I can’t remember the last time I got up at six on a Sunday - perhaps when I was about 7 to get to the airport for my first ski holiday. Anyway, today I got up at six and made porridge. Then I ran 21 kilometres. Then I came home, made a cup of tea and had a bath. Then I lay on my bed reading the Guardian weekly. I’ve had an awesome Sunday.
I’d not really been into running. I’d tried it a couple of times before – on a beach in the Vendee, France where I was working one summer, but it didn’t really fit in with the work hard, play even harder lifestyle of a kids rep. I also gave it a go while at university in Sheffield, but the town’s seven hills and grim climate aren’t exactly encouraging. Switzerland, however, with its verdant hills, snow-capped peaks and photogenic lakes is a good place to start. It helped enormously to have two running buddies who acted as motivators and that also meant that a running session felt more like a gossip fest than marathon training.
A week before my first race (and again my only experience of racing is coming third in the cross-country at school one year and then being about a lap behind the other competitors in the inter-school 1500 metres), I had to abandon a run due to knee pain. Oh, and my ankle was a little sore too. I could barely make it up the eight flights of stairs that separate my front door and my flat door. I thought my hopes were squashed.
Already on leaving my flat this morning, the ambience of the town was completely changed. Besides the usual herds of camera-clutching tourists trying to find the famous Lion monument, there were lots of fit-looking people in Lycra. The buzz as we approached the start line was pretty cool – people on mini-stages leading group warm-ups, photographers looking for a good shot, families looking for a good spot to watch the action, people queuing for a pee in a plastic box (In Switzerland, Austria and Hungary I have noticed that Portaloos as we call them in the UK are called Toi Toi (/toy/) because of their manufacturers. I think it is a funny name, and they have bizarrely chosen hearts to dot the Is.)
So, as I said, I have never completed a half-marathon before, but there are many reasons why it is fun to do such a ridiculous thing on a Sunday in Switzerland...
- You are egged on by Alpenhorns, Guggen Musik and live bands, featuring men in the Swiss equivalent of lederhosen.
- Supporters take the enormous cow bells from their chalet walls, dust them off and ring them...cow bells make a beautiful noise, and they are quite good to run to. I have had some difficulty trying to persuade someone to run alongside me whilst training ringing a cow bell, unfortunately.
- The view is (normally) rather beautiful. Sadly we were treated to the typical Luzern greyness, so saw very little of this view, but with a bit of luck, or alternatively a strong imagination, you can enjoy it!
- The generally accepted chant is ‘Hopp Hopp.’ For example during the World cup, it was ‘Hopp Schwizz’ and today it was ‘hopp hopp hopp.’ As an Anglophone I found it a little silly because it would surely not be possible to hop around a marathon, and I certainly didn’t want to try.
- You are timed to the second and sent along very specific routes and you must do very specific things at specific times. Basically the Swiss were practising their favourite hobbies – organising something and someone, and they do do it well!
All this amounts to a really awesome ambience, lots of tired happy people and a lot of fun! I did a lot better than I was expecting to, coming in at 2 hours and 7 minutes. I had a great day. I can barely walk on my left foot at the moment but I am hoping to sleep that off. Maybe I did ‘hopp’ after all!
The photos are from my training routes - and the view I should have been able to see today if there hadn't been a thick layer of fog hiding the mountains!
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