Inferno Triathlon

The Swiss continue astound me with their mountainous endurance events, Saturday 20th August was the Inferno Triathlon, and the Inferno half marathon. The triathlon is a 3.1km swim in Thunersee followed by a 127km cycle and 25km run. Not so impressive distances really, a bit beyond middle distance but not in the long distance category of triathlons.
Except the cycle for this event includes a hilly ride before the HC climb of Grosse Sheidegg for 2145m ascent AND THEN a mountain bike section over the Kleine Scheidegg, another 1180m ascent.
Some say ironman events are all a warmup for a marathon, but this one is a warm up for the hill climb / hike up the Schilthorn at 2970m (aka James Bond restaurant), a massive 2175m ascent from Stechelberg.
We made the most of the excellent weather to hike up the Shilthorn to see some of the
race. We were at the top early afternoon, so we saw the half marathon guys approaching the top. Its incredibly steep in places and the final 1km saw me hanging on to the cable by the narrow ledges, but these guys seemed to pass by at great speed to the revolving restaurant at the top.
We managed to return down the mountain to Murren and see some of the slower triathletes passing through the village. Some looked very tired already, and this was only the start of the hike.
The swim in lake Thun, hilly cycle and mtb sections sound great to me, and if the run were a nice plod back to Interlaken Id be signing up right away, but this is for serious fell runners only!
Another event I wont be signing up for any time soon.

The winning time was 7.53.12 by a local guy Samuel Hürzeler. Fastest female was Andrea Husler in 8.42.21.