Clonliffe`s Brian McMahon was back in the Alps again today. Last week Brian was Ireland`s first finisher in the World Mountain Trophy today he put in an unbelieveable performance in the World Long distance Mountain Running Championship over the full marathon distance in the Jungfrau-Marathon finishing in 6th place in 3.07.44. The five athletes in front of him were an Austrian, Slovenian, Kenyan, Swiss and American. As regards the course to give an indication of just how tough this race is here`s an extract from the official web site:

A great experience and an adventure – the idea of the Jungfrau Marathon

After the start a 3 km loop through Interlaken the course goes along the beautiful lake Brienz. The first 10 km are flat, like at a city marathon. At the old wooden bridge in Wilderswil the runner is confronted with the first ascent of the marathon. The course goes further into the valley and reaches Lauterbrunnen – a very impressive place with it’s 400 metre high cliffs and 72 waterfalls. The last flat loop of 6 km shows the competitor the prettiness of the Lauterbrunnen valley. Now kilometre 26 is reached and the strong ascents begin. It takes 26 turns to Wengen at 1274 metre above sea level is reached. But there are still 12 km and a altitude and difference of 1’000 metres to go…

Mettlenalp, Wengernalp is reached, the trees fade away and the impressive mountains Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau get nearer and nearer. We are now above 1600 metres. At km 40 we reach the highlight: the moraine on which every runners pulse beats as high as possible. The last km goes down and after 42,195 km the finish line on the Kleine Scheidegg is reached.