Swiss Alpin Davos 2011 race report

After last month's DNF at Verbier-St Bernard I was determined to have a smart race at the Swiss Alpin Davos 78 km.  I must confess I am quite superstitious when it comes to running outfits and I can't shake the feeling that I just wore too many clashing colors on my way over Col de Fenetre and Grand St Bernard.  I guess the plan mostly was to ditch the green buff that I got at my 5th Macdonald Forest 50k this year, but it doesn't quite sit right with me.  This buff is so versatile and useful in keeping cool on hot days, but it just doesn't match any other running shirts I have. :(  Anyhoo, I dressed and ran conservatively from the starting line at Davos.  The first half of the 78km (~50m) is a mix of paved and dirt roads.  If one wanted to  put some trail shoes at the 40 km drop bag in Burgun it wouldn't be a bad idea to start in road shoes at all.  Water stations were plentiful but it helped that I brought a bunch of gels and chews as the Aid stations consisted of granola bars, bananas and ice tea.  The cowbells rang loud and put anything I've ever seen before to shame.  The alphorns on course were also really a nice touch.  After 31 km of running down-valley through gorgeous Swiss countryside the short course split off and we finally got a break from the traffic.  Wow this race was crowded, even the double track did little to alleviate the congestion of multiple thousands of starters from the combined 78k and 31k starts.

I thought the congestion was over for good but it turns out there was another marathon starting in Burgun at the same time as the mid-packers in the 78 km were passing through.  We collectively climbed up and over the first pass of the day in a train of hundreds upon thousands with little more than a meter in front or behind each runner.  All the while a helicopter circled overhead reminding me of evening news broadcasts on freeway traffic jams.  I'll never understand how some European races feel the need to rent helicopters to advertise  huge race fields like it was a nice thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUsZflqe66w&feature=related

By and by I achieved Kuschutte just after it started raining.  Despite the clear blue skies at the time, not picking up my gloves and jacket at Bergun was a mistake and my achy hands would let me know it for the next hour.  The race organizers had clearly planned for my ignorance and i grabbed a light trashbag/rainsuit from one of the boxes at the top.  Unfortunately the trail was so congested it was hard to adjust my pace to keep warm but the climb up Sertigpass helped.  Afterwards I managed to pass about 40 people in 2 minutes to finally get some freedom to run down the other side.  Wow, beautiful scenery, nice singletrack, no cows.  What a wonderful couple of miles.

Unfortunately the descent really excacerbated the shin splints I've been suffering from lately and I ended up having to walk much of the last 15 miles in (photos of me not running here).   Anyways that's sort of just how the year has been.   Dealing with injuries and not doing it very well.  It's clear that I'll have to rethink and regroup from my current situation with at least a few weeks off sooner or later, but in the meantime it's nice to finally notch a 50 miler this year.  It's about time.  The scenery in this race is fantastic and very Swiss.

Garmin says 49.8 miles with 10300 ft of vertical