Spoiler. We crossed the finish line. It was a long trail to get here, but an awesome experience.
We woke to blue sky and clearing clouds. Today might be just the way we imagined instead of the cold and rain we feared. We ate breakfast, geared up, and made our way to the bus station. Our hearts stopped when the bus driver wouldn't accept our registration forms in place of the bus ticket, and was insistent that we could not ride the bus. Would we even make it to the starting line? Graciously, another racer translated our argument, and two more runners volunteered the return tickets that they would not need, so off we went on the hour ride to the start, with a disgruntled driver, and already sweating from nerves.
T41 packet pickup in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. 81 participants lining up at the start. Two in the afternoon on a beautiful day, starting elevation 1476 meters: Here we go!
Although the early kilometers were more gentle than the rest of the course, I was struggling to run with the weight of my bag, and trying to dribble a bit of water to make the load a bit more bearable. Derek was feeling strong and ran ahead or lagged behind before catching up so that he could snap a few photos.
Cows greeted us along the road as we approached Joch pass (2020m), finishing the first climb. I started to feel a bit better, and now it was time for the first descent through forest and meadow. Much more fun for me...even with a small stumble that bloodied both my hands and one knee. Finally, Derek was chasing me for a bit.
We arrived in Tschiertschen village (1313m) for a quick re-fuel and looped back out of town to the trail...The start of our longest, toughest climb 1340 meters up to the Weisshorn.
Nowhere to go, but up...
And up.
Down to that little stream...and then up...
up...
up...
UP! We arrived at the summit of the Weisshorn (2653m) at 7pm, after a seemingly endless climb. Amazing view, but there's plenty ahead.
We hurtled down to the next aid station in the town of Arosa (1793m). Running all the way felt so freeing after the harrowing trudge up the Weisshorn.
We set out from Arosa with about 15 kilometers left to travel, and darkness slowly creeping upon us. Our pace slowed over the next few hours in the darkness through forest and down, up, down, then up the final climb to Strellapass (2346m).
From this final mountain pass, it was all downhill to Davos (1558m). We saw meteor showers in the clear black sky, but couldn't look to the stars too much since we had to diligently watch our footing through the fog from our breath.
48.2km, +2930m / −2850m, 11 hours 27 minutes, later, we crossed the finish line holding hands. We shared congratulations with some other runners and new friends. Then the hard part...walking half an hour at 2 am back to the apartment across town.
(Finish photo by Alpha Foto)
(Finish photo by Alpha Foto)
