In 2010, right before my husband and I were moving to Maryland, we decided to use a bunch of soon-to-be expired airline vouchers and go on holiday to Switzerland. We booked the tickets online and two weeks later we were off! It was an epic trip, despite my husband’s desire to make it a true backpacking adventure. I’m all for backcountry hiking, but walking with our packs from the Geneva airport, through peoples’ backyards and through random fields in “the direction of downtown” (as my husband said) was a bit lackluster.
After our residential jaunt, some minor navigational “disagreements”, we made it by foot from the airport to downtown. Soon thereafter, we spent most of our time hiking in the Lauterbrunnen area of the Swiss Bernese Oberland, roosting from what has become our now beloved mountain-hamlet, a small mountain village called Murren. It is one of those places that will change you instantly- I was not ready to head back home and honestly considered buying a tent, a fondue pot, and starting a new life in Switzerland. While waiting for the train to leave Murren, I saw an advertisement for the Jungfrau Marathon. The pictures of the race looked stunning- waterfalls, mountains, so much green, hills! I love hills- or shall I say hill (singular), the Eiger (summiting at 13,015 feet)! This was the perfect race for me!
I had two major bucket list items after we left Switzerland: (1) my husband and I swore that somehow, we would always come back Murren with each of our kids to hike the 9,744 ft peak of the Schilthorn; (2) run the Jungfrau Marathon. Okay, one more for the bucket list: let no piece of cheese, nor drop of fondue, go uneaten! After securing an assignment in Germany, we were thrilled that Murren was only 4 hours away. So, we checked off bucket list item #1 summitting the Schilthorn with our now oldest, and a few years later, with our now middle child…rest assured, every morsel of cheese was consumed, now with competition from our cheese-eating kids! As for bucket list item #2, it was still unfulfilled…until our return PCS to the U.S., a phone call with a dear Stroller Warriors friend (lucky enough to get back-to-back Germany assignments), and some surprisingly cheap direct flights to Zurich changed this…and changed me!
We arrived on an early, rainy, and chilly September morning. After a quick brochen and “kaffe,” we got a workout installing three car seats in a small rental, playing tetris with our luggage, and hit the road. Before we knew it, we were pushing through the jetlag, donning our rain-gear, and reuniting with some of our favorite trails. We hiked, played, ate, soaked in the sun, and took carried our youngest well above the ridgeline, through and above clouds, in the baby-hiking pack, to the Schiltorn’s summit with our other two kids in-tow (checking bucket-list item #1 for the third time).
After our residential jaunt, some minor navigational “disagreements”, we made it by foot from the airport to downtown. Soon thereafter, we spent most of our time hiking in the Lauterbrunnen area of the Swiss Bernese Oberland, roosting from what has become our now beloved mountain-hamlet, a small mountain village called Murren. It is one of those places that will change you instantly- I was not ready to head back home and honestly considered buying a tent, a fondue pot, and starting a new life in Switzerland. While waiting for the train to leave Murren, I saw an advertisement for the Jungfrau Marathon. The pictures of the race looked stunning- waterfalls, mountains, so much green, hills! I love hills- or shall I say hill (singular), the Eiger (summiting at 13,015 feet)! This was the perfect race for me!
I had two major bucket list items after we left Switzerland: (1) my husband and I swore that somehow, we would always come back Murren with each of our kids to hike the 9,744 ft peak of the Schilthorn; (2) run the Jungfrau Marathon. Okay, one more for the bucket list: let no piece of cheese, nor drop of fondue, go uneaten! After securing an assignment in Germany, we were thrilled that Murren was only 4 hours away. So, we checked off bucket list item #1 summitting the Schilthorn with our now oldest, and a few years later, with our now middle child…rest assured, every morsel of cheese was consumed, now with competition from our cheese-eating kids! As for bucket list item #2, it was still unfulfilled…until our return PCS to the U.S., a phone call with a dear Stroller Warriors friend (lucky enough to get back-to-back Germany assignments), and some surprisingly cheap direct flights to Zurich changed this…and changed me!
We arrived on an early, rainy, and chilly September morning. After a quick brochen and “kaffe,” we got a workout installing three car seats in a small rental, playing tetris with our luggage, and hit the road. Before we knew it, we were pushing through the jetlag, donning our rain-gear, and reuniting with some of our favorite trails. We hiked, played, ate, soaked in the sun, and took carried our youngest well above the ridgeline, through and above clouds, in the baby-hiking pack, to the Schiltorn’s summit with our other two kids in-tow (checking bucket-list item #1 for the third time).
After a brilliant taper-week of hiking and altitude acclimation (which worked great for me), fueled by cheese, chocolate, and sausage, I soon found myself venturing out on mile-one of the Jungfrau Marathon as a cool alpine rain, accompanied by a crisp breeze, set the scene. The first 13-14 miles are nice, rolling, and exciting as you enter the town of Lauterbrunnen, with 4,000 ft cliff walls (Murren sitting atop) on my right, and the Monch, Jungfrau, and Eiger on my left. This first half was nice, arguably relaxing, before soon finding myself hitting a single-track trail with hundreds of other runners…all of which, doing a fast-hike and slow-jog hybrid up an endless switchback with a constant 10–15-degree incline. On paper, this sounds terrible, but it was heaven. The endless green foliage embraced us as glacial streams rushed and bubbled beside us, and below us- this magnificent nature welcomed us, taking away all pain and only leaving me eager to experience more. At a few points, the course parallels train tracks that lead the way for sturdy mountain passenger trains…during the race, it seemed surreal, like the scene from The Sound of Music as they ascended into the high Alps- except the sound of music was replaced with yells saying “Jah” (yeah!) and “schnell gehen” (go fast)!
Around mile 18, I was passing through the town of Wengen…this was the designated rendezvous spot to refuel quickly with the family. I saw my husband and kids and heard them yelling at me…words of encouragement- no. Requests to eat and drink my fuel…yes. My husband got two mini cherry-pies and a large Fanta to supplement my fading cheese, chocolate, and sausage pre-race meal. This sounded great to me…and it sounded great to the kids too. I cracked open the Fanta and my kids quickly requested to have taste before I could even take sip! After our oldest asked why mom was “taking” their snacks, we conducted the world’s fastest resource-allocation negotiation settling on me taking one pie, and the Fanta, only after the kids each got a few seconds to guzzle it themselves despite there being a Swiss Bakery and grocery store being located within 30 feet. I was excited to see the kids, but they were excited to see me leave with one less cherry pie. As I accepted my fate in this negotiation, a polka bank started playing a Dropkick Murphy’s song…I am a Boston girl, so this was all the fuel I needed to summit to the finish!
Before I knew it, I was back on the trail, the rain lifted some and the cloud-tops lowered…much of the course straddled a ridgeline to the finish. I completed the race, checked this off my bucketlist (and then put it back on). I planned to run the Jungfrau Marathon in 2020, but unfortunately, COVID-19 restrictions decided otherwise. Fingers-crossed I will have chance to run this again in the future! Next time, I will be sure to double my fuel order as the kids are guaranteed to hornswoggle at least half of it!
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