Run day: Zermatt to Gornergrat

The long awaited day is finally upon us. We started training for the Top20 half-marathon run in April.

Our day started early, with a quick warm up and stretch; still overcast, but not raining or too cool. We did a light jog along the river. After a good stretch, had a light breakfast and headed to the race start location for 9am.

We started near the back, and slowly meandered our way forward.

J slowed down as the road incline increased, while A took off like a gazelle. Around the 7 km mark the road levelled out, and J picked up speed, but A was no where in sight. For the next 8km, the route was a combination of road and narrow trail. For the most part, only a slight incline.

J finally caught up to A after km 15, just passed Riffelboden. Here the route got insanely vertical. From then on things got really gruelling. At this point "running" was just a notion, it was a chore just to get one foot in from of the other. J attempted a slow jog for a short stretch and quickly realized that walking was a better use of energy. A's ambitions of walking a bit faster were squashed by quads and hamstrings threatening to seize up! 😵‍💫

A typical half marathon is 21.4km, this route was 22.1km... Every twist and crest became the next milestone. It was a bit deflating when the finish line became apparent at the top of Gornergrant. But in the end we both made across! The things we put ourselves through for a "finishers" tshirt 👕🤣

It was an incredibly beautiful course to complete! This finish line is the highest for an event in Europe, 3089m!

After some half-hearted stretching, and refreshments, took the train back to Riffelberg to pick up our clothes bags, and shower. The shower space was more like a prison or military shower setup: four rows of shower jets with space for about 40. The warm water felt amazing!

We then headed over for our free beer🍻. It was terrible 🤢 We found a gopher🐿️ hole to dispose of the rest after a couple sips 🤣 Probably not a bad thing considering soon after J's stomach started to protest. We followed his nose to a Weiner stand, they wanted 9CHF for a slice of bread and sausage. All we had were Euros that they didn't accept, which is strange as its on parity and an international event 😕

The train down was very hot and over crowded with tourists and runners. It was a challenge to stay upright and get to the bottom. By this point J was very naustious, and crouching near the floor. Once at the bottom, A grabbed a few food items from the store, and we headed back to our accommodations for a quiet restful night homemade Bratwurst and some rose wine.Read more