There are marathons, and then there are marathons where the organisers think that 26.2 miles isn’t quite enough of a challenge and decide to put a mountain in the way.

The Verbier Marathon in Switzerland falls very firmly into the latter category.

Part of the UTMB World Series, the Verbier Marathon is a 43.1km alpine trail race with more than 3,000m of climbing. It is described by the organisers as a “real alpine marathon”, combining runnable sections with technical mountain trails. The highest point is Mt Rogneux at 3,084m, so this is rather different from a few laps around the local roads.

Fortunately, Bournemouth AC‘s Patrick Kingston is no stranger to mountains.

Patrick has already built up an impressive off-road CV, including 90km of the TOR130 Tot Dret in the Italian mountains, where he tackled around 25,000ft of elevation, the 70km La Moins’Hard in Chamonix with 5,600m of ascent, and the Ultra Trail Vipava Valley in Slovenia – a whopping 110km with 4,800m of climbing.

He’s also completed the Sierra Blanca “Destroyer” in Marbella twice, covering 43.2km and 2,800m of ascent, as well as the Nivolet-Rivard 55k in the French Alps, which added another 2,860m of climbing to the resumé.

So, while the Verbier Marathon would represent a significant challenge for most runners, Patrick arrived in Switzerland with rather more experience of high mountains than your average marathoner.

The race certainly didn’t ease him into it.

The opening 7.5 miles were almost entirely uphill, with the route eventually reaching around 10,000ft. The terrain was technical and very much alpine trail running, where knowing where to put your feet is almost as important as knowing how fast to move them.

After 9.5km, Patrick was sitting in 345th place. He had made a couple of places by the time he reached Rogneux at 11.9km, moving up to 342nd.

But the steady progress was about to become much more noticeable.

By the time Patrick reached Pindin at 15.9km, he had climbed all the way up to 295th place. Three hours of running had brought him 47 places, which was particularly impressive given that the early part of the course was dominated by climbing rather than the sort of terrain where you can simply open your legs and get the miles ticked off.

At 21.7km, Patrick had gained another couple of places and, after four hours and 22 minutes, he had finally reached the halfway point.

If that sounds like an unusually long time to run a half marathon, remember that this was Verbier rather than Bournemouth. There was still a lot of mountain between Patrick and the finish.

The next section brought a long descent, running from around the 13-mile mark all the way down towards the 23-mile point. Technical descents can be every bit as demanding as climbs, particularly after several hours on the legs, but Patrick continued to pick off runners.

When he reached the next checkpoint at 33.5km, he had moved up another 29 places to 264th.

That left roughly 10km to go, although the final 4km or so weren’t exactly handed to him on a plate. After all that climbing and descending, the last two-and-a-half miles were uphill again.

Patrick, however, stayed strong.

He eventually crossed the finish line in 7 hours, 18 minutes and 55 seconds to finish 251st overall and an excellent 7th in the Men’s 50–54 category.

Out of 1,484 starters, 1,391 runners made it to the finish, meaning 94 competitors didn’t complete the course. Patrick’s performance was therefore particularly impressive on a course that demanded both endurance and genuine mountain-running ability.

He also accumulated around 9,500ft of elevation during the race – which is a fairly substantial amount of going up for something with “Marathon” in its name.

At the sharp end, Frenchman Lucien Mermillon won the race in 4:26:59, with Dylan Ribeiro second in 4:36:38 and Italy’s Elia Bongiovanni third in 4:38:29. Lucille Germain was the first female finisher, coming home ninth overall in 5:10:58. The official results record Mermillon’s winning time and the 43km, 3,000m-plus nature of the event.

For most runners, a 43km race with thousands of metres of climbing would be a major target in itself.

For Patrick, though, Verbier was arguably something slightly different.

It was another serious mountain challenge, another chance to test himself over difficult terrain and, perhaps, a particularly useful training exercise for what was still to come.

Because Patrick wasn’t finished.

Waiting on the horizon was the Crazy Mountain 100 in Montana, USA – a 100-mile race featuring around 21,000ft of elevation.

Now that’s a marathon distance with a bit of an extension.

Given Patrick’s record of taking on some of the toughest mountain races around, he had every reason to head into that enormous challenge with confidence. The Verbier Marathon had provided another 43km of experience, another 9,500ft of climbing and, importantly, another demonstration that he can keep moving forward when the course gets tough.

A superb performance from Patrick in Switzerland, and another very impressive chapter added to an already formidable ultra-running resumé.