Swiss Alps

The Swiss Alpine Marathon at Davos was by far the hardest marathon I've done so far. I did the C42 which was billed as the "easy marathon" because it was mostly descending, whereas the traditional K78 and K42 involved climbing the alps into the snow (not to mention 78 km distance which the winner did in 6 hours). It started out pleasant enough, the K78 and C42 runners together doing rolling hills and trails, I had read reviews that warned of "4 or 5 decent sized inclines", but I lost count after 10. It was nonstop hills up and down, steep at times and almost all trail. None of my photos are trail because the paths were single file and I had to concentrate on not tripping and breaking my ankle on the rocks or tree roots and splitting my head open. Picture climbing to Lake Serene and descending, then throwing in a half dozen Ferry Hills to total 42.2k. The hardest part was being unfamiliar with trail running and having to run in my too-warm shirt because I forgot to pack my running shirt. Anyway, the photos don't do justice to how amazing the scenery was, or capture the feeling of being practically alone in the middle of Swiss mountain forests or countryside. I could barely walk for 3 days afterward (thankfully I got to visit a Swiss "mineralbad" spa with pools of warm massaging jets of mineral waters) but now I'm hooked on trails.