Jungfrau marathon Higher challenge (10.9.2005)

Before my first marathon I knew that there are two possibilities: either it is a once-in-lifetime experience and that's it, or I would get hooked. For about one month after St.Petersburg marathon I was just happy with the achievement and did not give much thought about running again. However, I felt that it was rather easy accomplishment after all. Physically it took some time to recover but it was not such a big deal considering all the hesitation and waffling over the years. In fact, I started to feel that it was actually too easy and marathon fever started to rise in my blood again. I also started to think about how fast I could have done it if had run faster already from the starting line. I started to believe that I could have done it in 3:30. I was hooked.

In August I started to search internet for other marathons and found many. I found information about world marathon majors consisting of the the five big marathons (Chicago, Berlin, Boston, London, New York) and many others. Berlin would be soon in autumn but it did not attract me even though I liked the city when visited in 1997. Instead, I was going to Italy for a ICIP conference in September, so I started to look for a good marathon during the previous or the following weekend around the conference dates. When I found the following link, I immediately knew I wanted to run this marathon next:


Just look at the people in the picture! These are not people who are going to sunday jogging, or would struggle to complete the 42 km in six and half hours. Instead, they look so determined and relaxed at the same time. Just like they were going to conquer a mountain without any doubts about reaching there and yet, you can sense the good spirit among the runners. And if you look the course profile below, there indeed is a mountain to be conquerred.


Then my usual struggles with the registration started. I first contacted the organizers for asking about travel packages and registration but they told me with pitying tone that I was way too late, and that all the packages were sold out and registration closed long ago! Déjà vu.

However, they hinted that I could try my changes and ask in the discussion forum if somebody was going to cancel and sell his registration. After one or two "you are late" replies I got lucky and found a person from whom I could buy the entry. He was very helpful and managed to transfer his registation into my name. I was very happy that this time I managed to get in the marathon I wanted. Only wild horses or a natural catastrophe could keep me away.

Bang! The natural catastrophe hit. It was told in the news that Switzerland was suffering from heavy rain and floods. They even show pictures from heavily flooding Interlaken, the town where my next marathon was supposed take place within a two and half weeks! One railway track was completely washed away, and houses were covered by water in many places. Not just minor spring flooding even in European scale. For about week I was in doubt but then I found info from the web page that the marathon will happen after all, although the course had to be modified and one of the two railway tracks up to the mountain had been collapsed and not operational. Finally, 10 days before the marathon I also managed to get accommodation in Motel Luna, 3 km away from the town. I was ready to go.


The marathon itself was wonderful and Interlaken was extremely idyllic town located between two lakes just next to the Alps mountains. The first 10 km went around the Interlaken village located 500 m above the sea level. The rest of the course was then uphill towards the Jungfrau mountain, which is said to be the "top of Europe". There were a lot of musicians, orchestras, brass bells, Alp thorns, accordion, and lots of cheerful people all the way along the road in the town and the atmosphere was really wonderful. Upper in the course live music was provided cowbells on the mountain meadows. Scenery was really beautiful even though the mountain tops could not be seen because of clouds.

In the beginning, I did not hurry to get to the start line and started among the last ones. In the early part the streets were rather crowded and I passed other runners although I was still taking it rather easily. Anyway, my goal was merely to complete the marathon without any specific time goal of anything. Although plenty of scenery along the road, the funniest sight appeared right after the course exited the village. There were dozens of (male) runners who have stopped next to the first field, standing there side by side facing towards the field. They were called by nature. :) Yeah, it was actually quite a good idea to visit toilet before the start.


Picture:Interlaken village.
I did not have too much time to enjoy the Alps and the mountain brooks as I was running but it was really beautiful trip. Maybe I was concentrating too much about by running and worrying about my body when my buttock gave some pain signals if I tried to go any faster. Otherwise everything went just fine though my intermediate time in 21 km (1:54) was about 15 minutes less that I was estimated for 3:30 pace. There few hills already by then and few minutes were spent in the traffic in the beginning because I did not want to go too early waiting in the starting area in the rush.

The uphill roads in the early part sorted the wheat from the chaf when others started to walk even when slightest ascent whereas I continued about the same pace anyway. At the 26-27 km were the first steep when the path twisted zig zag along the mountainside. At this point, nobody ran but it was a question who took the longest footstep along the steep. Even this was ok for me as it used different muscles and gave more rest to the thighs. Usually there were km markers about 1 or 2 km during the road, but during this steep, there were signs between every 250 meters or so - to motivate the runners (or should I say climbers) that they were doing some progress.


Picture:Running 21 km at Lauterbrunnen
Then after 30 km there were moderately difficult ascent and I think I walked too much. From this point I guess I had climbed in the ranking also closer to my level and did not pass many people anymore. Here a coach or motivator would have helped to say when to run and when to walk. Or simply just more guts to keep on running when the steep become slighter again. This part really required determination as it was almost all uphill, steeper or milder but going up, and as I did not know what more there would be - whether the course would become even more difficult than what it was now.

Somewhere after 33 km I started to count the kilometers "9 km more", "8 km more" and so on. During the last 2 km the course changed to a rocky mountain trail where one must look where to put the next footstep, and people were going in a line formation along the trail. At the deepest point it was better not to look down. The air also become thinner and I could feel it as slight dizziness. Last half kilometer was then a downhill spurt along a muddy and slippery slope, and amazingly, I could even make a good sprint for reach the finishing line.


Picture:Scenerey of the latter part of the course; taken from train window
The finish was at Kleine Scheidegg, about 2100 m above the sea level. The route did not continue all the way to Jungfrau mountain above 4000 m, which would have been too extreme for a marathon I guess. The air was somewhat thinner anyway but not yet a problem.

My final time was 4:53, which was 7 minutes faster than the estimated 5 hours, which was supposed to correspond to 3:30 marathon pace on a flat course. I guess I did the second half quite well and my splits were as before: slower in the early part and improving towards the end. I think the 20-30 km was my best split as in St.Petersburg, and somewhere around 35 km I started to have slight problems and was passed by other runners, when started to running out of energy and my buttock sending signals again to slow down.


The way back down to Interlaken town took 1 hour 30 minutes by standing (!) in a crowded mountain train with very slow speed. There were two train connections down but only one was operational because of the floods couple of weeks ago. In the village I then went to get my diploma and to see my ranking. The results then revealed the cold truth: my ranking was no better than 1119 out of 3643 runners, and about 400 out of 450 in Men 20-40 years series. Well, I guess the level of runners were much higher here than in St. Petersburg. But anyway, I did it.

In my dreams in a few weeks before the marathon, I had strongly passed other people during the last 2 km mountain trail just by taking lightweight and rabbit fast shortcuts along the slopes. Self-confidence is sometimes good thing but the reality was something else, and no rabbits were seen in the marathon day. :)

Also, no matter how difficult the marathon ever was, just one day and few beers later one can already do it again - at least in your mind - thinking about how much better you could do it by having better pace, personal coach, better physical condition, no complaining buttocks and so on.

There was indeed a big difference between the physical and mental side. Though my legs were heavy and walking was really difficult immediately after the marathon, mentally I felt great. I did not even considered the physical challenge been THAT big but just by looking at the pictures you can see that it was not just a normal sunday trip to nearby park. :)


Pictures from Jungfrau marathon web page