Well folks, we did it! M and I both finished the Ultraks 46k. Its actually 50k, and believe me those last 4k could not have been harder had they asked us to just jump off the mountain and land back down in Zermatt. M finished in about 8 hours and 23 minutes for 7th in her age group. I finished in 8:49 which put me at 74th in my age group.
We did over 12,000 feet of climbing and descending. I burned over 6,000 calories. We are both thankful that the highest altitude the race hit was 10,300 feet which made all the climbing a little easier. I estimated that I power hiked 95% of the climbs, as did everyone else. They are just too steep to run up. This fact didn’t really cause me or M to go much slower and we certainly saved a lot of energy for the long miles ahead.
My entire race was saved by a British lady who gave me 4 of her salt tablets when my entire body was going into cramp mode. I only had 2 salt tablets and had already used one because of earlier cramps. I could barely move when she passed me and asked if I needed anything, and miraculously when I said, “salt” she ran back up the hill a little ways to give me some of her supply. That is the spirit of trail running.
A funny thing happened on my way down the last climb which drops over 3,000 feet in 3 miles. There was a particularly muddy section where I decided to slip and fall. I was ok but my legs were so tired it was hard to get up. A German guy right behind me, commented, “Now you look like a trail runner!” as I was covered in mud.
Both M and I are so sore that we could barely even stretch afterward. We plan to take it easy tomorrow.
That is all I can think of for now. Maybe I’ll remember more to write about tomorrow.
