The Road to the Zermatt Half Marathon
This is it folks, after six months of training, including 12 lonely half marathons in the past ten weeks, we’re at our campsite base ready for the Zermatt Half Marathon tomorrow morning.
We’re surrounded by steep cliffs, a glacier, distant waterfalls, trees clinging on and pin-prick cable cars stretching across chasms in the sky. It’s a beautiful part of the world.
The clouds are low today, but even so the Matterhorn’s out of sight from here: with any luck we’ll get a clear morning, and will be running the trails under the shadow of the mighty mountain tomorrow.
Me and Phil with our race numbers. Yes, I am as nervous as I look… No going back now folks!
At tough moments in those months when I just didn’t want to run, I visualised being stood on the start line with my mate Phil, surrounded by hundreds of runners, with that long, long hill ahead of us. Tomorrow we’ll be there, it feels almost unbelievable.
My gear’s all ready to go, just need to pin on the race number and double-knot my shoes in the morning. A train will carry a bag of cold-weather gear up to the finish for us, where it’ll be just a few degrees at 2585m above sea level. Unbelievably there’ll be hot showers up there and, we hope, a cold beer before the cog train brings us back for more beers brought from Britain, and then the England-Sweden game. Ju has a ticket for the train, so she can be at the finish line when we arrive too.
Thankfully there’ll be less of me up there than there was, as I’ve managed to burn off over 2 stone (15Kg) in weight, so those many miles of 10 to 15% uphill in the thin air up here **should** feel just that bit easier! The training I’ve done so far has been on hills about 6%, with the longest uphill section being the 9 miles up to Les Arcs 1800, so I’m in for a real test, which I’m both seriously up for, and also feel sick about. 10% is just about run-able for me, very slowly. 15% isn’t, and the last couple of miles kick up at roughly that steepness, so it’ll be a hard walk-jog-scramble at the end.
We weigh in each Monday and chart out our weight so we can always see where we are. My graph (the upper one) bounced up and down a lot, but eventually I managed to get more focus on better eating and forced it downwards below my 75Kg target. I’ve decided to lose a few more Kg and then hold it steady.
My training chart from the last 10 weeks. Having this up on the wall really helped with motivation.
I registered for the race back in February, and later on decided to run for charity, choosing the British Lung Foundation due to the help they’ve given my Dad, who has a serious lung condition, over the years. It’s a deeply personal thing this to me (as I run, I actively think about the fact my lungs are silently working away so brilliantly). I feel immensely proud at being able to raise some funds to say “thank you” for all the help the BLF has given Dad over the years. 58 people have now gifted money to the foundation through this run, and tomorrow I’ll repay them all for every single dime. Some folks have donated as a thank you for us writing this blog over the years: that works for me guys! If you want to chuck in a quid or two, please go to this secure donation page or click on the image below.
So, that’s it. More pasta for tea, lots of water and rest today, maybe watch some of the World Cup football before an early night and, no doubt, an early morning. Time to go, take it easy guys, Jay
Good luck !
Good luck for tomorrow, Jason. It’s been good that you have had the half marathon to focus on during the sad time you have been going through recently. We love your blog and always look forward to your next posting. We will be thinking about you and Julie tomorrow as we have a lot lately.
Best wishes to you both.
Thanks Margaret and Dave.
GO FOR IT!
Good Luck. Looks like you have given yourself the best setup with those impressive stats. I am just starting my post contract move to FIRE training regime. Maybe Zermatt for me next year?
Good luck Jason. You have prepared amazingly well. Enjoy tomorrow.
Good luck Jason, enjoy the beer afterwards!
I’ve battled with my weight forever Jay. Mostly I’ve lost, or we declared it a draw so I’m very impressed with your weight loss plan (even more so than with your other plans).
Good luck on the run (actually too late now but I’m saving the later post).
Lee at http://www.gohumberto.com