This has to be one the most picturesque half marathons I
have done. First half is through the Swiss countryside past vineyards, fields
and villages, all with a back drop of the Alps. Just after halfway there is a
non Garmin friendly tunnel (a pain when you are trying to track your pace),
then a downhill to the shore of Lake Geneva. After 3 or 4 miles along the shore
the run goes through the streets of the city itself then turns for the last
mile along the lake shore again. The finish is halfway across one of the
bridges in the city.
The organisation was excellent (they even issued suntan
cream) and the support on route equally as good. I had loads of runners talking
to me about the 50 half marathon challenge which eases the journey. At the
start I bumped into a celebrity runner, the lovely Julie who founded the
website www.toofattorun.co.uk, and
has the Twitter name @fattymustrun. Fortunately I had seen on Twitter she was
running and had looked up her first name, although she did say often people
just shout “fatty” to her anyway, she wasn't bothered.
The only negative was the heat, it reached 23c today which
made it tough going. I managed the first 10k in just over an hour, but then the
sun started to get hotter and my pace drastically slowed. I finished in about
1:18, which given the heat I am happy with.
The things I learned on this run:
-
Always bring your wife, she can enforce a curfew and control the number of beers you have the day before.
- The cheapest hotel is not the best, paper thin walls and a neighbour who finally switched his telly off at 2am, my alarm was set for 6am
- Uber is great, managed to get me to the start for not a lot of money
- My branded black top is not the best colour for hot runs.
Next stop Brussells in 4 weeks
