The Jungfrau marathon ... or .... running uphill for 42 km.

In addition to the traumatic experience that we had this weekend (you can read about it hear) I also ran the Jungfrau marathon in Berner Oberland on Saturday. The idea was born last year with a friend who also wanted to run, but who wasn't able to make it in 2017. So I entered on my own in February and decided I would give it the big stick.

My preparation over the last few months has not been optimal unfortunately with some health issues and a performance problem that I can't just seem to lay my hands on. I've run a few mountain races in 2017 and have been experimenting with ways to train hills differently. To be honest, at the start of the race I wasn't sure how it would work out. The new training required a lot of hiking carrying 10 - 13 kgs of extra weight - I tried to do at least 1 hike a week. My gut feel was that it really was paying off, but I wasn't sure.

The race day came and I must say I was worried about the weather, as they were talking about the snow fall border being at about 1800m, which would have meant at least 6 to 8 km of running in falling snow and slippery paths. Cool and wet. Thus I hatched a brillant plan to do a shoe change at KM 25 (before the hill) and also take some some extra clothes. The extra clothes worked out well, the shoe change was a bad move. More about that latter.

Regardsless of how I thought my training had gone, I know that I would have trained a lot harder than most people there, so lining up on the start I was feeling comfortable. We had start blocks of 1000 people, and since I had guestimated for finishing time of 4hr 10, I was in block one. After only just 1 km I was a bit worried, I was almost last (from the 1000) and then I had to make a quick pitstop, pushing me almost to the very end of my start group. I wasn't really concerned though and kept my 4:45 min pace going. I was feeling good and at the first uphill, which comes after 10km, I realised just how good my hill training had being, as I overtook hundreds of runners on that hill alone.

I didn't slow, I just keep the pace, and more and more started to slip past me. I was feeling ok, no pains, all in the green. After the first 10 km I was about 750th and by the time we got to 15 km I was already under the top 500.

I met Christine at 25 km and did the planed pit-stop. I'll admit now that changing the shoes was not such a good idea. I was quickly back into the race and refusing to walk to Wengen (the 2nd steepest part of the course) I picked up more places while keeping the pace steady. At this stage I was still not thinking about times, but as I went through 30 km almost 12 minutes ahead of my plan the first thought popped into my head about a sub 4 hr. Now I had already put this thought out of my head before the race started, but the spirit is willing and the body seemed to be ok......

Ok I thought, I need 12 kms in about 84 mins - so 7 min a km. The race was on, I kept up the pressure and amazingly it started to happen. 10 km in 72 min, 9 km in 63 min, 8 km in 54 (whoops), then it got better until 4km in 27 min.

But had I missed something? ....duh.... of course I had.

Those last 4 km are the steepest on the course and are at 2000 m altitude. So the body was not reacting as well as I would like, and the shoe swap started to rear it's ugly head. The lack of padding in my trail shoes was causing a lot of jarring that had moved up from the calves into the ribs. Breathing was getting difficult and the legs were starting to cramp.

I tried to push on, but the writing was soon on the walls. It was not going to be a sub 4hr today. Maybe my guesstimate of 4hr 10? That would be a 6 min KM average. But those km's had it in them and I was only able to manage them in 42 minutes, almost 10 min per km. Additionally the pain was so bad, that even the slightest downhill hurt like hell. So once the last uphill was covered and I started the last km downhill into the finish, an acceleration was not possible.

I badgered on and saw the beautiful sight (a goddess so to speak) of Christine just ahead of me in the mist, so I knew I was close. 100 m further and I crossed the finish line. I had done it. My first marathon since early 1997 (yup 20 years), the first in Europe and all in 4 hr 16 min.

After completing the event, I was so cold I could hardly use my hands. We decided that it would not pay to hang around, so we headed onto the first train back down into Interlaken where the temperature was almost 12 degrees warmer.

On reflection it was a great run, I'm sure that if the weather is better then the race is even more spectacular. Looking at my splits I can see that I ran a good race with a constant progression.

Certain lessons where learned involving shoe changes (which I have never done before) and about making sure you know the course in it's entirety if you want to go for it. The gels got too much and I couldn't even finish the last one. Starting slow was a great idea...... and the hill training idea is a good one. I must try and ensure to use it better next year.

You can find my finisher video here.

...and for a few hours I was happy and fulfilled...