Zermatt Marathon Gavin Long reports: Wow, that was tough! Despite 6 marathons in 7 months, and every hilly race in the UK that I could fit in, I was still a long way from being in the right condition to tackle such an event. The scenery was spectacular, and my first view of the Matterhorn as I crested a hill at the 20K mark will stay with me forever. The fantastic route took me through forests, over mountain streams, along ski paths, past isolated Alpine chalets and up more hills than I ever want to see again. After 39K and 5 tough hours, I was faced with the hardest slope of the day – 3K of continual climbing to Europe’s highest altitude finish line. I could hardly put one foot in front of the other.