Lauterbrunnen Half Marathon – by Dave Powell

I rounded off a week’s holiday with the Inferno Half Marathon from the village of Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland to the top of the Schilthorn mountain, which looks out over to the Eiger. The morning started promisingly with blue skies as we set off with a steady climb of 2772ft up to the village of Murren at the 12k mark. We were greeted by a great alpine band playing in the village before the race started to get serious. After managing to run nearly all the first section, the second part of the race climbed a further 4363 ft so it was all I could do to walk up. The final 500m was almost rock climbing and crossed one narrow section with a steep drop down either side. By this time it was snowing but luckily I finished before it got too bad. The afternoon triathlon was forced to abandon the final section due to the blizzards! I finished in 3hrs 09mins in 155th place, out of 349 runners. A good value race with all the runners receiving a quality t-shirt (Just what you need to protect you from hypothermia, 7000ft up a mountain!) , cable cars back to the valley floor, a big bowl of pasta , a 20 minute post race massage, drink stations with gels and isotonics every 2/3 km and a decent goody bag for 30 euros. A really enjoyable race but I must learn the art of walking uphill fast in order to improve.