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| Jungfrau mountain in the backdrop of the finish line |
Sometime ago in my first few months living in Switzerland while I was still pregnant I heard about the Jungfrau Marathon and decided I was going to do it while we lived there. So I meticulously put dates on the calendar, made sure I didn't miss the registration as the entries were very limited (only 4,000 as the course is very narrow in places), and then it seemed destined to happen as our calendar perfectly aligned so it would fall on our last weekend in Switzerland before moving home. While I planned meticulously to make sure I had a race entry, my training plans were not quite so meticulous. Life happened this summer and we traveled A LOT. My visions of day trips on the weekends so I could spend time running up the sides of mountains while Steve and Emma went for leisurely strolls didn't quite pan out. Oh well, I trained, not my best, but I trained for a marathon and did a little altitude and incline work and prayed it would be enough.
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| For those running nerds... a map of the course |
So with a little less sleep than ideal I headed out the door on Saturday morning and made the half mile walk to the start area where luckily I only had a little time to get nervous as I watched all the Swiss "mountain men" performing their warm-up regiments. It was clear that this was far from an average race field with the majority of the participants being 40-50 year old men. But before I knew it I was lined up amongst them waiting for the Alphorns to play and sound the start of the race.
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| My little cheerleader getting her run on near the start |
The chatter of fellow runners quieted down as we started a "relatively" small ascent leading into Lauterbrunnen Valley. While running in this beautiful valley was one of my favorite sections of the course, it also signaled the end of our flat running as we neared the 25 km mark (about 15 miles) and we started a very steep zig zag ascent towards the town of Wengen. This is where the real race began...
Most all of the runners (at least those near my pace) slowed to a walk (albeit a quick one) in this section as in less than 3 miles we ascended nearly 1800 feet. The race quickly became a game of efficiency and pacing yourself (if it wasn't already). And while it might have been easy to stereotype the runners at the start of the race based on shape, size and age it became apparent that none of that applied any longer unless you only looked at the size of your neighbor's quadriceps, and even that was deceiving. Just when I thought I was keeping a good pace I would get passed by a 60 year old man. And to make matters worse the kilometer marker signs were replaced by signs every 250 meters simply because it took you so long to go just a few hundred meters. It quickly seemed to become painfully slow as the progress being made seemed less and less.
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| Views from Wengen of the Lauterbrunnen Valley below |
Thankfully, there was a short reprieve once we made it to the town of Wengen. There were plenty of stops for water and a whole gamut of energy foods (certainly a well organized race to plan how to get these resources out across the course, but once again it spoke to Swiss efficiency) as we leveled off for short spurts here and there and the fan support was simply phenomenal. I was able to run at a good clip for a mile or so and got to quickly see my cheerleaders yet again (this was the 4th time!).
I'm glad I soaked up as much of that crowd energy as possible because from there on out for the remaining 7 or 8 miles the going was tough. There were very limited areas of accessibility for fans and it seemed little to no flat sections longer than 100 meters remained on the course with the exception of the last kilometer. And as badly as I wanted to run (or do anything other than a fast walk or very slow jog) I found that when I ran on those short flat sections I could hardly catch my breath between the thinning air and the grueling course. In the 12 marathons I had run previous to this race there had been a time or two where I have walked part of the course, but there has never before been a time where I so badly wanted to straight out stop. Quads burning, my lower back screaming, and my arms seemingly carrying 50 pound weights, I had to do everything I could at times just to bend over with my hands on my quads and continue to trudge uphill.
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| Little ants on a ridge |
However, just when the going got really tough we would come to an opening in the trees and see tremendous views of the valley below us and the daunting faces of some of the world's most famous mountains, the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau looming above us. I remembered then why I was putting my body through such torture. The last few kilometers I continued to drag myself up along the only true "trail section" of the course with rocks underfoot and narrow paths. While it was difficult to capture a good photo, Steve said the runners looked like a trail of small ants moving along a narrow ridge. At least one good thing I could think of towards the end of the race was that we truly could not have asked for better weather as it was still close to 50 degrees by the time we reached our highest point of the race at nearly 7,000 feet. With the warm weather the runners were greeted several times by the sound of avalanches in the nearby peaks (but we were still quite far from harm's way).
To my surprise for about two kilometers near the end of the race the course actually split, with runners going on two different paths before meeting back up. At first I was extremely confused as I came upon the division, but then I understood why as there would have been a very heavy bottleneck if everyone went on the same path. By the time we joined back together there actually were still a few spots were you literally had to stand and wait for a few seconds unless you really wanted to go off the path and climb a few rocks back on (which some anxious runners did). While I at first felt frustrated by this scenario and wondered why they let as many runners compete if this were the case, I realized it might not have been the worst thing for me. If I would not have had runners breathing down my back I likely would have stopped as several times I felt like I could not lift my legs one step further up. Of course it was along this segment where the backdrop was absolutely stunning that they had several photographers snapping runners' photos. While I don't typically find myself caring too much or going out of my way to smile for a photographer I found myself using every ounce of effort to do so here. And perhaps this is one of my favorite images from that day... I think the look on the man's face in front of me says it all.
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| Trying to look happy! |
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| There I am behind the bride! |
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| At least one of us looked happy! |
I was ecstatic to finish in 5 hours and 35 minutes. Leading up to it I had feared the worst of getting swept up by the trailing vehicle that signaled the 6 hours and 30 minutes race cut-off time, but instead I crushed that time. I was right on pace with the 1.5 to 2 hours longer than an average marathon they told me to expect it to take me to finish. And don't tell Steve, but I even beat his regular marathon time (oh c'mon my husband will be the first to tell you I did and even laugh about it).
Certainly the greatest part of the day was crossing that finish line and finding my family and friends waiting there for me. Emma was such a trooper all day despite feeling less than stellar and I wanted nothing else but to hold her and lucky for me she literally jumped into my arms when I saw her. Somehow I still found the energy to carry her the entire way through the finishers chute despite my earlier desire to amputate my arms around mile 23.
Not only was it a long day for me, but it was quite a lot of work for my support crew as well to hop on and off trains to spot me at various locations along the course and make their way all way up to the finish line. We were all happy to spend some time celebrating at one of the restaurants near the finish at Kleine Scheidegg. And from there Mike, Mel, and Lenny headed back to Zurich for the evening, but Steve, Emma and I had reserved a hotel in the town of Wengen and enjoyed soaking up one last night in the Alps.
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| Thanks guys! Lennon (our friend's dog) was maybe the most important fan of the day... in charge of keeping Emma happy! |
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| Love this pic Steve caught of our friends taking in the scenery near the finish line |
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| A happy finisher in front of Eiger's North Face |
I have no idea how the winners ran the whole course (and in case you're wondering I believe it was the first time a Kenyan ever won). But I'm pretty happy just finishing in the top half of the females, in a race dominated by males (over 70%). I did it. I finished.
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| One last Swiss family photo! |
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