Welsh fell runner Mark Davies wins ‘Special Achievement’ award for tackling the daunting Swiss Peaks 360 race…

Welsh fell runner Mark Davies wins ‘Special Achievement’ award for tackling the daunting Swiss Peaks 360 mountain race…

 

Introduction by Don Hale. Photos by Mark Davies.

 

North Wales Road Runners were successful in three separate categories at the Sport Conwy awards night on (25/11/22) including endurance athlete Mark Davies who won the ‘Special Achievement’ award for his incredible performance in the Swiss 360 mountain ultra-running race. Earlier this year I asked Mark if he would recall the highlights from his epic challenge.

Mark now provides an exclusive, unique, and very personal account of his incredible challenge, and it is understood that he was the first Welshman and UK based finisher in this race.

I entered this race ten-months ago as I needed a massive challenge, the distance (236 miles), elevation (83,000ft), so the difficulty of the course ticked all the boxes. 

I'm now lying in my bed however, with legs like an elephant, and wondering what had just happened, and how the hell I managed to finish!

It all started at midday on a Sunday in Oberwald. The first couple of climbs teased and went relatively fast both just up 2,000 ft, then dropping 2,000ft to a Valley’s below; the third climb started to show you what was coming. It was a 4,300 ft climb up to an 8,850 ft col, but at the top 100/1,500 ft, I started to feel altitude effects for the first time. I was weak, with nausea, and headaches, but it soon cleared when descending. 

After passing through a few aid stations with food and drink, my first problem started to show, my dietary requirements. I’m gluten free and Vegan. And all I had was a few mixed nuts and fruits but that was OK. I still had my own flapjacks and gels. 

The first main Life Base arrived at thirty miles, the hot food was pasta (which was no good to me), so I grabbed a few handfuls of crisps and fruit, and then some more flapjacks from my drop bag, and set off again.

The climbs now were all mostly up 4,500 ft and down the same. The scenery though, was getting more beautiful, and the ground underfoot more technical, even slowing the descents to a walk. 

In the middle of the first night, I started to struggle, I began to feal weak and tired, so I took my first short sleep, just twenty-minutes at the side of the track.

I awoke feeling better, but I was struggling to eat anything. My tongue was getting ulcers, and I was forcing down antacids to try to tame the heartburn but carried on up and down the mountains, starving and weak till I reached the main Checkpoint 2, hoping for some decent food. 

I arrived to find some Pallenta, and tomato sauce. I took out my bowl and handed it to the catering assistant. When I received it back, I found the tomato sauce was really beef Bolognese, so I just sat there and had a choice to make…eat or quit the race, so I ate! 

I then slept for two-hours and set off again, up, and down massive climbs and descents, enjoying some amazing scenery, and then napping in bushes, or on benches, and some aid stations along the way. The volunteers up, were some of the nicest friendliest people I have ever met. 

By half-way I kept passing the same people and chatted away. I met a few but ended up spending a lot of hours with a Swedish guy called Magnus, who it later turned out, I would spend the last few days finishing the race with.

The second and third day was where the terrain became very difficult. The section after Grande Dixence at halfway was incredibly slow-going, with a mix of bristley scree and tryfan, up and down in the wet for thirty miles, it was tough but incredible!

The terrain got slightly easier over the last sixty miles with the climbs getting shorter as we got closer to the finish in Bouveret, on the shores of Lake Geneva. By now though, my feet were bruised and swollen, with crazy foot pains. The fatigue was taking its toll, but it still remained good fun, in an odd sort of way. 

*Mark Davies (in yellow top) with fellow competitors in the Swiss 360 race.

The last night was a push to the finish. I had a plan to finish in under five days, so we went for it, pushing as hard as possible but we were so tired by Life Base 6, that we just had to stop and grab an hour’s sleep, which turned into two-hours, anyway up and off again through the last night to another amazing sunrise. 

Finally getting down to the finish with Magnus in 122 hours and 39 minutes. We finished in 34th and 35th positions. A quick dip in the lake then a taxi to my hotel. After just under seven-hours sleep in five days, I finally got into bed, and then slept for fourteen-hours straight. I later woke, and then ate some food, Vegan again, before sleeping for another couple of hours. 

 

Mark finally added: I wrote this novel whilst it was fresh in my mind, now I'm off for another sleep. The Swiss Peaks 360 has been one of the most crazy, stunning, and incredible experiences of my life. I knew it was going to be insanely hard, but it was beyond that. The pain will go, but the memories will last forever!

*Mark Davies (*above - far left) with NWRRC team members at the Sport Conwy awards night where he won the 'Special Achievement' award for his incredible Swiss 360 run. He is pictured with Carla Green, John and Kay Hatton, and Ian Turner. The club won the event of the year prize with the Nick Beer road race, and John Hatton deservedly won another prestigious award for 'Services to Sport.'