On the morning of the wedding, Peter and I got up early and headed up the valley to the small town of Lauterbrunnen. All of the towns around Interlaken look like they are right out of the movies...exactly what you would picture of a Swiss Alpine village, and Lauterbrunnen had its fair share of chalets.
We took off up the main road at a crazy pace thanks to Peter, and after about 5 min my legs and lungs were screaming for some more oxygen. But the sights that I had all around totally took away any pain my body was feeling. After leaving town, we set out up a narrow road with small farms and chalets on either side, jammed up against the sides of the sheer gorge walls. I am not kidding when I say the gorge we were in must have been 1000 feet deep. Made the Columbia River Gorge look like a small drainage ditch. Every now and then, we passed a thin veil of water cascading down the walls of the gorge, and within a mile, we found ourselves running beside a raging glacier-fed river. I couldn't decide whether to stare at the strangely emerald-green water (due to the minerals in the glaciers) or up at the glaciers themselves, which were on all sides. We came around a bend and were treated to an amazing view of the Jungfrau, one of the most famous peaks in the Swiss Alps.
Thankfully, as we continued to climb, Peter slowed the pace, but the scenery just would not stop. 3 miles in, and we decided to head back down the valley. As we made our way back to town, we watched para-gliders and parachutists who had jumped off the top of the cliffs, and were buzzed by helicopters ferrying tourists up to the glaciers.
It was about this time that I started noticing that there were kilometer markers out on the road leading back to town, and people were out putting up sponsor banners on bridges and houses. Hmmmm, could a race be in town?? As it turns out, later that weekend was the Inferno Triathlon. Peter guessed that it was "a big dose of hell in this little part of heaven" After checking out their website, he could not have been more right. Something like a 2 mile swim in a glacier-fed lake, a 90 mile road ride up (and I do mean UP) to Grindelwald, a 19 mile mountain bike thru the mountains, and finishing up with a 15 mile run from Lauterbrunnen UP to the top of the gorge. One of these days, I am so doing this race!!! Check it out: http://www.inferno.ch/
Anyway, we got back into town and Peter promptly dropped me with a devastating downhill kick (I think that he and Steve must have conferred before we came over), and I totally flailed down the hill to the car. We mapped it out later, and it was a good solid 10k. My legs hurt like hell, but I desparately wished it could have been 100k. Amazing scenery, clean mountain air, running with a buddy who I haven't run with in forever....I have run thousands of miles in lots of different places, but this one was without a doubt the best run I have ever had. I just wish we had thought to bring a camera. Damn! But, these picts capture some of the scenery...
And to top off the day, Lisa and Peter got married! Overall, it was a pretty great day.
4 comments:
This sounds amazing!!! Looking at those pictures made me want to go visit Switzerland. Glad you had a good time.
OMG!!! This is so gorgeous... I can hardly stand it!
Awesome! When you do that triathlon, let me know because I am SO coming to cheer for you! :)
Looks pretty awesome. I told Peter he would have no problem dropping you on the downhills as long as he gave it a pretty good effort on the way up. Looks like I was right:)
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