Tag Archives: Uetliberglauf

Uetliberglauf 2010

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The Latest Shennanigans

After all that madness in Kerns the bike was put away and my running shoes (Inov8‘s of course ; ) have been getting a lot of wear. Long trail runs on the weekends up to about 3 hours along the Albis ridge to Horgen. During the week I have been getting out with the runners of TV Unterstrass at Sihlholzli. It has been great to run in a group again and Im sure my running will come on no end. My first two meets with the run group there have been entirely positive experiences, I was greeted with such a friendly welcome and I could barely walk the day after my first interval session on Thursday night! Brilliant!

Uetliberglauf

Bringing me on to my latest race – The Uetliberglauf. I dont know why I have become so obsessed with this race but I think its because its a good measure of how my training and fitness level is. Last year I had a great result coming in 2nd place in my category W30, I was pretty shocked that I had done that well. So this year I wanted, of course, to better that result. However I knew that my lead-in to race and preparation wasnt exactly ideal as I have been really busy at work and I was also sick about 2 weeks ago and bed-ridden for about 3 days! As a result I have had quite low energy levels and I was just doing my best to ensure I made it to the starting line in some sort of ok shape.

Bitter Sweet Result

So race day arrived and I got up early, had a good breakfast and got organised. I felt ok and made my way into town at about 11am – better to be early given my previous history of race preparation.

Hello Friends!

I was delighted to see so many familiar faces there, Cristoph Zech and Valerie Vuillerat from Free Radicals, some of my new running buddies from TV Unterstrass, Jed Brown the mountaineer and most understated, nifty runner I know (who came 9th in his category and 46th overall), Tony Long my new Irish running buddy and Free Radicals club member, Giulia Hossmann and Christian Schneider back from his 4 months of gallavanting around Eastern Europe and beyond.

Nutrition bang-on

Without going into too much detail, the race went well, I didnt have stomach cramps like last year or the Ironman run so I was really happy with that. I havent been drinking any energy drinks or isotonic solutions, just some water with flavouring and a little salt and my diet has been very bland and simple, oatmeal or porridge for breakfast with lactose-free milk and a banana and some bread about 90 minutes before the race. I think the banana really helps too with the potassium for cramp prevention.

HURT – to a new level

I started out fast, and approaching the first hill I was in 5th place, even though I only saw two girls ahead of me, Catherin  Cheridito from the EWZ triathlon team and Olivia Kurtz (I think) then I got passed by Nicole Lohri at the 20 minute mark but there was no way I could have kept up with her pace. So I decided then, the same as last year, to run my own race, stay within my own head and get into a rhythm. That is always really important for me, the world will go on around me but I can only control my output from within so I focused on eating up the course, accelerating on the downhills, striding on the flat sections and maintaining momentum and speed on the climbs. I had forgotten how tough the course is! There are about 3 killer climbs, two of which I speed walked for about 10 steps. It hurt!

At about 32 minutes another girl appeared to my right and started to really stride out to pass me. I hung on to her for the next 15 minutes and kept her in sight but I never managed to close the gap that she put into me on the flats which she extended to 11 seconds in the final result. Every time we climbed I would make ground on her but she got me on the flats everytime. It was actually quite cool to run behind her because she had such a wonderful technique with such long strides. She was also about 1/2 my size and I remember looking at her matchstick calves jealously. Her name is Regula Meier.

So. I checked my watch and knew that I was there or there abouts on target for a sub 1 hour course and that kept me motivated despite having been passed. I came in at 59.44about 1.15 minutes faster than last year. So I have to be content with that and to be honest – I am. I never ever, considered myself a runner but to be able to compete with girls who are going sub 3 hours in marathons is pretty nice and inspires me to dedicate more time to being a better runner.

After the race I heard someone say my name and when I turned around I saw a guy who obviously recognized me, but I had no clue who he was, then he said his name and I clicked that he is a Twitter mate Benjamin Wuethrich.

He also dropped my name in his very dry humoured, entertaining but sometimes mean  blog and posted a big photo of me in action, for which I gave him prior approval, because I didnt want him to put up this photo he took of us post-race, where I have a big red face:

photo credit: Benjamin Wuethrich

Uetliberglauf OUCH

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Ive been lacking a little bit of motivation to go out training these days partly because of the weather and partly because an old lady moved into the apartment below me. It appears as though she doesnt sleep and has a habit of moving furniture around and cook at OBSCENE hours like 12.30PM or 5.30AM. Im tired.

But Im moving in a week and hanging in there until then.

Last weekend was a shock. I decided last Friday to compete in the last race of the Zuri Lauf Cups on Uetliberg. The Zurilauf Cup is a series of about 12 hill/trail runs organized by the Zurich bus drivers club and held in the Canton of Zurich. The course was 14km long with an estimated 380 metres of total altitude gain. In other words TOUGH

The German word ‘lauf’ means ‘run’ in English and Uetliberglauf is a run around Uetliberg, my training hill on which I also conveniently live.  It was a great idea! Until I woke up on Saturday morning to a temperature drop and rain! But it was nice to spend the morning relaxing inside, having a nice breakfast (normally Im running out the door to get on a train to the hills with a bike or hiking gear) knowing that I will have deserved this rest time after finishing a gruelling race later that day.

I turned up to Albis Güetli already buzzing at the sight of so many participants. I registered, collected my number and then spent about 30 minutes faffing around and putting off going outside in the cold to warm up before racing. As it stands I only did a 15 min warm up! Tch tch. I met up with some friends there too, Giulia Hossmann and ultra runner Christian Schneider who was suffering from a cold therefore just there to support us.

Lining up at the start I was looking around anxiously to see what other girls looked fit and to make sure I was at the front of the pack when the gun went off. It was a fast start, but nowhere near as fast as I thought it would be. I think this is a result of my recent speed training and becoming more comfortable at running at a faster pace than the sloth one we normally run at during adventure races!

The race pretty much started into a hill, I had no idea how many women were ahead of me but I knew that there was one right next to me who was pushing really hard. I played back and forth with her for an agonizing 20 minutes or more. I would push, then she would push, and eventually she got me on a flat section and started to move away, I decided to let her go for fear that if I kept up that pace, I might actually blow up. I kept repeating to myself then “run your own race” and as soon as she was out of my sight I developed a better rhythm and I was able to concentrate more on what I was doing, passing guys and trying to hold them off. At about 7 km another woman appeared and passed me, but I let her go too, secure now that I was feeling good, going at a good maintainable pace and just minding my own business.

The course was incredibly tough. Some really steep climbs and long decents, absolutely unrelenting. The nice part about it though was I recognized every stone on the paths as I had ran them so many times in training and I was able to guage how much I had left to go to the finish or half way.

Towards the end of the race I kept trying to up the ante and push push push towards the finish and it was downhill most of the way so that was a nice break. I was also neck and neck with the same runner for the last 17 minutes so it was also good company and motivation, having him on my heels.

I eventually finished 2nd in my category W30 and 5th overall with a time of 1.00.59! I was very happy with that as I had no idea how I would fare over this distance and I hadnt done a race like this since Corran Tuathail, at home, in June 2008.

It has made me think…maybe this is my real strength after all!

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