My First Swiss Marathon - October 26

On Sunday I ran the Swiss City Marathon in Lucerne. Lucerne is an hour and half away, so we boarded Tucker on Saturday and drove up to pick up my race packet. Their Expos are not as elaborate as American ones. We ate a late lunch and walked around. We hadn't been to Lucerne in 3 years. Last time we came it was on a Sunday, raining and everything was closed. I don't remember too much about the town. This time it was raining again, but we noticed all the shops and cute streets. I think we'll go back for a weekend to explore more. It was also very crowded and it was hard to find parking to get to the expo.

On race day it wasn't raining and the temperatures were supposed to be in the 50s. We were nervous about parking so we parked at the first parking garage we saw and walked a mile to the start. There were tons of port-a-potty's. And they were right at the start line, so you didn't need to go far if you had to pee. There was no line for them, going to the bathroom before a race is typically a long nightmare. So having no lines is pretty awesome.

Last time I ran only my timer worked, not the GPS. I thought I screwed up when I started it but it was confirmed on race day that something is wrong with the GPS. I think my Garmin has died. But I had a pacing band with the splits I needed to hit for a 4 hour marathon. And I ran my timer, so I knew my time. The only downfall was I only knew my split every 5k. I typically look at my pace every minute so going 3 miles at a time without knowing was hard.

When the race started at 9am, they did staggered starts. At 9am the fast people went, at 9:05 the 3:30-3:45 people went,  at 9:10 the 4 hour people went, and so on. I had every intention of starting with the 4 hour pace group. I stood where I was supposed to, but it was so far back from the starting line. And there was a ton of space to move up. Ultimately I moved up. The 3:45 pacers moved up too to fill in the gaps, but the 4 hour pacers stayed back. It also drove me crazy to watch people start and just stand there. I didn't like the idea of staring the race over 10 minutes behind, so I ended up going with the 9:05 start group. I had no intention of keeping up with the 9:45 pacers, I just wanted to get this thing started.

Since I didn't have my GPS, I ended up going too fast the first 5k (I missed the 1k marker so couldn't check my pace there). Instead of 9:09 pace, I probably did 8:15. I was 3 minutes ahead of schedule. I slowed down slightly. I like the idea of having a cushion but I was going too fast and knew I'd feel it later. The marathon course was 2 loops of the 1/2 marathon course. I didn't love the fact that it was a loop course, but I will say it made it easier for Mike to see me a bunch of times. The course was pretty flat, it had 2 noticeable inclines on the loop. They were not steep at all, and not terribly long but you noticed them. The first time around they were not a big deal, but I knew it'd be harder the 2nd time around, so I was glad I had my time cushion.

The Swiss City Marathon is the 3rd largest Swiss Marathon (behind Zurich and Jungfrau). But it's still small compared to US races. There was a marathon, 1/2 marathon and 5 mile option. 6,348 people completed the marathon or 1/2. (I'm not sure how many did the 5 mile.) And of those only 1,468 did the marathon, and only 268 women completed the marathon. That's crazy, I wonder why there aren't more women. I promise your uterus won't fall out.

Despite the seemingly small race size, the spectator support was huge. It was like the city was having a party and everyone came out. Spectators would set up tables decked out with table cloths, food, wine and beer. One table even had a candelabra.  And they ate and celebrated the entire race. They cheered and rang cow bells like they knew every runner. Besides that there were lots of percussion bands, and alphorns. Some of the bands wore bright costumes, it reminded me very much of Mardi Gras. There were tons of giant inflatable arches, and flags. You also ran through what I think was a parking garage that they decked out with glow sticks and a fog machine. They had fluorescent shoes hanging from the ceiling for a really cool effect.

Picture from the Swiss City Marathon Website

There was an area with a red swiss carpet, balloons and water fountains that sprayed water over your head. This wasn't even the finish line.

Picture from the Swiss City Marathon Website

One of the inflatable archways. They had at least 10 set up around the course.
Picture from the Swiss City Marathon website.

Men walking with giant cow bells in sync. These things were LOUD.
Picture by my husband.

The marathoners and 1/2 marathoners ran together for 12.9 miles, then they went straight to the finish and we turned around to do the loop all over again. The runners really thinned out, and it was a little discouraging to know others were finishing and I was only half way there. Of course spectators for the 1/2 were gone, but people who set up tables were just as enthusiastic during the second loop. I hit "the wall" from around mile 17 to 21. My knees started to hurt, and I could feel a blister on my foot. I had to walk up the 2nd incline. I was still on pace for breaking 4 hours, but mentally I knew I wouldn't break it. I probably sabotaged myself. I walked for almost 3 minutes up the incline, and then again for a minute at the 35k mark with Mike. After the short walk break I mentally felt refreshed and ran a decent pace to the finish. The 35k mark is 21.7 miles. For a while I thought I only had 3 miles to go so that is probably why I picked up the pace.

My pace band and all the course markings were in kilometers but in my head I still think in miles, so I did a lot of conversions in my head. It kept me busy. But I kept thinking a marathon is only slightly past 40k, but it's actually 42.16 kms. Those 2kms were long. Once you got to the 40k mark the finish line was straight ahead but you still had 1.2 miles to go. There was also a fake out for the finish line. There were flags and a archway that I thought was the finish, but then you turned and had another 300 meters to go.

Photo of the finish line.
Picture from the Swiss City Marathon website.

Finishers shirt

Shoe bag

The finish line was at the Swiss Museum of Transport, which was on Amazing Race last season.

Picture with a giant tunnel boring machine.

I think the race was organized really well. They had lots of aide stations and volunteers. All of the streets were blocked off, so you never had to share the road with cars. And you didn't see any angry motorists who wanted to get through. The spectator support was awesome, it was easy for Mike to get around to see me. The weather was great. The small race size and staggered start were nice, I didn't have to weave through people at the beginning. The medal is small compared to US medals, but I think it's pretty standard for Switzerland. They are less flashy here. The tracking app Mike used to track me was accurate and updated quickly. Though it didn't say the distance I was at, only the location. So he had to do a lot of map checking to figure out where I was. I also got a text from the race right after I finished with my time and my rank (I finished 122 out of 268 for the women). My husband also did a great job cheering me on. I could always hear him, even at the end with a crowd of people around cheering. I think if I ran this course again and was in the same shape, I could shave off at least two minutes. Mentally I need to deal with the second half of the race better...and no walk breaks.