The hills are alive with the sound of music....

...oops, stop... that's Austria.

Jungfrau logo on cake

So, my husband's 40th birthday party was last night, and even though his birthday isn't for a few days yet, I gave him his main present from me early. For years now, Andy has had it as his goal to run the Jungfrau Marathon in Switzerland by the time he was 40. So, all but certain that he had given up on that idea in the face of my supreme indifference, I registered him for the 2012 event and presented that to him for his gift.

He's a lucky duck, though, because I didn't just give him the gift of a race to run himself, I gave him the gift of someone to share the experience with. Namely, I registered myself, too.

Now, I don't know much about the Jungfrau except for what I have seen online. I also know that Andy did Pikes Peak originally to see if Jungfrau would be something he could manage. The Jungfrau Marathon starts in Interlaken, Switzerland, which is at 566 meters elevation and ends in Kleine Scheidegg, Switzerland, with an elevation of 2100 meters. The first half is relatively flat, I hear, while the second half is a grueling climb up past amazing views of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau mountains. It's the Alps, baby! The cutoff for the event is 6.5 hours, and there is a very real possibility that I won't make it.  There's international travel involved, the kids to think about, and a thousand other considerations.  But, for now, that's the plan.

So, that is now my big goal for 2012. It's a crazy thing to do, and I am sure I'll have a lot to say about it once training gets underway.  For now, though, to find a way to work on my German...

http://www.jungfrau-marathon.ch/ws2/en/marathon2/route/panorama2/

As a footnote, I wanted to hit the trails for eight miles today, but I only managed about three before calling it a day.  Apparently, the beer I had last night affected me more than I thought.  The mild headache I experienced this morning in the aftermath of the party expanded into a head-throbbing menace once I started running.  With every other step I felt as though my pumpkin head were going to roll off my shoulders and smash to pieces on the ground.  Ah well.  I guess I am too old for this partying stuff.

So, now that my long run has been undermined, I think this upcoming week's exercise schedule will have to include a run after yoga tomorrow, a longer run on Wednesday, and then maybe my Pikes Peak treadmill interval on Thursday.  Saturday I head out for my five-wo/man team relay.  This will be the fourth year we've done this and just to mix things up a bit my team has opted not to choose our legs ahead of time.  We're going to draw them out of a hat before the start.  Should be interesting.  With my luck I'll end up with legs 2 and 3, which would mean 14 miles of hills.  Aside from the fact that that would just plain be unappealing to me, there are actually members of my team who would be bummed they weren't getting the hills.  We might have to go with a "white elephant" style selection process.  In any event, it will no doubt provide a tale to tell later.

Run happy, be happy!