Course d'Escalade

As promised, some updates on the race.
The Course D'Escalade has been ongoing since 1977 and it must be one of the biggest events in Geneva and certainly the biggest running event in all of Switzerland. Over 30,000 runners take part in this grand race! Runners are neatly organized by age category from as young as 6 and there are interesting divisions such as "La Marmite" (team costume run) and nordic walking. As there's an astonishing 38 different divisions, races are held all day long across two days.

Embarassingly, this was my first 5k run (or to be more accurate, 4.8km) since... my high school cross country days. Since those days, I've been training to become a longer distnance runner. In the past 7 years I've run about a dozen 10k, half and full marathons so believe it or not, shorter distances actually scare me. You have to be more quick on speed and be more aware of pacing. On top of that, I was recovering from a cold and yet race weather was in 2C. I was not feeling this at all.

The race site was packed with races starting approximately every half hour and bystanders and runners flooding through the streets of Old Town district. I hurriedly made it to the starting line 10 minutes before my race. Needless to say, I was stuck way in the back of the pack...not a good sign already.

Obviously, I must've spend the first 10 minutes zigzagging through crowds and hoards of "fun" runners which instantly tired me out. I've heard from other people who have already ran the race that it was quite windy and hilly. For Switzerland, Geneva is relatively flat in which I was not prepaid for the ups and downs at all. Killer number two. The ultimately killer was the weather. I haven't been able to run the past few weeks due to school work assignments hence my body was not used to the cold temperature and my lungs froze every time I took a breath. My eyes were full of tears, not because of pain but because the harsh wind gushing into my eyelids.

Surprisingly, I came in the top 10%. But my time was absolutely terrible; it was worse than my first ever 5k cross country race when I was 14. Some lessons to be learned:

1) Get to the starting line early - I saw ladies from the next division already waiting when I was lining up for my race! With the amount of people running in each division and how small the roads are, I need to get myself up there to beat out the slow crowd.

2) Get used to the weather beforehand - I really needed to make sure I run 2 weeks before the race outside so I'm used to the wintery weather. This was the ultimate reason my time was terrible

3) Dress appropriately - This is the one thing I succeeded: gloves, sunglasses, turtleneck are a must!

4) Put my bib out front - many people got extra boost from the crowd when they can read the bib names. I had mine hidden under my jacket so I missed out

In all, the race itself was very nicely organized and the locals were ecstatic for the runners, it really helped me keep motivated. And the views of the Old City were stunning - when you're in Geneva it's always hard to realize that you're in Switzerland but the ancient style stone architectures were really nice to see while I was running. Overall a fun and great experience unique to Geneva. 

The end of the race is always the most chaotic but of course being Switzerland, they were extremely organized. They gave us our gifts, beverages, and foods and there were different meeting points at the end for runners and their supporters to meet up. Also, crowds were orderly organized so there were no interruptions during the course.
Following the race, there is also a series of events for the historical Escalade. That to come in a later post ;)