Alpine Expedition (APEX) Race

Name of Race: Alpine Expedition Switzerland
Website: http://www.theapexrace.com/
Date of Race: May 24-29, 2011
Location of Race: Bernese Oberland/Interlaken, Switzerland
Type of Event: Adventure Racing
Distance/Length of Event: 4-5 Days

It had been a rough spring leading up to the APEX race for me.  I’d been battling a back injury since February and my training had mainly consisted of swimming, yoga and lots of rest in the months leading up to this mountain adventure race.  Not exactly ideal considering this race would bring some of the best adventure racers around since it was an Adventure Racing World Championship (ARWC) qualifier.

I didn’t like the fact I wouldn’t be even close to 100% trained or near 100% healthy going into this but there weren’t many/any other options and my great teammates accepted this and were very supportive.  I was hoping ‘experience’ would make up for my fitness and pain medications would offset my injury.

The organization for the APEX race was the same group who put on Untamed New England, which was a major reason for us choosing this race.  We knew Grant Killian and Staffan Källbäck would put on a top-notch albeit brutally tough race.  It was potentially going to be the most scenic adventure race ever put on with a few fun adventure activities like paragliding, canyoneering and whitewater rafting thrown in.

The team consisted of the regular RF trio of John Ranson, James Galipeau and myself along with ultra-runner extraordinaire Audrey Kelly.  We’d raced Worlds with Audrey last year and knew this brutal course would be perfect for her.

We arrived in beautiful Interlaken a few days before race start where we set about getting our rental bikes, shopped for food and sorted our gear bins.  It was great to see our Canadian friends on the Tree Huggers, along with strong US teams Untamed New England and Dart-nuun-SportMulti who rounded out the North American contingent.

Race registration went very smooth and the pre-plotted maps (love that!) were provided with plenty of time to map our routes and establish some strategies.

The race started with a prologue consisting of 4 approximate 90-minute mini-races which would be timed to establish seeding for a staggered start.  Our strategy going in was to keep it steady and not push too hard since the difference between redlining and steady would only cost us a few minutes in a multi-day race.  Of course once the race start was signalled all that logic went out the window and we found ourselves going out much harder than planned and feeling pretty rough after only about 4 hours of racing in the very hot conditions. 

The prologue had us seeded somewhere in the middle of the pack, about 30 full minutes behind the leaders after only a few short hours of racing.  The restart had a 7km run through Interlaken to the first TA featuring a 28km Lake Thunersee kayak paddle.  The paddle was uneventful as the boats were slow and we maintained our mid-pack position while paddling into the night and into CP5/TA2 where we’d be cycling.

It was a little tough getting out of Faulensee, where the TA was, but we made it onto the roads leading to Frutigen and towards Kandersteg, where we had a bike drop to a 3 checkpoint run in the mountains.  We decided to bring our shoes instead of running in our bikes shoes, which I think was a good idea given the tough terrain, even if it did mean we had to carry our shoes for the entire 70km bike.  The run went well and we passed a few teams in this short orienteering-like section. 

Back on the bikes it was now time to start some real mountain climbing, where we’d climb about 500m in just 3km or so.  The steep pitch forced us to push our bikes instead of ride them and around this time I started feeling my lack of fitness kick in.  That, or the heat of the day… or the redlining effort during the prologue.  Whatever the reason (most likely a combination of all 3 things) I had zero energy and every time I took in some calories I thought I was going to be sick.  My pace was significantly slowing down our team so James took my pack while I walked my bike up pitches that should have been ride-able.  I was really really suffering… and for probably the first time in a long time or maybe ever, I was starting to doubt that I would be able to finish this race.  I started drafting resignation speeches in my head to potentially say to my teammates.  It was the lowest I have felt racing in a long time!

I felt like this for hours until we decided to take a 15-minute nap hoping that would help me feel better.  At least on a positive note, my back which had been nagging me the first day, seemed okay now and had accepted that I was going to race with our without it bothering me.

Once we awoke from our nap, I felt a bit better and we were now descending into the town of Krattigen, about halfway done the first bike leg and now into the daylight of race Day 2. 

In Krattigen we discovered one of the pure pleasures of adventure racing in Europe.  The ease and convenience of buying real food!  We loaded up on a ham & cheese sandwich and cold Coke which did wonders for our strength and morale.  I felt much better after the quick meal stop and shortly after we were in TA3 in Lauterbrunnen, an absolutely stunning alpine location.

After buying a bunch more real food, including some delicious ice cream cones, we set off on the long alpine trek.  I was glad to be feeling back to normal now, however, we still took it steady here, knowing we had thousands of meters of climbing in this section.  It was another hot and sunny day so we made sure to drink lots of water along the way (another HUGE bonus of racing here was fresh clean spring outlets everywhere… no need to purify or source water!).  Up and up we went surrounded by the spectacular Swiss Alps.

The highest point of the trek was Schilthorn, a peak made famous in the James Bond movie On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.  As we neared it the pleasant weather took a turn for the worse and we soon found ourselves highly exposed in a thunderstorm, with lightning crashing around us amidst a downpour of hail and rain.  We located a small rock outcrop where all 4 of us hid under, in hopes of protection from the elements.  We shivered in there for about 20 minutes until the rain let up a bit and the lightning had appeared to pass.  After quickly changing out of our wet clothes we climbed up to the snow covered Schilthorn – elevation 2970m.

It was very slow going in the slushy snow and for every two steps forward you slid at least one back.  Once at Schilthorn it was busy inside, where many teams had obviously been waiting out the bad weather.  Since it was warm and we’d only slept 15 minutes so far we decided to bed down for another 15 minutes in the comfort of a building.

For the rest of the trek we pushed on, being treated to more breathtaking views while race Day 2 came to a close and our trek continued on in the night fog.

We made it back to Lauterbrunnen, also TA4, and were provided some cozy cabins to sleep in.  We decided to take a long 2 hour sleep here, since we’d been racing now for over 2 days on just around 30 minutes of sleep.

Once awake we headed out on the second (and last bike leg) which would pass by the famous Eiger and Jungfrau mountains where we’d encounter lots of climbing.  The initial trail proved too steep and once again we were off our bikes and pushing them uphill.  The weather had changed from the previous days of sunshine and it now rained steadily.  It was a bit of a welcome relief compared to heat we’d been enduring.  By the time we reached our first of two cycling summits at Kleine Scheidegg the rain had turned to snow and we took refuge in a summit restaurant while loading up on some calories with delicious sausages and fries.

After riding down with our bellies full we made the second climb up to Grosse Scheidegg and back down through the snow-covered roads with frozen fingers and into the Innerkirchen TA.

The next section from here was canyoneering but since it was now after the dark zone safety restrictions didn’t allow canyoneering and it instead now was an out-and-back checkpoint with a mandatory 2hr rest once back at the TA.  We ran a lot of this 20km half-road run when I think most teams were walking by now.  I think moved us into the top-10, one of our goals for the race but the damage on the feet were starting to show as most of us were now with a few blisters.

Once back in Innerkirchen we served our 2-hr penalty, which after some mapping and transition time gave us almost an hour nap before heading out on another alpine trek.  A few CP’s had been removed so our distance and elevation was shortened but it was still a tough trek and we started thinking about our position in the race, so we pushed pretty hard, especially when we saw other teams.  The navigation had been going very well for us for most of the race but I had a few screw-ups here which cost us an hour or two, but thankfully it appeared many of our rivals did as well since we didn’t lose any positions.  Once again, we were surrounded by spectacular scenery.

The paddling cut-off was 2pm and we ended up with 90-minutes to spare when we got to the TA and transitioned into paddling.  I was secretly hoping the end of the paddle could be the end of our race since I knew the last trek was estimated to be about the same amount of time left in the race.  Upon reaching the end of the paddle I found out my wish did not come true and we still had to do the trek, but could drop CPs as long as dropped in the proper order.

We had about 17 hours left, the winners had done it in 13 and our feet were pretty trashed.  We’d also only had 3.5 hours sleep over the past 4 days of racing so we’d likely also need a sleep in there.  We took a while at the end of the paddle chatting about all scenarios.  Due to the nature of the course, we decided to go for just 2 CP’s which we estimated would still take us 10 hours of tough climbing and descending.  Following us to the first trekking CP of that leg was Randy Ericksen, who was there filming the Apex video as seen here. 

We made it to the first peak of Harder Kulm shortly before nightfall and decided to have a 1-hour nap to get us through to the finish via Augstmatthorn, which was our second CP of the last section.  It was slow going along the ridgeline, the trail was very technical and far from a straight feed towards our next peak.  We made it to Augstmatthorn sometime around 3am that night, and then proceeded down into the valley to the north to take the roads and trails near Habkern into the finish line.

I was moving really slow at this point due to all my blisters and some chafing and others were also dealing with some foot and leg issues so it was tough mentally as we could not run the downhill roads into Interlaken.  It was feeling like a death march as we slowly knocked off km after km all while fighting off sleep until finally we hit the beautiful finish line banner of the APEX race.

Our finish was good enough for 8th place in the rankings out of the 28 teams who competed.  I am extremely happy and proud of our result especially given the circumstances going into this race with my fitness and injury.  Our goal was top-10 and we achieved it.  My teammates were incredible and helped me every time I was feeling rough or slow.  The scenery was spectacular.  The organization superb.  And the volunteers were incredible every time we needed them.

This was the hardest adventure race I’ve ever competed in and I’m not just saying that due to my lack of fitness or injury problems.  It was insanely hilly.  If you weren’t going up, you were going down.  The hills along with the pace of all the elite teams there made it one tough race.  However, the reward of the scenery, organization and volunteers all made the suffering worth it.

I hope the APEX race will be a mainstay on the AR world circuit, it was an incredible race and I would highly recommend this to any adventure racer.  Just make sure you get in A LOT of hill training before!