Snowy Alp Run to Start 2010

Posted by Grant on 4. January 2010 23:02

The jetlag really kicked in halfway through my run in to work this morning; it's about a 65 minute run around and through the city of Zurich, and I was a zombie for at least the final 30 minutes.  Giant, fluffy snowflakes swirled down around me, keeping me company through the cold.  After a couple weeks of holiday travel and celebration, I really needed the exercise and it's bound to help me get over the jet lag (our flight from Boston landed less than 24 hours ago). 

The other incentive for me to get a basic workout in was the event coming up this Saturday.  A friend talked me into this 19K "snow run" in the Eastern Alps -- this weekend the event is in Arosa, and the course profile shows 700 meters of climb (nearly 2300 feet).  They call it the "crazy distance" in their race literature and it sounds like a fun way to kick off the new year, to me.  We'll see how fun I think it is about 1 PM on Saturday!  I won't be running fast -- particularly after the last couple weeks I've had -- but I look forward to amazing scenery and a great excuse to enjoy the winter wonderland. 



The elevation profile looks like a triangle; lots of up for the first half, then lots of down for the second half.  I'll be wearing my new Icebug shoes, by the way; these Icebugs seem to be traction kings the couple times I've used them, and I'll be counting on them to keep me on track for the big climb and, especially, for the descent.

On a different topic, we got some really exciting news about Untamed New England over the Christmas break; we've proven our value to the region and some financial support is coming our way for 2010.  It was perfect timing, as sponsor $ is harder and harder to come by in this environment.  I'll say more on this another time.  We have an update coming to the New England website, probably tomorrow; we have the registered Team List and other enhancements to publish.  Right now, I think we're at 8 or 9 registered teams which is great considering 2010 is only 5 days old!