Meet Tom, the winner of the Sponser Sports Food X Muuvr EXP Challenge, who earned the incredible opportunity to race in one of the most beautiful marathons in the world by sweating – the Jungfrau Marathon!

We reached out to Tom with a few questions about his experience, how he earned his race entry and his love of Muuvr!

How did Winning the Muuvr X Sponser Sports Food EXP Challenge get you the start line?🏃🏻‍♂️

When I first signed up for the Muuvr app earlier this year, I came across the ‘Muuvr X Sponser EXP Challenge for the Jungfrau Marathon’. I had heard about the Jungfrau Marathon before – it’s considered a ‘rite of passage’ for English runners transitioning from road running to trail running. While I knew of famous British trail runners who had participated in this race early in their careers, I had never seriously considered it for myself. Most of my racing takes place in the UK, at longer ultra-trail distances, but I figured it was worth entering the competition!

It turns out, I didn’t even realise I had won until the second-place person congratulated me! The competition had coincidentally lined up with an 80km overnight adventure I did one Friday, followed by a week of holiday and training. Between walking my dog and running, I ended up with two consecutive weeks of 150km and 3000m+ elevation training. It felt like I was literally levelling up my experience, so learning that I had won the competition at the same time was the icing on the cake!

What was your experience like running the Jungfrau Marathon? 🧠

This race and the opportunity, beautifully presented to me by Muuvr and Sponser, was truly one of the best race experiences I have ever had. As someone who came from a trail running background in the mountains (when I used to live briefly in Japan), Interlaken in Switzerland is essentially heaven on earth. Once I arrived there, by train, I was also caught up in the amazing race atmosphere that was present in the centre of town. I enjoyed making the most of the pre-race pasta party, seeing the mini-marathons and family races with so many supporters cheering them on, watching the start of the Harder Klum up hill race near the funicular station, and chatting to the other entrants of the race that filled my dormitory in the lovely Adventure hostel. It felt like a town devoting itself, across the weekend, to running – which I loved. And pausing at the start line you can clearly see the mountains I would run to on the skyline, what an awesome setting for a mountain race. It was just absolutely amazing!

The race itself was also beautiful, well organized and so well supported it often made me smile as I ran along. And the finish, well it’s absolutely amazing in person.

What was the most rewarding moment for you during the marathon? 🤝

The Jungfrau marathon is an extremely demanding race, especially if you want to get the best performance you can from yourself and race it like you would a flat road marathon. To pace the first flat road section and then the mid race climbs correctly and then arrive at the final mountain path with energy left for the finishing climb is a difficult task, especially to someone unused to climbing such a huge elevation gain in a single push. My little Peak District hills pale in comparison to the Swiss mountains. So for me as someone who probably went out too fast and then was cramping (bringing me back down to walking pace) as I passed the final large Wixi checkpoint, the final push up to the finish was the most satisfying and rewarding moment for me. Knowing I would be able to stop trying to manually override my legs as they were desperate to cramp up! And get over that finish line in one piece.

Additionally the beauty throughout the race – as you run through the valleys and up towards the Eiger also cannot be underestimated.

In all honesty the entire course was both beautiful and challenging, and I would love to train more at uphill running, and on a less sunny and scorching hot day, see just how much of the full course I could attempt to ‘run’!

Would You Do It Again? ⚖️

Absolutely. The entire course was both beautiful and challenging. I’d love to train more for uphill running and, on a cooler day, see just how much of the course I could actually run. The challenge is real, but so is the allure of running through such breathtaking scenery.