New race week, this time in the beautiful village of Grinderwald, Switzerland, the home of some of the most spectacular mountains in the world like the Eiger and Jungfrau. This was for me more like a training race since I am already qualified for UTMB and I did not want to taper too much for this race but to keep a good volume in the training. So I come into the race feeling a bit tiered in the body and not knowing how the body would feel. But never the less, my goal was to push hard and do my best regardless and I wanted to have a good feeling before going into the last training block before UTMB. The start field was really strong with runners like Andreas Reiterer, Stephane Wenk, Dani Osanz, Martin Anthamatten among others so I was looking forward to some good racing!
The race course was was on paper not that hard but it turned out to be a real fight because of the heat, altitude and some unexpected technical sections in the downhills. But to be honest, it was one of the coolest courses I have don e with spectacular views all the time and mixed types of trails and terrains. It started with a long climb on easy trails/gravel road before a short decent to the aid station of Feld . After that a big steep climb to Fallhorn, the highest point of the course before starting a long decent with some flat sections and short steep climb that felt like it was going on forever. Finishing with a flat/duchegrade 7km stretch before a short steep climb up to the finish in Grinderwald.
From start I felt like I was in control and legs felt much better than anticipated so I pushed a bit to spread out the field a little bit. It was expected to be very hot out on the course so I made sure to stay cool, not sweat to much in the first climb and doing plenty of fluids. I entered the aid station of First in the lead together with Stephan Wenk and we had a good chat and enjoyed the scenery.
After the aid station I decided to make a distinct move and to make it hard. I got a gap immediately and knew that it would be a hard time trial the remaining 40km. We started to pass a lot of people from the 100km race who started a few hours before us. Some sections was quite narrow so had to slow down before I could pass but for the most times, people was very kind. The heat started to be really intense after Fallhorn and there was no streams during the next 15km to cool down. I pushed hard all the time, worried someone would come from behind and overtake. When entering the last aid station at Burglauenen, I heard the gap was 15min. That was good to hear but I still wanted to finish strong and to make it hard for myself. The last stretch was the hardest part, the legs felt like rubber after the big decent and the heat was terrible and I longed to reached the finish line. Entering the town of Grinderwald was a fantastic feeling and my finishing time was 4h 48min, new course record with 10min. Really happy to share the podium with Wenk and Andreas Reiterer, two amazing runners and of course Emelie Forsberg who won the women's race.
Thank you Babs, Julia, Holly and Debi for the suport during the race, to the organisation and to everyone who followed the race!
Photos Julia Grosserhode, Luke O´Shea
Equipment
Adidas TERREX Prototypes shoes
Adidas TERREX Prototype Singlet and shorts
Adidas TERREX Prototype Trail Vest
Coros Apex Pro 2
Supersapiens Glucose Monitor
Survival Blancet
Visle
1st Aid kit
Goretex Jacket
Pants
2nd Layer
Hat
Gloves
Phone
2*500ml Soft flask
Start - Grinderwald | 500ml Maurten 240, 1 CAF Gel Maurten |
GR | 500ml 240, 1 CAF Gel |
First | 250ml Redbull, 500ml 240, 1 GEL |
Feld | 500ml water |
Faulhorn | 500ml 240, 1Gel + 250ml Cola |
Egg | 500ml water |
Schwand | 500ml 240, 1 CAF Gel |
Burglauenen | 500ml 240, 1 CAF Gel |
Finish - Grinderwald | |
