Across the Alps 2012 or maybe later...

I wanted a challenge to get my arse back off the chair. Two or three years ago I had been a mediocre runner of marathons. In 2007, after a painful and embarrassing five-hour "run" up and down the hills of Istanbul, I stopped running and took up couch-potatoing.

More recently, while thoughtfully weighing the pros and cons of a life eating yummy unhealthy things on our comfy livingroom sofa I realized that somehow I needed to trick myself off the sofa if I was to achieve something grand and manly in my lifetime. Nothing against five-hour marathons, but I, emperor of the livingroom sofa, needed something bigger! Other people had discovered the North Pole, sailed around the world or crossed the Alps, feats that had fed the imagination of whole generations and I had stumbled through Istanbul... -- "hang on", I thought, "I love the Alps!!" And right there, smiling like a Himalayan king, the cold wind of adventure touched my cheek - right where the pillow had left its mark...

Chance has it that there is indeed a single-stage race across the Alps - the Cro-Magnon Extreme Race. This year, it is 112km long with all in all 5700m altitude climbs. In 2008 it had been won in 9 hrs and 31 minutes by Dachhiri-Dawa Sherpa, born in 1969 in 2700m altitude in a small village just around the corner from Mt Everest. Some 19 hrs after him brave Pietro Bernardo, the last of the 340, made it across the finish line. In 2009 the race was called off due to bad weather and 1.2m snow. Wow!!

If 340 people could do it, why not me? If I'm still young enough for a crazy sportive feat, why not now? If this isn't a chance to - realistically - do something actually pretty impossible, then what is?

So last 7 April 2010 I started to run. Realistically, I need two years training. This blog shall serve as my training diary.