You flew to Lausanne Switzerland to run a marathon? Are you crazy? :)…read more
That's what she said. And many more people tell me this time and time again. Why not? I chose Lausanne Switzerland to race since I haven't been to the country and I thought it would be a great opportunity to run this race. I decided to run the half marathon distance because I wanted to try for a PB, but the course was hillier than I thought. And with all the eating the weeks before in Amsterdam, Rome, and Paris, I needed to be motivated and run the excess calories off! The Lausanne marathon and half marathon is Lausanne's premiere race and happy to have been apart of it. The participation field is about 750 marathoners and about 1,500 half marathoners.
The weird thing about racing in Switzerland was that the marathon started at 1000 and the half marathon started at 1400. Kind of weird to have it start at those times, but I guess they mirror races like Boston and New York City. The Lausanne marathon and half marathon is traditionally held on the last Sunday in October. Registration fees were not that expensive, up to 60 CHF for the half and 80 or 85 CHF for the full, if you register early enough. The expo was held at the Place de la Navigation, an area on the Lausanne waterfront in Ouchy. The expo was basically a very large tent and there we're several races to advertise, as well as running related retailers who were there selling their stuff. Only problem I had with my packet was that the race alphabetized their registrants by first (given) name, not by last (surname), so it was hard to find my race number. I had to ask for help and thankful they found it after 5 minutes of checking the participant listing! It took about 15-20 minutes for the expo. It was definitely a small race expo, but had plenty of small town charm and festivities attached to it.
The race itself was pretty good. Even though I have raced over 70 marathons and 20 half marathons, every new distance is a new and exciting event for me. The distance is the same, the scenery is different and the experience will forever change me. It happened here at the Lausanne half marathon. While I wished I had signed up for the full, I had heard that the half marathon course was more scenic. And it really was! The half marathon started at a place called La Place de la Pleiz, which was a short 20 minute train ride from Lausanne Gare train station. The task was to run 13.1 miles (21km) back to Lausanne - Ouchy. The most scenic parts was early on during the course where you got to run along the water front where there were people watching and applauding you. There was even a giant fork in the water - like an unique statute. It was pretty amazing to be running in Switzerland, even though you wouldn't think so.
The first few miles you were weaving in and around the town of Place de la Pleiz, then out to the water front for mile 3-5 (5km to 8km). Then, the fun started where we were up along a closed section of highway from miles 5-8 (8km to 13km). We got off the highway (thank god) then and was treated to the residential sections of Lausanne - Pully and it was just grinding out the miles to the finish line. The crowd support was quite minimal, but there was pockets of spectators from the 10km mark all the way to the finish line. The residential areas were nice and rustic. All in all, it was nice to have done a half marathon in Europe (while on vacation).
Bling is pretty good, although I hear that they give the same medal for all race categories - even the quarter marathon too (10km)!
Run more!
B+
