Race Report - 2018 Jungfrau Marathon

The Jungfrau Marathon concluded my "3 mountain races in 2 weeks" adventure in the Alps. In the process, I raced +160 miles and climbed +51,000 feet in 3 countries (Switzerland, France and Italy) and across and around some of the most beautiful landscapes and mountains, including the Matterhorn, Mont Blanc, Eiger, Jungfrau and Mönch, to name the most prominent ones. At the conclusion of my trip to Europe, I had actually had the opportunity to run in a total of 6 countries, including Spain, Germany and Austria.

I arrived in Interlaken, Switzerland via rental car from Zurich airport after a few days of work in Barcelona, Spain. I had only run once while in Barcelona as I was still recovering from UTMB the previous weekend. To be honest, I had no ambitions for the Jungfrau Marathon. I was here to complete another bucket list race and not knowing how my legs would handle it, I just wanted to enjoy it.

The Jungfrau Marathon is widely known as the world's most scenic marathon, so it was no surprise that nearly 5000 registered runners from across the globe showed up the day before the race to pick up their race bibs. There was a decent sized expo in the center of town right next to the race start. The area had already been widely blocked off as I quickly realized when I tried to drive to packet pickup. I had to park my car a few blocks from packet pickup, which allowed my to take a relaxing stroll to familiarize myself with this beautiful town.

I picked up my race packet and enjoyed a free pre-race pasta dinner before checking out the expo and heading back to my rented room. Luckily, I had found a room a 5 minute walk from the race start, but that's about the only good thing I can say about my accommodations. I had ended up with a couple of rather questionable accommodations during my 4 week travels in Europe and this was definitely one of them, but that's for a different conversation. Eventually, I managed to get a decent night's sleep before the 8:30AM mass start the next morning.

Interestingly enough, this race actually provided pacers starting with 4:30 hour goal times in 30 min increments to 6 hours, if memory serves right. I say interestingly, because this race is not like any other marathon I've ever run. For starters, it begins on paved roads and ends on technical trails. More importantly, it is a point to point, all uphill race that continuously increases in steepness all the way to the finish. All that to say that is is extremely challenging to pace towards a particular finishing time under these circumstances.

To help runners pan their race, organizers recommend they add 90 minutes to their most recent marathon times to come up with a finishing time estimate. Since I hadn't run a marathon in some time, I decided to take my marathon PR and add 90 minutes to that for a "goal" time. I lied up next to the 4:30 hour pacer and figured I'd run by feel and use the pacer as a guide. If it felt too difficult, I'd just drop back. I had no plans other than to start slow and see how I felt.

When the race finally started, after a performance of a large group fo Alpenhorn players, I ran completely by feel and immediately lost sight of the 4:30 pacer. In fact, I had no idea if he was ahead or behind me. I didn't realize that he was actually behind me until about mile 12, when an on course announcer I had just passed welcomed the 4:30 pacer along with the crowd of spectators. Prior to that realization, I had actually peeked down at watch when it had vibrated to indicate another mile split. I was surprised to see a pace way faster than I would have expected or hoped. I quickly decided to ignore it and just continue to run by feel. If it felt easy, I was pk with it and if I would start to suffer later, I'd just slow down. The only goal was to finish and to enjoy the journey. For now, I was doing just that.

Around mile 16, I fell in with the 4:30 pacer and we chatted for a bit as we climbed the first of two extremely steep sections on the course. I stuck with him until about mile 20 or 21 and since I was feeling pretty good at that time, I decided to start pushing a little. With les than a 10K to go, I saw no reason to try to preserve any more energy. I was feeling surprisingly good considering the last 2 weeks and with this one being the last in my "race series" I wanted to push at least a little.

Just as I decided to pick up my pace, the course got a little steeper again. I changed to a run walk strategy, letting my heart rate be my guide as we made our way up the final miles to the finish at the Kleine Scheidegg. In the process, I passed quite a few runners. I had a blast. I was feeling great, but the push to the finish did turn into a laborious effort. One only needed to lift his or her head and the views of Eiger, Jungfrau and Mönch mountains and their glacier moraines to forget all about any potential pains. I was only disappointed because my iPhone camera would not allow me to take any pictures until after I reached the finish line. In fact, all pictures in this race report are from the finish line area, since my iPhone would not unlock due to its screen being too wet.

I crossed the finish line 10 minutes ahead of the 4:30 pacer and was happy with both my time and my effort. I ended up spending another couple of hours at the finish line, where runners were served free (non-alcoholic) draft beer and lots of awesome food choices were available for purchase. Along with plenty of food and drink, they had also set up the largest mobile shower station I had ever seen. An Oktoberfest sized tent had been set up as a changing room along with another giant tent that offered nearly 100 showers. I was able to take a long hot shower before taking the 1 hour train ride down the mountain via Grindelwald and back to Interlaken.

Race Report - 2018 Matterhorn Ultraks 50K Sky Race

Glacier view from Gornergrat.

I had registered for this race or the past 3 years, never actually making it to the start line in Zermatt, Switzerland. The Matterhorn Ultraks had been on my bucket list of must do mountain races for a very long time and this year, it just lined up perfectly, well, kind of. It fell on the weekend before my second UTMB, but since my training ramp up hadn't been what it used to be in the past when prepping for 100 mile races in the mountains, I figured I could kill 2 birds with one stone. Check a race of my bucket list AND use it as the final tuneup/long run before UTMB. I know I know, its probably too close to the actual goal race, but I found that I don't do well with long tapers. I prefer "crash tapers", one week of basically no running or maybe a single shakeout run prior to the goal race, so this would fit in with that approach.

Waterfall on the course.

I had recruited my brother Andy to join me as crew for UTMB, so I figured why not have him join me the weekend prior to hang out in Zermatt before during and after the race before we'd make the drive over to Chamonix, France for UTMB the following Monday. We both arrived in Zurich on Thursday evening and after a couple of near major screwups including a missed train and a screwed up rental car reservation, we eventually got into a rental car on made the 3 hour drive from Zurich to Zermatt. 

Clouds moving in quickly over the glaciers.

However, the travel adventure wasn't quite over yet, as we realized that what I initially suspected to be a toll road was actually a car train, i.e. the only way to get to our final destination without backtracking for a couple of hours. It ended up being quite the experience, albeit another somewhat expensive lesson learned to go along with the missed train and uber expensive car rental adjustment.  

Clouds accompanied us for much of the race, especially at the higher altitudes.

Thankfully, we finally made it to Täsch, the final stop before boarding the train to Zermatt, which is the only mode of transportation available to visitors. Zermatt is a nearly automobile free zone. While some locals are allowed motorized vehicles, taxis, shuttles, etc. are all electric and visitors may only travel to Zermatt by train. It is an ingenious idea and the only drawback is the inability to hear taxis and shuttles as they buzz past you on the narrow pathways of Zermatt:-)

I had booked a small one room apartment via Booking.com at a very reasonable rate just a few minutes walk from the center of Zermatt and the race start. Similar to Chamonix during UTMB week, Zermatt was abuzz with runners and their friends and families for the various races during the weekend. One important thing to note his the high cost of living in Switzerland, so I was glad to see that our small one room apartment with a balcony and an amazing view of the Matterhorn also had a small kitchenette, allowing us to prepare a few meals rather than eat out. The trip had already gotten more expensive than originally planned due to the traveling fiascos, so any additional savings were welcome on my part.

One can never have too many pictures of glaciers.

We checked into our room and went straight to the center of town, where the start and finish area for all races was located along with a massive tent and a small race expo. There were quite a few events taking place around the race itself, but I was trying to keep it simple and just pick up my race bib, get some groceries for dinner and call it a night. A 7AM race start just 10 minutes from our hotel meant a full night's sleep. 

The weather forecast was iffy at best, predicting rain for much of the afternoon. That would likely mean pure visibility all day and probably no views of the actual Matterhorn peak at all. Bummer, but I reminded myself that just running in this area would be rewarding enough. Ultimately, the weather didn't quite move in as originally predicted, so I did manage to get juuuust a few decent pictures of this amazing race course. 

One of the many ridge lines runners would cross.

 As has been the case in a few of the more spectacular European races I have been able to run, I was able to connect with Bryan McClure, who is currently living and working near Frankfurt, Germany and who lived in Huntsville, Alabama near our local "mountain" prior to moving there. Kind of ironic, me, the German living in the US and he, the American, living in Germany. Anyway, we make a point of trying to connect at races whenever our schedules allow and this was one of those events. 

 We had discussed our race plans and as had been the case at Zugspitz-Ultratrail last year, I wanted to run with him for at least the first half of the race and see what happens. Unfortunately, Bryan ended up with some issues very early in the race, so I ended up running pretty much solo for most of the race except the final 10K. I am happy to say that Bryan was able to finish the race overcoming some issues along the way.

Majestic Matterhorn peak.

My plan had been simple. Run this amazing course at a reasonably easy pace early on, keep the heart rate low, take lots of pictures if possible and pick up the pace later on if I felt good. After all, there was no point in pushing the pace in a race with 12,000ft of vert over 50km, when I still had a 100 miler with 33,000ft of vert ahead of me for the following weekend. I kept a steady pace and felt good pretty much all day. Thankfully, altitude was not an issue for me either.

One of the race checkpoints below.

The miles kept ticking away quickly as I took in the scenery. Unbeknownst to me, I was slowly passing people throughout the day. The race tracking app would provide great detail of how the race went for me on paper and it was really neat to see that after the race. I had zero ambition other than finishing the race feeling good, so that was my only focus. I kept checking in with myself. How are my legs? Quads, calves? How are my feet? Any hotspots? Everything went near perfectly and I didn't even feel like I was in a race until the final 10K, when I would start to feel the effort of the day jsut a bit.

Massive waterfall along the race course.

 Without going into too much detail about the race course and the profile, I identified 6 climbs on the course. 2 extremely long climbs and 4 slightly less severe climbs. All of them put together make for a very challenging 50K race. Some of the highlights of the race include Gornergrat, a hanging bridge, a massive waterfall and, of course, spectacular views of majestic Matterhorn. Yes, the peak revealed itself just long enough (just a few minutes, in fact) to allow me a few pictures. However, the most impressive feature along the course were the glaciers visible to our left as we crossed the Gornergrat. I could not stop taking pictures, it was so spectacular.

Beautiful blue lake just below Gornergrat.

 As expected, the course kept delivering, both in challenging terrain with barely a flat section to be found and with the views, one better than the last one. While I worked my ay through the course, I came across yet another friend from the trails, Oliver Schmidt, a fellow German from Hamburg near my hometown of Flensburg, whom I'd met a couple of years earlier as we both suffered through the final stages of a similarly challenging 50K in the South of Switzerland, the Scenic Trail 50K, taking both of us much longer than expected, mostly due to unexpectedly hot temps. Anyway, it was great to see another friend on the course. Unfortunately, we only saw each other briefly in passing as he was helping a friend finish her very first 50K. Thankfully, they both succeeded as well.

During the final 10K, I fell in with another German, born in Hamburg, but living in Amsterdam for most of his life, Leonard Faeustle. We ended up running about the same pace and decided to just run it in together, chatting the entire way as we made the final long descent to the finish line. We crossed the finish line together and I was glad to see that my brother Andy had managed to track me during the race to be there to see me finish. Looking at the splits and the overall results later on, it looked like I had actually stuck to a good plan, starting fairly slow and picking up the pace ever so slightly.

 I had recovered enough on the following day to make a recovery hike up to Matterhorn basecamp, the Hörnli Hut, where climbers spend the night before making their climb up to the peak. This race was everything I had hoped it would be and I cannot recommend it highly enough. 

  

Cool suspension bridge high above the valley below.

What are you looking at?

  

  

View from the center of the suspension bridge.

View showing the steepness of the terrain.

Observatory atop Gornergrat overlooking Matterhorn.

    

Smiling above the clouds.

Obligatory selfie of Bryan and I before the race start.

Leonard and I finishing the race, smiling from ear to ear.

Race Report - 2017 Scenic Trail 54K

Alpenhorn players at the top of one of the early climbs, simply amazing!

A business trip to Europe had aligned in a way that I was able to sign up for a race just a three hour drive from my work in St. Gallen, in the quaint town of Tesserete in the south of Switzerland right near the border to Italy. I had registered for the Scenic Trail 54K, featuring +12,000 feet of vertical gain and part of a weekend of five trail races ranging from a Vertical K to 113K. The 54K course takes runners on a loop along the ridge line of the mountains surrounding the villages near lake Como and lake Lugano. Along the way, runners take on some serious climbs and are provided with some spectacular views.