Eiger Ultra Trail 101k

I participated in the first Eiger Ultra Trail, a 101km run around the hills of Grindelwald, Switzerland.  There was a total of 6700 meters of climbing and descending with the highest point being the summit of Faulhorn (2680m).  The views of the Eiger, Jungfrau and surrounding mountains provided a breathtaking backdrop for an incredible event.

Highlights included, in chronological order:

• Sunrise lighting up the tip of the Eiger
• Amazing wildflowers
• Random bloody nose
• Glissading/shoe skiing down snowfields off the Faulhorn
• Slipping on and then falling in slippery wet cow shit. 
• At the an aid station I took a mouthful of what I expected to be cubed apples but was actually hot sweaty "Mountain Cheese"
• The heat
• Seeing Aileen at the halfway aid station and telling her that I was feeling pretty fine despite being covered in sweat, blood and cow shit
• Thunderstorm that washed off sweat, blood and cow shit
• Diving and then hunkering into a ditch after lightning struck chairlift pole right in front of me.
• Bombing off mountain to get away from the lightning
• Lounging in Wengernalp station for about 40 minutes waiting for thunderstorms to pass and for the race to resume.
• Being told to continue although we weren't allowed up the climb to Eigergletscher and took an alternate route down the valley.
• The last 12k which was mostly downhill, I felt amazingly fresh and strong and passed people.
• Finishing
• Expecting totally thrashed quads, my leg muscles were not sore after the race which was really confusing.  My main theory is that I experienced The Repeated-bout Effect because I did a big fast downhill run on the Tuesday before the race which gave me sore quads that lasted up until raceday.   

Here are the incredibly scenic photos

Sunrise

Near the top of Faulhorn

Snowfields near Faulhorn

Getting up to Mannlichen with storms approaching

Saw this guy on the trail from Mannlichen

Finish

Here's some data from the timing company.

category :	E101 Herren Seniors
overall :	E101 Herren Overall
bib :	(85)
Finish Time :	17:19.16,0
Category Place:	29.
Overall Place :	56.
Location : Time of Day Elapsed TIme Category Place Overall Place Start 5:00.25,1 E101-Faulhorn : 10:50.25,7 5:50.00,6 56. 130. E101-Burglauenen : 13:55.59,6 8:55.34,5 45. 99. E101-Männlichen : 17:52.09,1 12:51.44,0 41. 83. E101-Alpiglen : 20:39.27,3 15:39.02,2 34. 69. Voravis : 22:19.04,2 17:18.39,1 29. 56. Finish : 22:19.41,1 17:19.16,0 29. 56.
Segment Time Category Rank Overall Rank. E101 Start-Faulhorn : 5:50.00,6 56. 130. E101 Faulhorn-Burglauenen : 3:05.33,9 38. 77. E101 Burglauenen-Männlichen : 3:56.09,5 42. 120. E101 Männlichen-Alpiglen : 2:47.18,2 47. 155. E101 Alpiglen-Ziel : 1:40.13,8 8. 18.

Here's my GPS data for the run.  Unfortunately my watch battery died 6km from the finish.