I really am uncertain where to start so I will go right to the beginning.    

The 42K run (I am not calling it a marathon because it was 28.18 miles on my Garmin watch) did not start until 10:30 am.  I asked a lot of the locals why they started so late and they said they thought it was because it is usually cold.  Today, it was about 60 degrees at the start and got up to about 75 for a high.

I got to the start area about an hour early to check out the finish area and look around.  Most of the runners I noticed wore the “Camel Packs” that held the water in a backpack and used a tube to draw out the water.  I had my trusty 24 ounce insulated bottle and wondered why no one else used the water bottle.  I would find out soon enough in the middle of the run!

There were about 300 runners for this 42K and I as usual lined up as far back as I could.  I prefer to have someone ahead of me and not someone pushing from behind.  Also, knowing this was my first trail run I wanted to make sure I was not holding anyone up.  As I was hiding in the back of the line the announcer game over the loudspeaker “Is Ralph Dumke here?”  I first thought maybe something was wrong with someone at home when the voice repeated my name: “if Ralph Dumke is here please raise your hand.” I slowly and reluctantly raised my hand.  “There he is in the back, everyone please wish Ralph a happy birthday!”  I am convinced some joker at home needs to see some payback, but Maria is trying to convince me that they noticed it on my registration.  A lot of people said a lot to me in languages that I do not understand, so I just smiled and said “Danka!”

The race went out of a sports complex and onto the city streets that only lasted about a half a mile and then became a cart path type trail.  Runners three across could run this section that had a gradual incline and lasted about 2 miles.  The course changed quickly, and luckily the field had pretty much separated out and everyone around me was pretty much the same speed.  The course changed again rapidly to a steeper single lane trail with very few places to pass and at some point the pace slowed to a fast walk.

As we came around a switchback the first snow bowl was in sight and you could notice that the tree line was fast disappearing.  The shade was now gone and I was glad that I had my sunglasses because it was very bright and starting to get a little windy since the trees were no longer protecting us.

Now I want to back up a little to when I registered for this marathon.  I checked the altitude for Davos and it was around 5000 ft above sea level.  I had done marathons in Colorado, Wyoming, and a few others that were higher.  The thing that I did not take into consideration that the marathon could go up from there.  Up is what we did for about the next 4 hours.  Switchback after switchback and the trail got rougher and narrower to the point that it you were not watching your feet all the time you would trip and go down for sure.

As we climbed you could see the snow bowl on the left better and better and we crossed our first snow field and I scooped up a snow ball and put it on my neck and then on the top of my head, but kept moving.  The trail at this point was so narrow that you could not stop without making whoever was behind you wait and it was so steep you could not find a place to pull over. 

At about mile 10 we crossed over the first peak and there was downhill for about a half a mile.  You may think that would have been a great relief except that the drop off of the edge of the trail you would have fallen a few hundred feet before your first bounce on what would have been a 1000-foot tumble down nothing but rocks and scrub brush.  This is where I found out that wearing bifocal sunglasses was not a good idea.  At first I thought I was having altitude issue, but rapidly figured out that while I was looking down to ensure safe footing, I was also looking through the reading part of my sunglasses.  I moved them to top of my head that things got straightened our real quick.  It was also about this time that I had to cross my first snow field going downhill and found out why most the other runners had a spiked shoe.   Unlike going uphill when going downhill you tend to slide.  Those size 13 shoes became skis and I picked up a lot of momentum and skied across the first snow patch.

So the short downhill was met with another long climb of switchbacks that got steeper and rougher the higher we went.  Finally, you could see the white tent that meant there was water and food coming up and hopefully the top.  I finally reached the tent and got fresh water for my water bottle and a cup of Coke.  Yes, they had quart bottles of Coke at 8972 feet.  The only problem was it was still not the top of the mountain.  We still had to climb an additional 300 feet to the summit.

It was at the point that I noticed another tent that was full of EMTs and customers lying on stretchers.  I wondered how they would get down the mountain from that height.  Turns out, the answer was sending helicopters to bring them down to the bottom of the mountains where they had ambulances waiting for any patients.

Once I reached the summit and started the decent to the finish line, I found out why no one ran with a water bottle.  Descending steep slopes requires good balance and the ability to use your hands to push off of rocks.  Some areas once again were so narrow and on such steep slopes that you wanted to have both hands to grab onto anything in case you tripped.

Now I had been follow a guy about my age for most of the 42K and noticed that he had cut out a few places in his shoes.  I asked why he had done that, and he said that is the only way you can allow a blister to heal is to cut away the shoe for the area of the blister so it does not rub.  He had cut out most of one heal and a spot for a toe.  I looked at a few other runner’s shoes and sure enough it seems to be fairly common.  I determined that the true mountain trail runners are a different breed.  Once we got off the switchbacks but still on steep, rocky trails these guys and gals run full out and somehow don’t fall.  I did see one guy as we got closer to the end running talking on his cell phone, fall, hit the ground, got up and kept running and never missed a beat on his phone conversation.

As we got down to the lower areas and the rocks became grass I kept thinking I was losing my mind. There were no spectators but I kept hearing the familiar “cow bells” that so many spectators bring to marathons to encourage the runners.  They got so strong I started to really think I was losing it and it was a bell choir I was hearing.  Then I noticed way down in the canyon there were cattle grazing and they all had cow bells and as they bobbed their heads to eat they cheered us on.

The marathon was definitely the one with the most altitude change.  In fact, I would have had to run over “Heartbreak Hill” for the Boston Marathon 60 times to equal the change in elevation for this marathon.  The scenery was also probably one of the best I have done.  However, do not got to Switzerland for the food.  Maria and I went for a steak for dinner and those cows get awful tough climbing those mountains to graze.

So for all of you who read this and want to go run a marathon in the Swiss Alps…put on your shoes, lace up them up, and get out and run a few miles!