Lucerne put on a magnificent show today at the 2011 Lucerne Marathon today. With the lake as the backdrop and a clinically organised event, in typical swiss style, was hosted.
9,000 runners converged on the city with just as many, if not more, supporters to cheer the runners on.
The reason for Lucerne was due to the suggestion of Fausto meet up together with his Zurich based friends and run a half-marathon. I had run two halfs during the year and took this event as my end of summer season goal.
I had been following a gruelling training program that included 80-100kms per week of a mixture long runs, intervals and also middle distance pace work. In the last weeks I started my new job which did make training hard but possible. Although living in a haze of training fatigue my running improved significantly to the point where I could manage a 30km after work reasonably well.
I had studied the course online but was truly taken aback by the beauty of the course. We started at a very cool transport museum (the irony of a running event being held at a transport museum was duly noted!) And started by running back towards the city and over the main transport bridge (not the beautiful old wooden bridge tourists are known to clamber over) and after going past the music hall (with it's fantastic roof line) doing a large lap along the lakeside and back through a partially completed tunnel. To run along one of the most beautiful lakes in Europe is simply breathtaking. We ran through a few villages, past people's back yards and through a "schrebergarten". The half-marathon did one lap while the full marathon, as you might guess,
did two laps.
The trouble (at least for me) was that there were three hills along the way. Training on the flat and training in the hills is a different ball-game and I must admit I was under-prepared for these hills, allbeit small ones. To put this into perspective, the Berlin marathon which is know for being one of the fastest as it's one of the flattest courses is completed by the best runners in 2:08. Today, the same distance was covered in 2:32. Admittedly the fastest of the fastest weren't running today but I'd like to think that there this course was 15min slower than other courses.
The title of this blog is "hoop hoop" due to the swiss term for encouragement that I learnt today. The entire crowd along the entire course were shouting "hoop hoop". Of course there was lotsa of clapping and shouting but the hoopahoopa was special to this race. Alongside the brass bands there were also the traditional 'Alphorns' - think old swiss guy with felt hats and leather pants sitting on the side of the hill with a big horn! That's the alphorn, except today they had 6 of them in unison. It was quite a treat. Not to mention the large number of huge cow bells being rung. Sometimes it was deafening. Perfect to take your mind off the run for a moment...
One other great touch was that our running numbers also had our first names on it. This meant people would shout out "hoop hoop Adrian - Super Stark" or something similar. There is something encouraging about a lovely swiss women shouting this at you!
So, in the end I ran 3:04. Just above my target time of 3 hours. I'm very happy as I know I trained well and literally ran myself into the ground. The only problem with not quite making that time, is I know I need to break it and so will have to train and race again!
Some lessons learnt:
- make sure you train for the course
- start with your correct group (eg if you're a 4hr runner start with this group - you will get the pace from them. I started with the wrong group and got lost in traffic)
- know where the finish line is so you pace for that
- enjoy the surroundings, each time I looked around I was inspired by the shear beauty of the place
Thanks to Fausto for suggesting I join. Similarly for Natalia for hosting us at her place and cooking pasta before and after the run. It was a pleasure to meet and run with Anne, Luca and Sandro also. Similarly for Anne and Torsten for supporting and joining for a drink, allbeit a short one.
Tomorrow I'll be sore but the "pain game" is always perversely fun!
9,000 runners converged on the city with just as many, if not more, supporters to cheer the runners on.
The reason for Lucerne was due to the suggestion of Fausto meet up together with his Zurich based friends and run a half-marathon. I had run two halfs during the year and took this event as my end of summer season goal.
I had been following a gruelling training program that included 80-100kms per week of a mixture long runs, intervals and also middle distance pace work. In the last weeks I started my new job which did make training hard but possible. Although living in a haze of training fatigue my running improved significantly to the point where I could manage a 30km after work reasonably well.
I had studied the course online but was truly taken aback by the beauty of the course. We started at a very cool transport museum (the irony of a running event being held at a transport museum was duly noted!) And started by running back towards the city and over the main transport bridge (not the beautiful old wooden bridge tourists are known to clamber over) and after going past the music hall (with it's fantastic roof line) doing a large lap along the lakeside and back through a partially completed tunnel. To run along one of the most beautiful lakes in Europe is simply breathtaking. We ran through a few villages, past people's back yards and through a "schrebergarten". The half-marathon did one lap while the full marathon, as you might guess,
did two laps.
The trouble (at least for me) was that there were three hills along the way. Training on the flat and training in the hills is a different ball-game and I must admit I was under-prepared for these hills, allbeit small ones. To put this into perspective, the Berlin marathon which is know for being one of the fastest as it's one of the flattest courses is completed by the best runners in 2:08. Today, the same distance was covered in 2:32. Admittedly the fastest of the fastest weren't running today but I'd like to think that there this course was 15min slower than other courses.
The title of this blog is "hoop hoop" due to the swiss term for encouragement that I learnt today. The entire crowd along the entire course were shouting "hoop hoop". Of course there was lotsa of clapping and shouting but the hoopahoopa was special to this race. Alongside the brass bands there were also the traditional 'Alphorns' - think old swiss guy with felt hats and leather pants sitting on the side of the hill with a big horn! That's the alphorn, except today they had 6 of them in unison. It was quite a treat. Not to mention the large number of huge cow bells being rung. Sometimes it was deafening. Perfect to take your mind off the run for a moment...
One other great touch was that our running numbers also had our first names on it. This meant people would shout out "hoop hoop Adrian - Super Stark" or something similar. There is something encouraging about a lovely swiss women shouting this at you!
So, in the end I ran 3:04. Just above my target time of 3 hours. I'm very happy as I know I trained well and literally ran myself into the ground. The only problem with not quite making that time, is I know I need to break it and so will have to train and race again!
Some lessons learnt:
- make sure you train for the course
- start with your correct group (eg if you're a 4hr runner start with this group - you will get the pace from them. I started with the wrong group and got lost in traffic)
- know where the finish line is so you pace for that
- enjoy the surroundings, each time I looked around I was inspired by the shear beauty of the place
Thanks to Fausto for suggesting I join. Similarly for Natalia for hosting us at her place and cooking pasta before and after the run. It was a pleasure to meet and run with Anne, Luca and Sandro also. Similarly for Anne and Torsten for supporting and joining for a drink, allbeit a short one.
Tomorrow I'll be sore but the "pain game" is always perversely fun!
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