Swiss Alpine K78 race report

The weather was the best ever for the 2010 Swiss Alpine K78 mountain ultramarathon in Davos. It was sunny all day, but not too hot: 8 C in the morning, rising to a little over 20 C during the day. There were hardly any clouds at all, and not even a typical thunderstorm on the mountains in the afternoon.

The weather had been truly horrible with cold and rain the days before the race, and I'm sure all the competitors (there were a record number of 5910 entries altogether, with 1661 entries for th K78 alone) taking part in one of the eight Swiss Alpine events (K78, K42, C42, K31, K21, K11, Walk, Mini) were both relieved and delighted when they woke up on Saturday morning. RD Andrea Tuffli commented "This Swiss Alpine is the best in all its history... superb conditions with beautiful weather and ideal temperatures."

As expected, Jonas Buud of Sweden took his fourth consecutive victory of K78 in 5:49:11. He missed his 78.5 km course PR set last year by 28 seconds, but he has a real good excuse for that, as he reportedly tripped and wounded his knee a bit on the asphalt streets of Davos only about 3K from the start.

Like Buud, also I missed the course PR that I set last year, and by whopping 55 minutes too. Right from the 8AM start I sensed that my legs couldn't provide sufficient power and speed on this day. It became clear to me that I still had not recovered from my extreme TVSB experience a month ago.

On the other hand, it was a great fun day as I was able to just relax and enjoy the awesome scenery. I stayed easily well within the 12-hour cutoff the whole time. My only worry was getting burned in the sun, especially because I was wearing the same Dave Scott triathlon singlet as in my first Swiss Alpine 15 years ago, and no sun screen as usual.

Everything went smoothly until about 20K, when we ran through a series of tunnels carved through mountains. There was a traffic sign depicting rocks falling from the mountains, but I was running here for the fifth time and I had never seen any rocks falling, so I totally ignored the warning with confidence. Until a rock fell and smashed a couple of meters behind me. I slowed down to turn and see what kind of rock it was, and then another rock fell and smashed into pieces right in front of me. I wasn't really frightened as the chance of getting hit by a rock was relatively small, but nevertheless made a conscious effort to increase my pace to get out of the dangerous area asap.

Then I encountered something that forced all runners to stop and give way: the local passenger train taking spectators to Bergun. That took only a couple of minutes, and it was a lot of fun to see all the people hanging out from the wide open train windows, and shouting encouragements and waving to us runners.  

I reached the lowest altitude of the course in Filisur (30K from the start and about 1000 meters above sea level) in 2:38 (5:12 min/km). The town was full of cheerful action. It was starting to get warm, and I made sure to drink enough water.

The next big town was Bergun (39K, 1365 m) where I arrived in 3:45 (7:42 min/km) - at the same time when over a thousand K42 marathon runners started their event. Suddenly the peaceful streets and mountain paths were filled with energetic runners. I got access to my race bag, from where I took a small plastic bag with dates in it. I was hungry and ate a few dates right on the spot for some quick energy. In spite of that, most of the marathon runners were passing me left and right like I was standing still.

Everyone was aware that the hardest climb of the course was ahead of us, and the undeniable fact was that everyone was going to struggle - more or less. On a steep hill like this kilometers feel awfully long, but finally my eyes found what they were looking for: Kesch hut (53K) on top of the mountain. It was the highest point of the course (2632 m). My time there was 6:18 (11:14 min/km). That wasn't a bad effort, but I knew that Mr. Buud would have very likely already finished the race and probably the inevitable interviews too by that time! Anyway the race doctor briefly checked everyone by the huge mountain hut, before allowing us to continue.

The race organisers have to be true masters of logistics in order to transport ten tons of stuff onto the mountains on race day by helicopters. There are three aid stations there that are not accessible by car.  My main staple was Swiss vegetarian bouillon (with MSG) and Swiss 'mountain bread' (buns with raisins) - not my first choice by any means in normal conditions, but this was an Alpine ultramarathon,  and I had little choice in the matter as I chose not to carry a backpack like some competitors did.

The Panorama trail looked better than ever in full sunlight. For the first time I could see all the wonderful mountains around clearly without clouds, and I somewhat regretted not carrying a camera this time.

The next 7K to Scaletta pass (60K) was the best part of the race for me emotionally. I felt great but ran slowly because there were a long queue of runners. Trying to pass all of them wouldn't have been worth it, as I was comfortably heading for a sub-10-hour finish, and had no chance to beat my PR anymore.

On Scaletta pass (60K, 2606 m) I caught RD Tuffli alone for a moment, and congratulated him for the great race. He congratulated me as well, before taking off in his helicopter to yet another location. Although 67 years old, he is still actively controlling that his excellent race organisation consisting of hard-working volunteers runs perfectly.

After the steep 4K downhill to Durrboden (64K, 2007 m), I took my time covering the remaining 14K to the finish, sipping a little bit of coke at every aid station along the way. I knew this green valley leading back to Davos Sports Centre (78.5 km, 1538 m) well, and I was sure that I could finish well under ten hours - not an ambitious goal at all, just something to get it over with before the cows come home.

Well actually I literally did see some cows go from the fields to their home before I finished in 9:51. That's my worst performance so far in Davos, except my DNF in 2008 of course. But at the end of the day I wasn't really disappointed, because I knew exactly why my time was slow. I also believe that the time does not matter that much anyway, compared to all the great experiences during a magnificent mountain race like Swiss Alpine K78.

48 miles done for my 48th birthday.