Toxic altitude and happy faces

Biting cold wind, rain showers and, depending on the competition, up to 415 toxic meters in altitude could not stop around 500 participants from giving their best on the Blasestein Trail on Sunday. For the third time, the Lower Mühlviertel was the venue for this charity run for children suffering from chronic rheumatism. The majority of runners had registered for the “Fun Trail” over 5 kilometers and 165 meters in altitude. A large crowd also poured onto the route during the “Walk Trail”. Only the fittest dared to complete the full trail distance of 11.8 kilometers around the Blasestein – including the infamous final climb on the mountain path.

The groups with the largest number of participants were the Askö St. Georgen am Walde among the clubs and the St. Georgen am Walde middle school among the schools. This year’s winner of the Blasestein Trail also comes from St. Georgen – but the one on the Gusen: Christian Slawiczek repeated his victory from the previous year in a confident manner. And he also improved his winning time by a full 40 seconds to 48:36 minutes, even though the route was significantly more slippery due to the rain and therefore actually slower than last year. “I really wanted to be faster than a year ago. That’s why I noted a few points on the route to which I based my split times,” said Slawiczek at the finish.

Karin Formanek, chairwoman of the “Rheumalis” club, was already impressed by the financial result of the run – more than 30,000 euros last year – even before the start: “This run is the reason why we are having a fixed event for the first time in our club’s history “Be able to create a budget for the care of our children and families.” With the donations from the Blasestein Trail, a medically supervised therapy week can be carried out for children with chronic rheumatism during the summer holidays. For this purpose, the weeks of effort are definitely worth it, emphasized Hermann Puchberger, chairman of the St. Thomas am Blasestein sports union: “You just have to look around and you actually get new energy with every second.” It is already clear: there will be a bladder stone trail again in 2025. Exactly on World Rheumatism Day, October 12, 2025.