1000 Miles to Zermatt, Almost Ready to Run

Eleven months ago, fresh from having run the uphill half marathon in Zermatt in July, I went a tad mad and signed up for the ultra marathon at the 2019 event. It seemed like a long way away at the time, and a challenge big enough to motivate me. The madness spread to Ju, and she later signed up for the half marathon. A few weeks back we opted to run the race for charity too, raising money for the British Lung Foundation, something close to us since my dad has suffered with COPD (lung disease) from his decades on the coal face (there is a link at the bottom of this post if you wish to support us and give to this amazing cause).

Well, it’s very nearly 11 months later, and we’re only 7 days away from the race, have we done enough? The short answer: who knows? Come back and read this blog in a week and we’ll let you know! My feeling is we have though, and although we’re not likely to be challenging Kipchoge’s marathon record, we’ll get up the hill regardless of what state of anguish we end up in.

We’re currently parked up in Alpine paradise, alongside a glacier and surrounded by gleaming mountains near the Sustenpass in Switzerland. We’re 2100m up here, and we’ve been gradually getting higher up for our runs over the past week or three (we’re lucky enough to have a lifestyle which allows such glorious freedom). The Zermatt races finish much higher though: Ju’s at 2585m, and mine at 3089m, and this is probably our biggest concern. We both did a 7 mile run today, running up and down the valley road twice, and we both felt the effect of the thin, dry air up here. At this altitude there’s roughly 20% less oxygen than at sea level, and even though we’re surrounded by glacial melt and snow, we have to drink twice as much to avoid dehydration. My experience last year was good despite this: perhaps the adrenaline of the race fended off the sensation of tight lungs, short rasping breaths and a dry, slightly burning throat.

Being so close to the race, it’s now physically impossible to get any fitter, although we might acclimatise a little more to the altitude. Any runs we do now won’t help with the race, although they’ll help our confidence, and we’re well into what’s called ‘tapering’, where we deliberately cut down our mileage to enable our bodies to fully recover ready for the big effort on Saturday. I’ve been lucky this year, and although I’ve a chronic problem with one of my achilles heels, it’s not stopped me running and I edged my 2019 running total up to 1000 miles today, on a final uphill section back to the van with sunscreen blinding me and, frankly, making me look a right 47-year old mess! Many of the miles were knocked out on beautiful Spanish trails over the winter, and once again we both recognise just what an amazing life we have to be able to spend months ‘winter training’ if we want to. My dad’s long years down the mines certainly helped get me where I am today, as well as my mum’s efforts in the factories, which I’m incredibly grateful for. Since last year’s Zermatt race I’ve done five marathon-distance runs (including one on a treadmill, one of 33 miles and one up and down a mountain pass). I can’t recall how many half marathons I’ve done, a fair few.

Ju wasn’t so lucky though. In Spain while out doing a 13 mile run she tripped and hit her knee on a rock, splitting it open and (we think) bruising the bone and doing other soft tissue damage. The accident both knocked her confidence, despite all efforts to the contrary, and meant she had to spend a couple of months gradually getting back into jogging (after shifting up a gear from hobbling) and then running, losing a fair bit of hard-won fitness in the process. She has pulled at least some of it back now, as evidenced by her ascent of Alpe d’Heuz’s famous 21 hairpins earlier this month. I’m deeply impressed with my wife in all of this: she was dead against exercise when I met her and for much of our marriage, showing the strength to shift focus when it was obvious it would help her mind stay fit and healthy too. Along with fellow Hymer friends who induced us to run half marathons in Morocco and Zermatt, she inspired me to get my finger out, lose weight and gradually build my fitness back up after a 20 year layoff.

For the past months I’ve used a visualisation technique to help motivate myself for this run. I simply imagine being stood on the start line, surrounded by lithe runners, all of us looking up the valley at the 28 miles of climbing ahead. It works well, as it scares the muppets out of me, and I’ve found myself silently shouting the word ‘Gornergrat’ (the finish point for my race, surrounded by glaciers and facing the mighty Matterhorn) at the points I wanted to give up. For the past few weeks, comments left by people who’ve sponsored us have moved me (moved the both of us), and will stick with us on the day when we start the climb.

Our aim was to try and raise £1000 for the British Lung Foundation, and we’ve almost nailed it, so a huge thank you to everyone who has supported us. We won’t let you down. Of course, the more we can raise the more the BLF can do, creating initiatives like Breathe Easy, a local group at home which has been particularly helpful for my Dad. The work they do is partly educational, partly providing equipment like nebulisers and partly support. It’s this last part which I suspect has had the biggest benefit to Dad. He’s a stoic type, telling me ‘it’s nothing a bullet wouldn’t fix’ when I ask how he is, but even he has his limits, I’m sure. I’ve seen the effect of a respiratory attack on him, when he’s been unable to breathe, coughing violently and being surrounded by paramedics. He tries to brush it off, and he is very strong mentally (I think all those miners were), but even he needs help and the wonderful folks at Breathe Easy have been there for him.

Go to our secure Just Giving page in support of the British Lung Foundation

If you’d like to support us, we only do a fund raising thing like this once a year, and any amount given is treated the same in our heads and hearts. It’s another show of support, and means a huge amount. The link to our secure Just Giving page is given above, and once again thanks.

Jay and Ju