatz Square in front of Salzburg’s main cathedral. There will be DJ’s and a music program all day long and our catering partners will offer drinks and food all day long. Along the course people will cheer and support runners from morning until 10 p.m. which is the closure of the finish line.
The race finished, what advice would you give a runner who has never been to Salzburg before? A good restaurant, a fancy sightseeing?
There are so many great places and sights in Salzburg. For our participants we offer travel advice and several packages that include several highlights not to be missed in Salzburg.
In a single sentence, what would you tell the readers of ahotu Marathons to make them register for the mozart 100?
One of our participants put it that way: “mozart 100® – a new star in the running sky!”
Until three years ago Josef worked as managing partner of a big advertising agency. In 2012 he invented mozart 100® and quit his professional career in order to pursue his passion of ultra running.
His aspiration for the event is to become an institution in the ultra running universe. He is married to Elisabeth and they have a three-year-old son called Maximilian.
Apart from running, he enjoys golf, skiing and literature.
