Swiss Alpine Marathon 2009
On 25th July Team Ivan took on the Swiss Alpine Marathon — Europe's highest altitude marathon event and a jewel in the alpine crown. The ascent and descent, combined with the high altitude and the partially rough mountain track, make this one of the most challenging mountain races. Running a marathon on the flat is hard enough, but up and down steep inclines, at oxygen-starved high altitudes, takes the mountain marathon experience to a different level.
In the end we only managed to get one runner to the start line of the K42 marathon — but at least we were there!
The start is in the Alpine village of Bergun, with loads of supporters cheering as the runners head off into the mountains. The first seven miles are steadily uphill, through a typical Swiss mountain valley, complete with cows, meadows and small hamlets of alpine huts.
After this the path narrows through the trees and very quickly turns into a rocky track up the steep mountain side, all the way up to the first high mountain pass at Kerschhutte (2600m). There are no supporters up here, and the going gets tough, as the trail heads downhill over rocky terrain crossed by mountain streams. The bottom of this descent is still over 2000m altitude, with the next peak of the Scalettapass looming overhead.
The path up to the top of this pass at 2660m is one of the most difficult marathon ascents you can find, including crossing several snowfields on tracks a couple of foot prints wide (don't look down!). At the top of the Scallettapass, with hearts pounding, its downhill again, first over difficult high mountain terrain, then widening into a path through another glorious valley of meadows and streams.
There are a few people supporting again here (although the only way to get to this point is to trek or get a lift with the post van) and with the sun on your back its a great way to finish off the last six miles, except for the sting in the tail of a steep uphill section just before the descent into Davos to finish in the sports stadium.
Team Ivan's finishing time was about 6hrs 53mins — in the last fifty finishers, but well inside the cut off time of 8hrs 30mins.
Most of the marathon course is the same as the second half of the K78 race (that's 50 miles, in case you were wondering) which means the humble marathon runners get overtaken by a stream of people who have run twice as far — a major incentive to return next year for the full K78 ultra marathon!