Lazy Sunday afternoon at home, December 2018:

– M: What are you browsing, honey?
– L: I’m registering for mountain trail running races in summer. Shall I register you as well?
– M: Umm, yeah (probably).

Foggy summer day in mountains near Ticino. My leg is cramped, and my arm started to cramp. 10km left, and from now on only downhill. Runners whom I overtook on the uphill course started to pass me. Stupid me, I should have drunk electrolytes instead of Cola at hydration stations. “Uno chilometro left!” Finally, a finish line. All of a sudden, some glitch in my brain turned “f*ck this shit” into “I want more of this”.

Afterwards, one more trail race and the first city marathon before signing up for something bigger. Laura planted a seed again.

In between, our constantly running friend Audinga said something along these lines: “M you got long and skinny legs, you should take a photo and send to my running coach Jonas. He might consider coaching you guys”. Short conversation, and we were in. Jonas was taking care of our preparation for the Lausanne marathon.

Thanks to him, each of us logged close to 1000km during a couple of months. Constant tiredness and heavy legs made training for climbing nearly impossible. So, for a moment it was put aside.

I’m running in a forest. The sun is setting, and I see it disappearing through branches. Home is still not in a visible distance, and my energy is falling low. I am tired and hungry, and I don’t have a headlamp with me. Suddenly, Patricia Kokett - Mmuo Trance starts playing in my ears, and a blast wave of energy kicks in. What a trip!

It turned out that the whole summer was dedicated to running with a few occasional days on rocks. Actually, it felt rewarding to follow at least some plan in my life.

The marathon run was a totally new experience. The first ~32km felt easy, no signs of tiredness. I even started to question myself whether I should start running faster. But then, suddenly I hit a wall, and all easiness completely vanished. The last 10km were a constant struggle trying to trick brains to not drop from the race.

Although, nowadays grades do not matter, but for the record the finishing times were 3:39:07 (M) and 3:48:33 (L).

Some weeks afterwards were full of emptiness. Luckily, there was a new plan…