From Setback to Comeback: 10 Key Lessons Learned DNFing The Eiger E250 Ultra Trail

Almost one month after the start of Eiger E250, a grueling but stunning 250 km trail running event in Switzerland with 18,000 meters of elevation, I think about the lessons I’ve learned after needing to DNF at kilometer 175 due to an injury. 

There were a ton of things I could have done better, but all of them can be summed up in one short sentence: I wasn’t ready. 

But next time, I will be.

What is Eiger E250?

Eiger E250 is an ultra-trail running event in the heart of Switzerland. It starts in the beautiful village of Grindelwald and then loops around Europe’s largest glacier. Two —or three-member teams can complete the race, which has a maximum time limit of 95 hours. 

While the time limit initially looks more than welcoming, the mileage and 18,000 meters of elevation will test your resolve every day. There’s no imposed sleeping schedule, and the best of the best manage to run it with only one hour of sleep. 

The track is filled with grueling climbs and razor-steep descends, and the terrain is a bit of a mess, to be honest. Participants pass through snowy single trails at 3,000 meters of elevation while getting scorched at 35+ degrees Celsius during the day. The night bites your fingers while you cross windy glaciers, and your religion kicks in when you pray that the morning will not bring another day of rain. 

With all considered, it’s the most spectacular place I’ve ever been to and one where I’ve learned more about ultras than in the last eight years since I started.

Now that you get the gist of the race profile let’s get into the lessons I learned.

How To Actually Finish Eiger E250, Or Any Steep, Neverending Ultra

Lesson #1: Master The 100-Miler

I’m not a patient guy when I choose my running goals. 

Eiger was my first event over 100 miles, and I can’t say I’ve nailed my first proper 100-miler. I ran Nice 100M (165 km with 9000m diff+) last year, and I managed to finish it in 43 hours and change after I walked the last 20 km due to a swollen knee.

I thought I could finish Eiger by having a better training regime, but I realized that all the preparation in the world can not beat experience.

The difference between a regular 100-mile trail event and something like this is huge; it’s like the difference between racing a car on a track and building one, Top Gear style, and using it to cross Africa. 

It’s an event that will expose every weakness you have, so to withstand it, you’ll first have to ace the prior step: 100-mile races. 

So, before you jump to this stage, make sure you are quick enough in proper 100-mile races (and by proper, I mean those with around 10,000 meters of elevation gain) to finish them in under 35 hours and feel like you have more left in the tank.

If you’ve managed to “cheat” until this step and walk it off to the finish, I can tell you that it works for events up to 160 kilometers, but it won’t work beyond this point. 

It’s simply better to be more cautious, have enough 100-mile races under your belt, and then move upwards. You’re safe to cross the border when you feel that distance holds no mysteries to you at a decent pace.

Lesson #2: Train Properly

I won’t delve too much into this subject, as if you’re reading this, you likely already know how to train for long-distance events. However, I will highlight some common mistakes to avoid if you expect to finish an endeavor like this.

Get Faster

In the initial part of your training block, work on your VO2 Max and your speed, even if it’s on flats. The longer time you spend on a course, the more you expose yourself to an increasing amount of triggers to fail.  

These include things such as weather, your stomach giving you a hard time, a badly placed step resulting in an ankle twist, a lack of sleep, or the state of your feet. 

Move fast to avoid that. The longer it takes, the harder it gets. So, ideally, improving your flat marathon time will help.

Ascend Quicker

Use that initial VO2 block to build the muscles for hills. Incorporate speed training on steep slopes and make sure to increase that as training progresses. Make routines such as pyramid training and pole running on hills your friends, as they will certainly benefit your goal. 

Don’t Skip The Gym

I always wondered why someone who runs uphill every day and sprints needs to go to the gym to do leg work. Well, I found that out the hard way, as the descents absolutely killed my quads, exposed weak links, and eventually led to an injury that prevented me from bending my knee while descending.

Avoid that by working out your leg muscles and, most importantly, your balance. 

Get coaching advice, and don’t treat it lightly.

Go Long & Specific

It’s a bit evident, but you’ll need to have a period of long runs, at least on the weekends, where you’ll train at least six hours on similar terrain. Doing back-to-back days, such as Saturday and Sunday, will help, and having one week of every day long run day is even better. 

Of course, this requires a lot of time, but if you don’t have that luxury, simply make sure you’ve had a decent two-month period of long weekend runs.

Stretch

It’s boring, I know, and I believe that stretching is a practice that rubs on you only if you’ve hit a dead spot. That’s sure what’s happened to me. 

I’ve always known it’s important, but I’ve rarely done it. I’m here to serve as yet another witness to the power of stretching, or better said, the downsides of not. 

Due to the lack of it, I’ve caught ITBS and had to stop the race. Meanwhile, I’ve been following successful athletes along the race; most of them did stretching daily. The point is that your muscles contract so many times, leading to shortages that damage your tendons. 

Make sure you stretch at least three times a week. 

Lesson #3: Train The Mind

Before you set out on an event of this size, make sure your mind knows racing well. It’s easy to forget the feeling of a start line and get comfortable with your easy, long runs. 

So, pick out a couple of races, at least 70 km long, before the main event. I would make sure the last one is at least one month away so your body has enough time to recover. 

Use these events to work on your fueling strategy, tweak what works best for your legs and doesn’t cause blisters, and, most importantly, get the hang of being in a tough spot again. 

You’re going to hit the wall so many times in an event such as Eiger 250 that you better get used to it. It doesn’t count if you did anything hard last year; you need fresh victories of the mind above hardship. It will make matters easier as your mind knows there’s a path beyond the wall. 

Lesson #4: Numbers Don’t Count

I remember thinking about events last year when I picked my race in Nice. Mileage wasn’t a problem, or at least I thought, but I was scared about climbing 9,000 meters. You see, my hardest performance before hovered around 6,000 meters, and I saw the 3,000-meter difference as something from another planet.

I wasn’t sure my legs or knees could take it. To my surprise, during that 100-mile event, I learned I had to descend 10,000 meters, as the track started from altitude and finished at sea level. That took me by surprise (as I hadn’t been paying attention) and jeopardized my final 20 km of the race, where my mind refused to run, and I had to walk until the finish. 

Something similar happened in Eiger 250 this year. 

First, I can say I was better prepared, simply by the sheer difference in numbers. I had knowledge of climbing 9,000 meters, but now I had to climb twice that and to a steeper degree. 

I played a mind game with myself, as it was unimaginable to comprehend that number. I said I would figure it out as long as I kept going and put one foot in front of the other. I wasn’t aiming for the podium, but I had a goal of 72 hours to finish, which roughly puts you in 20th place.

Well, that went out the door when I found out that people in Switzerland can also make mistakes. In a country well-known for its precision, you get to an endurance event advertised as having 15,000 meters of elevation in printed brochures, 18,000 meters on the official website, or 22,000 meters from people on Strava who made recon. 

I knew this a bit from a friend who had to withdraw last year (after being in the first position) and prepared for 20,000 meters. Two days before the start, we received the official GPX, which had 250 km and 20,000 meters. Game on. 

The tricky news arrived in Belalp, a wonderful small village situated around 140k down the course. We were preparing for around 30k with 1,660 meters of elevation until the next point. From the locals in that station, we found that every piece of information on the website, track, flyers, you name it, was wrong, and actually, the course is way longer. How much longer? They didn’t know. 

All they knew was that from Belap until the next aid station, Bellwald, we had at least 15k extra and much more to climb and descend. Going 45k with potentially 2,500 m+ without an aid station, past the middle point of the race, and with the night just starting, was not fun. 

Even though we decided to sleep in for three hours, it wrecked my strategy. I had taken caffeine earlier while we decided to have a 30-minute stop here and continue. The effect of that didn’t go away, and I couldn’t sleep at all, so when we “woke up,” I was a bit of a zombie. 

The lesson here is to be prepared for any surprise that might affect the numbers. Be it the total millage, descent, uphills, or even kilometers between aid stations.

In races this long, through terrain without a GPS signal, numbers are simply inventions. At one point, according to my watch, I was supposed to “descend” 90 meters of elevation, but I kept going down without seeing that number change. It felt more like 400 meters.

So be prepared to be surprised, and don’t forget: just keep going. It will eventually end. 

Lesson #5: Bulletproof Your Armor

I’ve said that preparation doesn’t beat experience, but it will surely help. There are so many things that you can improve to give you a better shot at finishing Eiger 250, and most of the important ones don’t impact the outcome of a standard 100-mile race:

Train Your Sleep

If your sleep is not bulletproof, make sure you nail that. I had no problems with this, but my running partner used to have issues with it. It took him one hour to fall asleep at night, only to be awakened in the middle of it and stare at the ceiling. 

He didn’t have a proper sleep schedule. He worked with a sleep coach who identified the leakages and provided guidance on improving. 

Not everyone needs a coach, but if you have sleep issues, stick to a schedule and go to bed earlier, around 10:00 p.m. 

Health & Nutrition

Seek the advice of a doctor, registered sports dietician, or nutritionist. I recommend one who understands that nutrition is key to health and performance. 

Get your blood tests done at least two times a year, and solve any related issues before trying to improve your athletics. 

All the expensive supplements won’t matter if you’re not healthy first. So, solve that first, and then dial in on nutrition. Eiger 250 will drain you anyway, so ensure you’re at a good starting point. 

Gear 

Do as much testing as possible in shorter events to ensure that every piece of gear you wear in this race is comfortable and practical. 

Your feet come first, so be ready to have even three pairs of sneakers if you need to change them, especially if it rains. Everything else, including your socks, backpack, water flasks, pole gloves, T-shirts, shorts, and pants, needs to be race-tested. Also, test different caffeine sources, food sources, and anti-chafing creams. 

Lesson #6: Pick Your Partner

Being a team event, picking out the other soul who will get through misery alongside you is crucial.

I’ve always been fortunate to have my friend Gabi sign up for crazy events alongside me. He’s significantly faster than me (podium-fast), but he agreed to team up considering we had no experience of an event this long, so for him, going slower was supposed to be safer.

While we were constantly hovering around the 20th place (until I broke down), we were still advancing pretty slowly by the standards of a 100-mile event. This difference in speeds can create surprising problems, such as choosing a pair of sneakers designed for faster running, and they become too rigid in walking. 

Details aside, you must understand that you’ll travel at the slowest pace combined in a team. If you have a low point and then a couple of hours your buddy has a low point, both of you will have to wait it out. 

While this may be slightly simpler to expect, some parts aren’t. One is the decision to keep going, even though it’s hard. As opposed to events when you can choose to push through breakpoints with your mind, this time, a decision must be accepted by your team members as well.

So, at one point, the acceptance of going through pain is not a solitary decision. Let’s say you’re done, and you want to walk the next 50 kilometers. This should be accepted by your running partner as well, who might be in very good shape to push through it.

The difference in fitness between partners becomes more important. The higher this difference is, the more pain the fittest runner will experience, as he may not be used to being on the road for this long. 

Ideally, both (or the three of you) run at a fairly similar pace. That’s pretty hard to accomplish, and I believe other values are more important in a race like this. 

Ensure you know the team well enough and finish at least one long race together beforehand. This will test the chemistry between you, and I believe that, at the end of the day, this is a vital element to completing Eiger 250. 

Lesson #7: Make A Plan

Ideally, heading out to Switzerland is the best option. Running the entire course in several days will prepare you for the race. But few people have the time and resources for that. I sure didn’t. 

So, the next best option was to get a track record of someone who completed the event last year and try to plan out different time scenarios for each. We’ve managed to get the 1k time splits from 2024’s six places on Strava and used that to approximate our time of day when we would reach certain points. 

We’ve also added information regarding the temperature at each aid station from previous years to understand better what gear we should carry. I can save you the work on this chapter, as between most aid stations, the temperature will vary between 0 degrees (Celsius) and 35, which requires carrying everything with you. 

Next, we’ve mapped four different completion scenarios, from a very optimistic one to a slow one, where things might go wrong. Here are the main elements  we’ve added to each aid station point besides mileage and elevation:

• The existence of a drop bag: This was important as those were our “safe” spots. We would replenish our nutrition packs and ensure we carried as little as possible between them.
• Sleep points: We chose where to sleep based on the time of day and the time difference between points in each scenario. It’s important to have this mapped out, even though race day might bring something different. 
• In / out times: At points where we slept, it was crucial to set a time for leaving. Even though our sleeping strategy was three hours, that actually translated into the time between entering that particular aid station and getting out, so we would most likely get only two hours of sleep. 
• Shower points: After being dragged 60 hours through heat, a 5-minute shower can make quite the difference, so we’ve marked down the most likely point where we can accomplish that. All of this is based on official information from Eiger. 
• Gear changes: Although this decision was made more on the spot, based on the current weather conditions, I ensured every drop bag had the necessary items to endure rain or hot weather. However, I’d chosen specific gear hours before the start, looking at the weather forecast.

These items were simply on-the-spot decisions. I can tell you right away that most plans go to waste, especially on a course this long, but at least you’ll have a framework to work off of. I personally made a plan for 67 hours, two for 73 hours, and one for 80 hours. 

Lesson #8: Get Ready To Carry

Throughout the route, our backpacks easily weighed between five and seven kilograms. Even 20 hours between aid stations is messy. However, the seven drop bag locations greatly help. 

The mandatory equipment list seems neverending, and you’ll have to carry with you, at all times, items that you’ve never owned. I would highlight a silk sleeping bag, two power banks (three in total for the team), a warm long-sleeved layer such as Primaloft, cups and cutlery, and more. 

Put all those in perspective, alongside nutrition for 20 hours, water, and other clothing items; your back will be under some stress. 

You can prepare yourself by adopting a heavier backpack in training. I used this technique from my coach, Robert Hajnal, the founder of Trail Running Academy and UTMB’s second place in 2018, and I can say it helped.

On your long runs, start with a heavy 10-liter water load in your backpack and carry that for 50 minutes—two hours uphill. Drop the water and continue ascending, or run down with a lighter backpack, ensuring you’re not putting a load on the knees on the descents. 

You can also tweak that and add it at the end of your long run when you’re tired.

Also, try to deload every item that you need but doesn’t have to be in your backpack throughout the whole race, such as a toothbrush, chaffing cream, clothes for changing, extra food, and even water.

Water is a big part of this, but Eiger’s course has sufficient water streams along the way, and Switzerland is known for great water. I haven’t carried more than one liter in the race but always recharged at a stream.

In the end, simply accept mentally that your backpack will be heavy. 

Lessons #10+: Extras:

Here are more points that will help:

• Bring a massage gun: I believe my muscles are cramping up more often because I don’t stretch, so I rely more on massages in aid stations to bring me back to strength. In Nice, for example, I was utterly frozen before the main life camps, only to fly like a pigeon after a 40-minute massage. There are zero massages available in Eiger during the race. When you finish, there’s an army of therapists that can help. So get a massage gun (I recommend the Theragun Pro Plus) and have access to it in the middle of the race (I would say Belap or Bellwald). 
• Zip-lock bags: Get a bunch of zip-lock bags of all sizes and use them to pack every item in your backpack. This will help you organize them better and protect them from rain. Do the same for spare items in the drop bag and label them to be easily recognizable.
• Feet first: I’ve rarely had troubles with prominent blisters in a 100-mile event, except when it rained heavily. The sheer distance of Eiger will, unfortunately, make this inevitable. Every aid station has personnel trained to take care of that for you, but if you miss the mark and have to go through twelve hours of suffering, it will be just awful. So study and learn how to fix it yourself on the spot. 
• Get a crew: If I had the privilege to be pampered and supported during a race, I would surely choose Eiger as the race for this to happen. Most teams in Eiger have extra support, which can make a difference, especially when something is not going to plan. So, if you can ask someone to travel through aid stations, don’t hesitate. It might make the difference between finishing or not, and it will surely cut down on time at aid stations. 
• Practice aid-station nutrition: You’ll find a list of each aid station’s available food. Unlike races outside of Switzerland, you can get a ton of raclette, meat stew, and pizza (restaurant-grade quality) here. The thing is that most outside participants haven’t run after eating these foods. Raclette is more complicated to make at home and use while training, but at least get the hang of running after ingesting plain pasta, salty soup, and pizza. The last one posed some problems for me, as after eating an entire pizza and going to sleep, my body took around twelve hours to recover fully. It was simply too heavy for my stomach. 
• It’s expensive: While the initial 450 EUR sign-up fee felt a bit much compared to other events, our total calculations put the costs of starting this race at around 2,800 EUR, without travel costs and accommodation. Compared to a regular 100-mile race, you need to buy a lot of extra gear, plus the nutrition that needs to be carried with you. The costs add up because most of this is gels, bars, and powder.

Have fun

The most important part is to enjoy this event. Yes, it’s a hell of a race, but personally, I haven’t felt so strong (in the first part) for quite some time. Forget about the numbers and simply live the moment, even though it’s painful. 

Just look around you; I promise the views are spectacular at every point of the race. It’s damn eye-watering at times. 

So, if you’re going after this next year or down the line, I hope this information helps and wish you the best of luck. If you want, you can reach out, and I can help further.

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