Running Festival 2022 – Come healthy to the start!

The running festival in the city of Mozart sends out health-promoting impulses. You too can benefit from it. The prerequisite is that you are healthy at the starting line. If you have any doubts, please consult the sports doctor you trust or let the Salzburg marathon doctor, Dr. Check Holger Förster.

For some time now, we have been feeling the uncertainty of runners who have been diagnosed with a COVID-19 infection over the past few weeks and months. You interrupted your preparations for the running festival in the city of Mozart. As with any other illness in preparation for a competition, special caution is advisable here. Whoever is at the starting line on the weekend of May 13th to 15th should not do so if his or her body cannot withstand top performance. “Even without health problems, a marathon or a half-marathon that is not optimally prepared is a huge burden,” says Dr. Holger Förster, Head of Medical Services at the Running Festival in the City of Mozart. The most important piece of advice: listen to your body's signals intensively and honestly with yourself.

"Less can be more in this case!"

The decision to participate in the run is an individual one. It is possible with complete honesty towards oneself and in consultation with a doctor, for example in the form of an ECG load during a sports medical examination. “When in doubt, I recommend not taking any risks and switching to a shorter distance. Less can be more in this case!” advises the specialist in paediatrics and sports medicine. Förster, himself a keen runner, will be available to answer questions immediately on the weekend of the running festival as head of the event's medical service during the opening hours of the SportMall in the Eisarena Volksgarten.

The insidious thing about a COVID-19 infection is that the virus can remain in the body for weeks, even if the course of the disease is mild, and if the stress is high, it can cause health problems that impede performance. Förster emphasizes that this applies to adults as well as to minors. In young people, however, the probability of unrecognized previous illnesses or damage to the heart muscle, which in combination could have an aggravating effect, is significantly lower.

Before the start of a competition, back to everyday training!

The Salzburg doctor does not want to give a general recommendation to not start if an infection is close in time. The physical recovery from an infection depends heavily on the symptoms. If the test was positive without any symptoms beforehand, there would be nothing to be said against starting a competition if you felt good about your body. “It is important to first get back into everyday training after the quarantine and only then to take part in a competition. I strongly advise against starting a competition directly from the quarantine,” says Förster. If an infection has progressed with a slight fever or respiratory symptoms, caution is required and a doctor's consultation is sensible.

Listen to your body's signals

Even before the pandemic, running organizers were specifically pointing out that only those in the best of health should start. Johannes Langer, organizer of the running festival in the city of Mozart and has been a running trainer for almost four decades, complains that there are still no clear findings from a scientific point of view: "We definitely lack a stable, scientific basis, such as with exercising after a corona virus -Disease is to be avoided." He therefore recommends: "Caution and patience are required. After all, it's not about Olympic medals, but ultimately about your own health. From experience, which also applies to other diseases, the resting heart rate is a very useful parameter. If this is back to the level before the illness, the resilience should normalize again. The same applies to the stress of comparable endurance runs.” Langer can also see something positive in the current situation. The awareness of listening to the body, taking its signals seriously and playing it safe when in doubt is more widespread and more perceptible. Nevertheless, these signals are to be understood as orientation. "The best security is only a medical check," he expressly points out.

The current recommendations from the health sector are to resume normal sporting activities about three weeks after full recovery from an infection. (see graphic below from Swiss Olympics, source: NZZ online, 04/12/2022)

Special offer for infection in the last 21 days

If you took out insurance when you registered, you can request a refund of the entry fee upon presentation of a medical certificate 80% - by the way, not only in the case of COVID-19, but also in the case of other health problems. Due to the high COVID-19 infection reporting rates in recent weeks and months, Langer and his team have put together a special offer for everyone else, which is expressly only valid this year and only in the event of an officially confirmed COVID-19 infection.

If you do not take up your starting place at this year's event for health reasons because you had a proven COVID-19 infection within the last 21 days before the start of the competition, your entry fee will not be forfeited in full. Contact the Office of the Running Festival in the City of Mozart and enclose your official certificate of recovery. For a processing fee of 25 euros, you will automatically receive a starting place at the 2023 Mozart City Running Festival. Of course, this offer is linked to a competition.

Running festival 2022 - better caution than risk!

The Salzburg Marathon team wishes you all the best and good health as you prepare for the Salzburg running weekend. "Please listen to your body's signals," is the advice from Dr. Holger Forster.