He is and remains simply the most colorful flower in the Marchfel of the sports world: Rainer Predl. The 32-year-old Lasseer added another chapter of success to his extraordinary vita – in a place where normally no flowers grow. On Saturday he won the Mojave Desert Run, a 100-kilometer run in the desert between Nevada and California.
“I just love it hot,” grinned Predl, who won the 2014 Sahara marathon in Algeria and is a fan of running in the heat. In the end, the Marchfelder needed nine hours and 46 seconds, defying the 1,700 meters in altitude, the extreme wind and the so-called dust devils, small, narrowly defined whirlwinds. At the end of the day, it was actually still pleasant, because on the day of the race it was “only” just over 30 degrees – instead of the usual 40 or 50!
Predl’s dilemma: headache or stomach ache?
Still, it was one of the toughest runs of Predl’s life, and that also had to do with the issue of food intake. “I was kind of caught in a vicious circle. If I drank too little, I got a headache, if I drank too much, then a stomach ache. Finding the right mix is the great art.” However, Lasseer seems to have found it, because apart from that he was not distracted by many other things and ultimately won the competition.
“I didn’t really expect it, but I did notice that the others weren’t quite as quick,” reported Predl. It wasn’t easy to judge this, because in addition to the 100-kilometer run, there was also a normal marathon and a 50-mile run. However, two things fascinated and preoccupied Predl on the route: “First of all, there were an incredible number of rabbits there, I have no idea why. And secondly, we also found shell casings in the middle of the route. I would say typically America.”
After the race and the award ceremony, Predl and his girlfriend enjoyed a few more days in Las Vegas before boarding the plane back to Austria. And was he as lucky at the casino tables or slots as he was on the track? “I only played for 20 euros (laughs).”
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