The marathon runner was forced to do nothing for three months. When she was allowed to walk again, she also battled insecurities and fears.
On April 3, 2021, Fabienne Schlumpf ran the Swiss Athletics Marathon over 42.195 kilometers in 2:26:16, a Swiss record.
It was in April when Fabienne Schlumpf was allowed to lace up her running shoes again for the first time. Her first workout looked like this: 1 minute trot at a pace of 7 minutes per kilometer, 1 minute walk. She repeated this ten times. This is something you could certainly expect a slightly overweight beginner to do. Schlumpf is a top athlete, and yet this “training” was a liberation for her. Because she came from the bottom.
She hadn’t run since Christmas, at times she couldn’t do anything at all, “just sit around and wait, wait, wait,” as she did in June in a Interview with the «Tages-Anzeiger» said. She had suffered from an inflammation of the heart muscle and it took months to completely heal. When she made the disease public, she was overwhelmed with hateful comments. Because Schlumpf had also said that she had been vaccinated against Corona. “It’s your own fault,” wrote vaccination critics. She almost provoked the disease.
She would have the booster done again
Schlumpf and her trainer and life partner Michi Rüegg held back with comments. There was a temporal connection, because there were only two weeks between the third vaccination and the diagnosis. But there could also have been various other causes for the inflammation. “We didn’t want to get involved in speculation,” says Rüegg. And: “It needed the booster, she would have it done again today.”
Today Schlumpf is healthy and fit. She travels to the EM full of anticipation, she says. And Rüegg formulates an ambitious goal. “Fabienne will run for a medal,” he says. That doesn’t mean that she will also win one in the European Championship marathon on Monday. But the Swiss record holder will approach the race with a chance of a podium finish. And there is no plan B. “We have not defined any termination criteria,” says Schlumpf, “otherwise I could stay at home.”
This speaks of a self-confidence that the athlete has had to develop over the past few months. She approached the marathon project with great enthusiasm. In 2018 she had won EM silver over 3000 m steeple. In 2021 she ran the first start over the 42.195 kilometers with 2:26:16 equal to the Swiss record. It became obvious that she still has a large development margin. At the Summer Games in Tokyo, she ran in a heat race as the third best European and classified in 12th place. Just five weeks later, she narrowly missed her record in 2:26:31, also in the heat.
She was supposed to recover well after that, but when she tried to push back in training, even easy runs felt like marathons. After heart muscle inflammation was diagnosed on December 23, the runner was closely followed by doctors. At the beginning, the blood values were examined every week, later every two weeks, an MRI of the heart was made three times, and an electrocardiogram about every two months.
The re-entry into training was also discussed with the doctors. But Schlumpf says: “For me, the topic was not over at all when the doctors said I was healthy again, I could slowly increase my workload.” She felt an insecurity because she knew that if she trained too hard too soon, there could be problems again. And sometimes there was fear, too, when the pulse shot up rapidly.
She had to walk uphill
Safety returned only gradually. Schlumpf and Rüegg used to work a lot with the heart rate, but now looking at the heart rate monitor has become even more important. At the beginning, the athlete had to walk uphill to avoid getting into the red zone. But she was glad that she was able to train again at all.
At the beginning of June, the 31-year-old was already running 160 kilometers a week again and decided to do an initial stress test. On June 11, she ran the Bern Women’s Run over 5 kilometers and won it for the third time. At the end of June, together with Michi Rüegg, she decided to take part in the European Championship marathon.
The trainer says Schlumpf was able to complete a full marathon preparation. However, their level was not nearly as high at the beginning as it was last year. Recently, however, she did good training, running 180 kilometers in the Engadin for five weeks, including hard work.
The coach and the athlete cannot say exactly where she is. They have always motivated the trainings from year to year, there are no standard runs to compare. In addition, there are no competitions that allow a correct assessment. But Rüegg says: “I see that certain training sessions are going well. Fabienne is too good to give up the EM.”
It is likely to be warm to hot in Munich, which has already led to criticism from athletes and coaches. However, Rüegg rules out the possibility that this could pose a health risk for Schlumpf. She is completely healthy and resilient again, he says. “The heat could be more of an advantage for Fabienne because she ran in such conditions twice in 2021 and knows that she has no trouble with it.”
In 2018 Fabienne Schlumpf won EM silver over 3000 m steeple.
These races also taught the team how to prepare for high temperatures. Schlumpf returned from the mountains to the lowlands two weeks before the marathon, in the Wetzikon area she trained in temperatures that are expected in Munich. Acclimatization is crucial, says the trainer. “So in 2021 we traveled to Japan earlier, now she could do it at home.”
You can also fall back on tried and tested means for competition. The main thing is to keep your body cool before the start, to eat properly and to provide additional cooling during the race with so-called liquid ice at the drinks stations.
Despite everything, the EM marathon becomes a run into the unknown for Schlumpf. She says there could also be a chance that she is not a favorite at the start. “I’m the great unknown – for me and for the others.”