18^th Jungfrau Marathon 2010

Saturday, 11^th September 2010

Two years ago, I went on holiday to the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland (home of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau and resorts such as Interlaken, Grindelwald and Wengen), a region of the Alps that I had been wanting to see for a long time. I fell in love with the place. By pure coincidence whilst there, the 16^th Jungfrau Marathon was taking place. I watched with frustration wishing that I was running it. Luckily (?) at the time, I was injured anyway. The race starts in Interlaken (566m), then winds its way up through pretty Alpine villages along road, trail and mountain path and finally finishes at Kleine Scheidegg at the foot of the Eiger (2100m) with a total ascent of 1839m and 305m of descent. On returning from holiday, I kept dreaming how I could run it sometime.

Entry for the 4000 places for the Jungfrau Marathon is by ballot system in April. I never have a clue where I am up to and, since it is quite expensive to enter, I let the closing date for the last two years come and go. Then something quite bizarre happened. About the start of August, I received an emailed newsletter from the Jungfrau Marathon organization. (I don't remember registering my email address anywhere!!!) It mentioned how people unable to run could sell their numbers. I hadn't planned a holiday yet for the summer, still had a lot of annual leave to take and was running injury free. Perhaps I could buy somebody else's number. I went on the forum on the Jungfrau Marathon website. Lots of people were selling numbers. I watched the forum for a few days and also with just over 3 weeks to go before the marathon itself, I went over to the Yorkshire Dales and ran/walked the 3 Peaks fell race course to test whether I had the stamina to be able to do the distance and run up that much height on little training. With that successfully completed, I then sent an email to a lad in Austria who was selling his starting number on the forum. An exchange of money, an email to the organizers informing them of our exchange and I had a place. Simple. (For anyone interested, PayPal appeared to be the cheapest way of sending money to someone abroad).

The week before the race, I went over to South Bavaria to walk the long distance footpath “The King Ludwig Way”. This is a 5 day walk from Lake Starnberg which is just south of Munich to Füssen (home of the fairy tale Castle Neuschwanstein) on the Austrian border. I decided to run the first day’s walk of 12.5 miles as a training run. That evening, I noticed that I had an insect bite on my left ankle. By the next morning, it was completely swollen. (Although, that was nothing compared to the number of bites my father had received while walking the route – he had a complete rash of bites down the back of both his legs). On the third day of the walk, I was standing at a path junction in a village studying my map when “Wham”. A toddler on a tricycle crashed into my right ankle. I watched in horror as it very quickly turned black and swelled. Luckily, my first aider mother produced a bandage, strapped it up and I hobbled the last couple of miles to the end of the leg. On the morning of the final leg of the walk, I managed to slip down the spiral stone staircase of the apartment where we were staying. How on earth I never broke anything, heaven knows. My left elbow seemed to take the main impact, although the following day I could also feel where I had landed on my backside. I was really beginning to think that somebody was trying to tell me something! I had 2 days to recover. Miraculously, by the morning of the run, I felt fine.

The day before the race (10/9/10), I needed to go into Interlaken to pay an administration fee (since I had taken over somebody else's place) and pick up my number. I was expecting to go to a small office but instead found a large expo in the main casino in the centre of Interlaken. Along with the usual goody bag, I was also given a voucher for a free plate of pasta. My number came with my name and country printed on it along the bottom and with ‘Joanna’ printed boldly across the top. I also registered mine and my parents’ mobile numbers so that they would hopefully receive a text along the route saying that I had passed certain milestones.

We then left the casino and made our way to the street where the race would be starting the following day. Today, however, there were other races to watch. This started with the Jungfrau-Minirun, a series of races for youngsters starting with under 6’s, (running 200m), to under 14’s, (running a mile). Mixed in with this, there was also the Jungfrau-Pararace, a series of races for disabled athletes over a variety of distances around a circuit in the town centre. Then there was the Jungfrau-Meile, an invitation only mile race and finally, the Jungfrau-Minimarathon, a 4.2195 km run or walk. Every participant, adult and child received a medal and goody bag on completing their race.

Marathon day arrived. My number one worry about the race had been the weather. When it rains in the Alps, it rains. Luckily though that morning, I woke up to glorious sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. We were staying in Wilderswil, a village close to Interlaken and following a short bus journey, I was in the centre of Interlaken ready for the 9am start. A series of lorries, (baggage buses), were waiting to be loaded and there were the normal queues for the portaloos.

Then we were off. The race initially takes in a lap around the town centre then heads out to neighbouring lakeside village of Bönigen, and then continues up the main valley and towards the mountains. It passes through the villages of Wilderswil, (where we were staying), then up to Gsteigwiler and Zweilütschinen finally reaching Lauterbrunnen at the 20km mark. From there, there is a 6km out and back circuit further up the valley bottom. On coming back into Lauterbrunnen at the 26km mark is where the fun really starts. The route turns a corner and heads up a very steep zig-zagging track up the hillside towards the traffic free resort of Wengen. Nearly everybody was walking and those who were still running soon realised that walking was quicker! Also, now as well as km markers, there were also ¼ km markers, (i.e. 26.25km, 26.5km, 26.75km etc.). In fact, these carried on until the finish. Arriving in Wengen, I was greeted by more cheering crowds. Not long after leaving the village, I was greeted by the sign “You have now completed 900m of ascent. Only another 900m to go”. The route then winds its way up the mountain side mainly on good track.

At 1873m in height, Wengernalp is reached. There is then a short downhill section to a path junction at 1830m in height and 37.9km in distance. The route is then onto mountain path and the summit is in sight. You have to reach this point in 5:35 and look in a healthy state or else you are not allowed to continue - the last section of the course is on a fairly narrow mountain path and access for rescue teams is difficult. (Also, if the weather is bad, there is an alternative shorter route available from this point to the finish along better track). Unfortunately, this was also the most frustrating section of the course because since the runners were now reduced to single file and were quite closely bunched together, everyone was reduced to a fairly slow walking pace. Overtaking was difficult, since this would have meant running off the track and impacting more on the environment. On reaching Eigergletscher at 2205 m, the highest point, there was a piper playing. This used to be Roman Käslin but he died this year so Seppli Rast, a close friend of his, had taken his place. Roman's picture is on the back of the finishers’ medals this year in remembrance. As I reached this point, for the first time in the race, someone called out “Come on Wesham. It was a bloke supporting, who was from Chorley Harriers. (I had heard various people cheering something in other languages followed by Yohanna and then realised it was me!). It was now downhill for the last few hundred metres with a 100 m descent – a killer on the legs after running so far up hill.

Along the route, there were plenty of water stations. But the Swiss don't just have water stations. There were bananas, energy bars, coca cola, cold soup, gels....although I still did carry my own muesli bar and one gel. I'd rather eat what I am used to. I did try a mouthful of the cold soup. The soup being offered at the finish was hot and far more palatable! Also, there were loads of medical care points along the course offering first aid, massage and physiotherapy.

I must mention my parents now, my management, (well that's what my dad likes to think), and support crew. They each bought a day pass for the mountain trains. This allowed them to watch the race at the various villages along the route getting on and off trains. My father commented that he has never been so ‘sardined’ into a train and that the word “queue” just didn't seem to exist in the Swiss language. Just when he thought that nobody else would get on, another person would open the doors and squeeze themselves in. Despite having bought their expensive day passes, there was no way their tickets could be checked! They did receive their text messages, but although my father is highly computer literate, a mobile phone is a complete mystery to him. Luckily, people around him opened the messages for him. In fact one informed him that I had now passed the next station that he was planning to get off at. Also, if they had got off the train at that point, they were highly unlikely to get on again anyway because everyone was so tightly squashed on.

I crossed the finish line in just over 5 hours with a beaming smile. My parents were there to greet me and my mum commented that she had never seen me looking so happy at the end of a race. In fact, I felt that I was running the whole race with a smile on my face. It was just magical!

After picking up my medal, finishers T-shirt and my baggage, it was off to find the showers. Yes, at 2100m, on top of a mountain, improvised hot showers had been erected for the 3800 finishers. Then, it was time for a massage. In a large tent, a group of masseurs were giving massages. It was amusing that after the seriousness of the run, (nobody spoke a word to each other), there was a sudden release afterwards and everybody was chattering away to each other in the showers and massage tent. I greatly enjoyed hearing where everyone else had travelled from and what other similar races they had done.

It was then time to leave the summit behind and catch the train back down the mountain. The finish line had already been dismantled and the sun was starting to set. The end of an amazing experience.

Written by Joanna Goorney

Submitted: 3rd October 2010

Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw WRR Editor