REPORT ON THE SIERRE-ZINAL RACE Sunday 13^th August 2006 ‘DREI ZINNEN TRE CIME ALPIN MARATHON’

For the last eight summers, the second Sunday in August has meant only one thing – the Sierre-Zinal Race. Extending over a distance of 31Km and rising over 2000m before falling 900m, Sierre-Zinal represents one of the foremost challenges that a long-distance mountain runner can face.

Run along mountain paths high above the beautiful Val d’Anniviers in Switzerland, the Sierre-Zinal Race is also called the ‘Race of the Five 4000’. After the ascent, the tree-line gives way to a plateau and a panorama of five majestic 4000m peaks, including the mighty Matterhorn. A unique race in a truly magnificent setting. Instead of Kilometer markers, indicators are a percentage of the projected finish time. They prove to be quite accurate but can also be quite a discouragement. You’ve climbed Helvellyn twice only to be told, “33% de temps total” Thanks Rudi!

A ‘touristes’ race of mainly walkers starts at 5 am, which Dave Hyland opted for, and the race proper at 9 am. The weather is usually very kind, however, a serious weather warning proved to be just that. It was cold and wet. The race starts and is up, up, forever up. Fighting cramp I nonetheless make good time with a projected finish time well inside my previous best. However, seeing British International, Martin Cox jogging back, bloodied, dazed and confused, tempered my optimism.

It’s minus 2^oC on top and, as yet, I’m undeterred but I dare not think what Dave experienced a few hours earlier. 70%, the famous Weisshorn Hotel and things are still on track. It’s at 80% the path begins to descend with an 800m drop coming in the last 3km. With sleet on the rocks and a quagmire caused by persistent rain, I start to struggle, and struggle and struggle! It’s cold – you are exhausted and you dive headlong into the mud. The strangest thoughts come over you.

“If I should die think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field that is forever Wesham”

Instead of the Five 4000 all I can see is a wall of sleet and the ample frame of a straggling touriste.

“Pardon Monsieur, Passez-Monsier? Pardon passez-Mon-sieur?...........Shift you a***, you fat b******!”

I’m fed up and needing encouragement, some inspiration, a reason. It was then I remembered Pieman’s famous speech the evening he accepted the Wesham captaincy.

“I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king – and of a King of England too.” Bravo, bravo Pieman!

I finished in a tired, quite distressed, but still respectable 3:55. Seven years, eight summers – never, never again! The conditions and my poor descending had made Sierre-Zinal 2006 the hardest race I have ever done.

Previous winner, Billy Burns, had finished third, his fifth podium. Billy, from Preston, has a personality as big and generous as any Alp and, along with fellow Salford ace, John Brown, we shared an evening of acceptance and respect. With my profile raised considerably, I began to feel a little better.

Monday brought the second reason for our brief sojourn to Switzerland. A continuation along the Val d’Anniviers and 1500m of leisurely climb to the Grand Mountret Mountain Hut. The weather has eased and as Dave and I approached the Le Grand Mountet, the clouds parted, the sun smiled and Switzerland, at last, showed us her glory. The Obergalrothorn and then Dent Blanche stood before us, quite indifferent to the vagaries and vicissitudes of man. I wondered what craftsman had hewn these pyramids long before the Pharaohs had ever dreamt of their immortality. Busy marmots, ambivalent ibex and imperious eagles, added their own hues to a landscape that was beauty beyond beauty. This was the only true glory and the reason I’d returned year after year to this alpine idyll.

Yet, as I left the Val d’Anniviers, a sadness came over me. Would I ever return? Perhaps not. Well, at least not before the second Sunday in August 2007.

Written by: Russ Mabbett

Submitted: September 2006

Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw WRR Editor