Marathon des Sables Full Race Report

Well, it took twice as long to recover from the Marathon des Sables than it did to finish my race report! This afternoon I posted the final chapter: Crossing the Hallowed MDS Finish Line. Please feel free to hop over to my MDS blog site to check it out.

In case you missed some of the other MDS race report posts from this summer, I've included links to the full story below. Anyone seeking insight into the keys to unlock a challenge like this will find "The Relentless, Arduous Push to the Finish Part 2" particularly interesting. I've also included audio clips from the race in several of the posts, as well as photos. Enjoy!

My full race report (in stages, just like the race):

• Jittering away the pre-race days in Morocco
• Stages 1-3: How could we have underestimated this challenge?
  
• Stretching of Limits --The Surreal Long Stage: How is this possible? Part 1
• Stretching of Limits --The Surreal Long Stage: How is this possible? Part 2
  
• The Relentless, Arduous Push to the Finish Part 1
  
• The Relentless, Arduous Push to the Finish Part 2
  
• Crossing the hallowed MDS Finish Line

Again, my sincere thanks for both long-time and new visitors to my Marathon des Sables blog and supporters of the journey!

All the best from a sunny summer afternoon in Zurich,
Jeff

June - a month full of adventures...

To quickly round out the month of May... After Jo's visit, I made a visit to the U.S. to see some family and friends (and our dog Brandy!) in TN & GA. It was a whirl-wind "tour" as these visits always are, but it was wonderful to see everyone. In addition to visiting, I also got the chance to do some biking with friends in the north Georgia mountains and Atlanta - Our friend put together a great story about it here called Hausfrau in the Holler (yes, I am taking the easy way out for this! she just writes so much better than I). More pictures from this visit can be seen by clicking here.

Then came June - The month of outdoor adventures! Since it's hard to describe all the experiences in words, and as they say "a picture is worth a thousand words", I'll just include links to the pictures and let them tell the story! (with a few samples here...)

It started with some biking at a couple local mountain passes: Pragel and Ibergeregg. As you can see it was still a bit winter-ish at the top...
Here in Switzerland you always have to be ready for different things to be crossing the road in front of you -- cows, goats, and sometimes a whole herd of sheep...
We discovered a backroad up one of the passes that hardly had any cars and was full of stunning Swiss mountain and village views that we had all to ourselves...
For more you can read our friend's write-up on this ride here, and more pictures are here.

The next day we did a "recovery hike" up (& down) the Gross Mythen mountain (definitely what I would call an "active" recovery!). It was a beautiful hike, and at the top we were greeted with some snowfall - That's June in the Alps for ya. Before we ducked into the hut shown in the background to warm up, Jeff did as any good Swiss (or Swiss wannabe!) person would do, and played a few tunes on the Alphorn across the valley below...
For more pictures, click here.

The following weekend we went to watch the time trial stage of the Tour de Suisse pro cycling race, which was being held on Klausen Pass. We decided to bike to the pass from home with a few friends, and along the way we "added on" a couple smaller passes, Albis and Raten. Once again we discovered some great backroads with no cars (just a few tractors) and incredible views...

For more pictures from that day (including ones from the local newspaper/website), click here, and a photo story on our friends' website here: Tour de Suisse.

The next day Jeff did another "active recovery" by going running in the mountains for 6 hours with a couple friends. (I guess that's "recovery" after you've recently run thru a desert for a week!?!) I think they got so distracted by the views that they just didn't want to stop...


For more pictures click here.

While he was out "Berglaufen", I was immersed in a full-day mountain biking skills course. It was all in Swiss German, but luckily I had our friend Martina to translate the important stuff for me. I learned a lot, and finally got over my chicken-ness enough to ride down a full set of stairs -- and survived to tell about it!
The following weekend Martina put me to the test again by taking me rock climbing in the mountains. It was the first time in several years that I had climbed outdoors, and the very first time that I did lead-climbing (where you don't have a rope above you the whole time and instead have to clip in to bolts along the way up). Martina is the best and most patient teacher!
Eventually I even got comfortable enough to enjoy the views from the top...After climbing we topped off the day with a refreshing swim in a nearby lake...
For more pictures, click here.

The next day we decided to branch out a little and check out some cycling in the nearby country of Liechtenstein. At just over 60 square miles for the whole country, it doesn't take much more than a day to check it all out! They definitely have the "castle theme" going there...
What we also found there were some wonderfully smooth roads for biking, and some serious hills including a good climb up to Malbun ski resort. It was a really hot day, and a steep climb that seemed to just keep getting steeper, so we plenty of breaks to, um, enjoy the view.

To read our friend's more detailed account of the day, you can click here, and more pictures are here.

The following weekend we stayed a little closer to home and checked out some more of the local roads... We feel quite lucky to have places like this within riding distance from home!
For more pictures click here.

After these long days of biking, running, hiking, etc., it's nice to top it off with a refreshing swim, and it's a cool feeling to just walk down the street and jump in the lake (sometimes very literally cool!).
So that's our month of June in a nutshell. The rest of the summer we will be staying busy with several visitors, so we'll be out and about a lot of the time, but mostly staying in Switzerland -- I think there's still enough to see here to keep us busy for a long time! Can't wait to share it all with more friends and family.

Have a great summer!!

Cheers,
Becky

A tribute to our visitors

We've had a constant flow of visitors ever since we moved to Switzerland -- It's funny how "popular" you can become when you live in such a beautiful place as this! ;) So, I've decided it's (way past) time to include a short tribute to each of the overseas visitors we've had here in Switzerland so far. Especially before the next round of visitors, which starts next week...

It all started off right after we moved here -- I mean right after, when we didn't even have any furniture yet! Our friend Brian was in the middle of his European bike tour, and his route happened to work out so that he visited us in both Amsterdam (before we moved) and Zurich (right after the move). He even helped us screw our new furniture together - Now that's a helpful house guest! We also checked out a local mountain pass on our bikes one day. Check out his blog for a great story on it all.

Next our friend Thomas from Colorado just happened to be in Berlin for a while, so he "hopped on over" to Zurich to spend a long weekend hiking with us. He brought some perfect weather with him, and we made the most of it by enjoying some incredible scenery. You can check out the pictures with this link.

After that was our long-time friend Sean... We've both known Sean so long, we can't really remember a time when we didn't know him. He and Jeff used to set things on fire just for kicks while playing in the woods as kids... So for our hiking trip I tried to keep them under control so they wouldn't try to "re-live old memories" and burn a whole Swiss forest down to the ground ;) Sean brought some perfect weather with him too, and we made the most of it with some great hikes and overnight stays in huts -- For more pictures you can click this link.

Then we had a couple months off from visitors, as we went back to the U.S. for a visit in November, and in December Becky headed to India for her brother's wedding reception.

No worries, in January we made up for lost time by having 14 friends visit all at once! Luckily we didn't all try to fit in our little apartment overnight here in Zurich - Instead we rented two adjoining chalets in the ski resort Verbier for the week. Here's a link to the pictures from the Verbier trip - What an unforgettable time with a great group of friends!
In February our long-time friends Michelle and Kevin came to visit with their two sons. It was great to spend time with them especially since it had been so long since we'd done that, and it was fun to experience all the differences here through the eyes of a 7- and 11-year old. A story about their visit is in this blog.
For March our friend Jim came out to do some skiing in the Alps... Unfortunately I couldn't be a personal tour guide for that endeavor since my ankle was still healing from "the incident", but luckily we have some friends here that were kind enough to take over. Kate and Mark, our tough "Abenteuer" friends, took him for a day of skiing at Davos, and uber-tough Martina showed Jim what Swiss ski-touring is all about (and it is not easy)... the good thing is he survived it all! Even with a smile.

In April while Jeff was gone running across a desert, I was kept from being lonely thanks to Pallavi and Geo who visited from Amsterdam. Watch out Zurich, it's Girls Weekend! We packed a whole lot into a short time. For more pictures from this estrogen-filled event :) you can click this link.

And last but certainly not least, in May it was Jo who graced us with a visit. She was only here for a few days, but in true Jo-fashion, we packed more in those few days than one would ever guess is possible, including a day-trip to the Italian section of Switzerland, and an ad hoc hike up a mountain (when we learned the train going up hadn't started running for the season yet!). For more pictures from that fun-filled few days, you can click here.

Jeff and I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to share the wonders of Switzerland with so many friends... and more to come this summer (including our parents)! It is the best way we can think of to make the most of this experience of living abroad.

Thanks for coming, and as they say where we're from, "y'all come back, ya hear?" :)

Cheers,
Becky

In the news...

I haven't forgotten - I still owe the summary of the second half of May, not to mention all of June... We're really busy experiencing things, but not saving time to document/share them! For now I just want to share a couple recent news articles where Hillseekers have been mentioned...

Tour de Suisse: We biked up the pass where the time trial was held on Saturday, and brought along the Alphorns to help us cheer on the riders... Check out this online picture gallery and see if you see anyone you recognize ("subtle" hint: #'s 25, 26, and 35)It was in the Zürich paper too, in the "Rad" section :) (cycling)

The other Hillseeker story was in the AJC today, about Jeff's weight loss 12 years ago... and how he actually has kept it off ever since. It really did change life for the better - for both of us - so we're glad the story can be shared in case it can be an inspiration for others to make a change and improve their life as well.

Cheers!
Becky

The Merry Month of May

It seems I am often running about a month behind on blogs lately! May was a great month, jam-packed full of activities... and even some sunshine :) This explains why I wasn't at the computer blogging...but now it's raining again, so better late than never, right?

The month kicked off with our Alphorn lessons, as Jeff described in the post "Bringing it all together". Right after the lessons we applied what we learned while cheering on the bike racers in Tour de Romandie - I finally documented our experience with that, including pictures, in a new post: "Crazy Americans at Tour de Romandie". The Alphorn fits neatly in a small backpack and at only 1 kilo it didn't seem to slow Jeff down at all on the climb... The following week in the Zürich area was nothing but sunshine for about 10 days in a row - It felt fabulous after such a rainy April! I celebrated by biking every day for 3-4 hours -- It was a sort of "bike camp" for me, to shock my body and hopefully get back in shape for the summer. Well, the "shock" part definitely worked! But the soreness was welcomed after a strange winter of sporadic, low intensity workouts due to the ankle "incident".I had to take a break between bike rides to take our car in to have the winter tires removed and replaced with summer tires. (This is a semi-annual tradition here in Switzerland, and some insurance companies even require it.) Luckily I didn't have to miss out on the nice weather as I waited on the car - Here is a picture of the "waiting room":and the view that kept distracting me from my German books...The timing of the good weather was lucky since Jeff had two work holidays during the sunny time. One day was spent hiking with our friend Thomas, who recently moved here from Colorado, and enjoying the views around Mt. Rigi...Of course no hike or bike ride would be complete without the Alphorn now... Sometimes Jeff just carries it out of the backpack so it's ready to play whenever there's an inspirational view... ...as if there are any of those around here ;) Our friends from Lausanne stopped by for a day of biking in our part of the country... We checked out Sattelegg Pass (second day in a row for me) and found some other great hills as well... stopping for the usual mid-ride lunch break (I'm starting to really like that European tradition) and of course applying the recommended R.I.C.E. method after the ride ("Rest while eating Ice Cream and enjoying the Elevation of the nearby mountains)...
After all this sunny weather and hiking and biking, we were ready to EAT! Luckily our Swiss friend Martina volunteered to teach me how to make the traditional Spätzli - a special type of egg-noodle dish. After this I have a new respect for the people who make this from scratch - It is hard work!
Not to mention it makes quite a mess (or at least I do!)...
But wow, it sure is yummy. Sehr guet! The noodles are covered in cheese (of course - this is Switzerland after all!) and baked till the cheese melts on top, then it is served with applesauce. It sounds like sort of a strange combination, but it definitely works... mmmmmmmmmmm...

Well, that about covers the first half of May... I'll take a break for now and add the second half separately. Don't forget to check out the "Crazy Americans at Tour de Romandie" post...
Ciao for now!
Becky

Life after the desert race & Swiss water fun

A couple months have flown by since I returned from Morocco and the unforgettable experience of finishing the Marathon des Sables. The post-race transition has been an interesting one: exuberance, longing to be home, longing to be back in the desert, desire not to take time off to recover, desire to sign up for new events quickly, laziness followed by too soon a return to long training, a non-healing injury, a sudden, but temporary burnout on ultra running. It's all normal after such a big event, although it's quite a ride and for many becomes what's known as post-race depression. Fortunately, for most it ends after a few weeks or months (and thankfully I've fallen into the 'most' category). Finishing the MDS oscillates in my mind between being a major, life-altering event and being just a crazy, epic week in the desert. Some days it seems like a big deal -- others it doesn't. I'm thrilled at how well the fundraising aspect went and remain ever thankful for everyone's contributions and support. We made a difference in the lives of some very well-deserving children around the world and this is heart-warming. I'm also very happy at receiving so many notes about people being inspired by my story. This is just awesome and all I have to say is "pay it forward" - be inspired and go inspire someone else by pursuing and sharing things you're passionate about!

I'm enjoying writing about the MDS experience and look forward to finishing the final chapters of the saga on my MDS blog in the coming weeks. If you haven't checked out the site in a while, please hop over and have a look -- there are stories posted covering the first five days of the race, as well as audio and video clips.

So, two months after the race finished, I'm now at a place where I'm focusing on multiple sports and enjoying the best of what Switzerland has to offer -- without overdoing it on the running. This led to the recent acquisition of a sea kayak as a way to combine my love of fitness and nature and desire to spend as little time cross-training indoors as possible.
I initiated my kayak with a multi-sport play day in the Alps -- all centered on the Aegerisee (about 40 minutes from Zürich). The day involved trail running high above the lake, kayaking, playing alphorn from the kayak, and mountain biking. It was a blast. (Ok, alphorn pun only slightly intended!).
Above is the first shot we've published of one of our new carbon fiber alphorns. It's a brilliantly-designed instrument - it sounds just like its wooden and traditional cousin, but it collapses, weighs only a kilogram, and is waterproof. It's built by a very interesting musician and engineer who lives in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, Roger Zanetti. This great design means I can take it kayaking and float it on the water! Below is a video clip to share the experience with you (I'm still getting the hang of playing this thing while on the water, so my apologies, especially to my prior music teachers, for the cracked notes!).

I've been doing the unthinkable and getting up extremely early (for me!) to kayak before work on the Zürichsee (Lake Zürich). It's a great workout and it's so calming to be on the water to start the day. I also recently kayaked into the city to watch the start of the Euro 2008 football/soccer championship. Great fun and a good way to mix up the adventure.

My next project is to kayak to work. I'm very lucky to live 5 minutes from the water and to have a canal that runs from Lake Zürich to within two blocks of my office. It looks to be about an hour-long paddle into the office. I plan to kayak up the lake, into the canal, and then portage the kayak the final two blocks to my office parking garage, where the kayak will occupy my parking spot (anxiously awaiting me to finish my workday, where I will put it back on the water again for the paddle home). This looks to be great fun, so I'll certainly post about it and share some photos of me rolling a sea kayak through the Zürich streets on my way to work!

I've signed up for an ultramarathon in Davos in late July, so that's the next official event. Becky and I have lots of Swiss adventure planned for the summer months, so we'll be sharing more on the blog over the coming weeks.

By the way, if you haven't checked out Twitter yet, I highly recommend it. It's a simple and free online service that lets you receive and send very short updates (less than 140 characters) regarding what you and your friends are up to. I post Twitter updates quite often -- if you "follow" me on Twitter, you can see what I'm up to in daily life. Click here to see a list of my updates. If you choose to send updates as well, I can follow you. I've found it to be a nice, easy way to keep a connection to the daily life of friends and family. Sometimes update emails and blogs can become overwhelming, so Twitter has been nice to just see when someone has gone for a nice run, is enjoying coffee with friends, is seeing a great concert, etc.

That's all for now - I hope that your June is off to a great start!

Cheers,
Jeff

Crazy Americans at Tour de Romandie

What luck! The Tour de Romandie pro cycling race just happened to be held at the same time and in the same area as our Alphorn lessons, in the french area of Switzerland. With two days of lessons fresh under our belts, and our newly-purchased Alphorn itching to be played, we woke up Saturday morning ready to do a different kind of "cheering" for the pro cyclists.

We put on our cycling clothes, Jeff strapped on the backpack containing the Alphorn, and we proceeded to bike from the town of Sierre up the mountain to a village called Vercorin, the location of one of the King of the Mountains points banners.

Along the way up we stopped at an overlook and did a little practicing. Wanted to make sure we remembered how to play before we got around a lot of other race spectators! Plus it's just a nice way to enjoy the view. Jeff demonstrated just how easy it is to lift the carbon fiber horn into the air while playing... Can't do this with a traditional wood one...
Once we got to the top of the mountain, we found a perfect spot where we could see the pro cyclists approaching from way down in the valley. So we did a little more warming up there while cooling down from the bike climb.
While we waited for the pros to arrive, I biked down there to the end of the road before it curves around the hill, to see how it sounds while Jeff played Alphorn from our viewpoint. I was amazed by how well I could hear it so far down there... how it echoed off the surrounding mountains. Just as the Alphorn was originally intended to do, of course...
We got lots of questions and attention from the other spectators who were also standing around waiting for the racers to come through. Of course, the questions were either in French or Swiss German so a lot of the time our answers were to smile and nod, just as almost every day in our lives here (!) We did get to use some of the French we learned in high school, which was fun, even though it mostly just consisted of phrases pertaining to where we live and where we're from... People seem to always be surprised to find that we're American, playing their Swiss National instrument. We are told all the time that we are "more Swiss than they are"!

Luckily the racers soon showed up to take the attention off of us for a while...

They were obviously very focused on the KOM banner coming up around the corner, but some couldn't help but turn their heads toward us when they heard the sound of the Alphorn...In general it seems the Swiss spectators are on the quiet, reserved side. There may be a hand-clap at the moment that the racers pass by, but sometimes they seem to enjoy just watching silently. So we did our best to balance out the silence with our combination of Alphorn and cow-bell ringing. Crazy Americans? Well, if that means enthusiastic, loud, cheering spectators, then I guess that's what we are!
Allez Allez Allez! Bravo!!!
Becky

Bringing it all together ...

We've just returned from a wonderful long weekend in the French-speaking Alpine village of Nendaz. The 2-day Alphorn course offered us an opportunity to reconnect to one of our first passions in life and the one that brought us together back in 1987: music. It also offered a chance to connect this passion to our love of the mountains and surprisingly, to our love of sport. (More on the last one later!) We felt very fortunate to have studied music as kids and later in college - it certainly helped in our ability to learn this traditional Alpine instrument. After a few hours of lessons, we were able to make music on the Alphorn -- and in a spectacular setting. We recorded some video on the second day of the course, so please envision yourself enjoying a glass of wine while sitting on a sunny terrace in the Alps hearing the following:



We felt such a strong connection to this instrument that we found an Alphorn maker with a shop just a couple hours from Nendaz, visited him Friday evening, and actually bought two carbon fiber Alphorns. On Saturday we biked part of the Tour de Romandie professional bike race mountain stage with an Alphorn on my back, with the plan to play it as the peleton cycled by. This lead to one of the most interesting and exciting blending of passions, tradition, technology, sport, nature, languages, culture, and people. What a fantastic experience!

More on our new Alphorns and the crazy American couple playing the Alphorn at the Tour de Romandie in the next post!

Cheers,
Jeff