Happy Monday! Bo and I are so glad that we stayed in Geneva this weekend to partake in the L’Escalade festivities. We were out and about with friends all day Saturday and then spent yesterday relaxing together.
Unfortunately my week hasn’t started off well as I’ve slept more today than I’ve been awake and have been plagued with stomach issues and cold symptoms all day. Hopefully the day off work today and lots of sleep will allow me to be back in the office tomorrow! There are only 9 more working days before Christmas vacation begins so I don’t have time to be sick!
Instead of dwelling on the way I feel, let’s go back to this weekend’s race – Course de l’Escalade. In its 37th year, the Course de l’Escalade literally takes over the Old Town of Geneva for a weekend of racing events. In fact, over 40,000 people take part in the races which equals more than 20% of Geneva’s population! The weekend is an annual festival commemorating Geneva’s defeat of the Duke of Savoy in 1602.
The event is truly for everyone with distances ranging from 2km to 8km depending on category and activities including walking, running and Nordic walking. It should be noted that the women’s distance and men’s distance are different, 4.8 km for the women and 7.2 km for the men. When people emailed organizers requesting why the difference, they stated that they assumed women wouldn’t want to run the longer distance.
Regardless of differences, we all had a blast running on Saturday! The women’s race includes two laps of the course which goes through the hilly, narrow, cobblestone streets of Old Town Geneva while the men’s race is 3 laps of the same course. We were able to catch a glimpse of the 17-19 year old group running as we headed over to the starting area to meet the girls. Those guys were FAST!
The three of us running met 30 minutes before our race, at 2pm, in order to get into the corral area and warm-up. I opted for a holiday themed running outfit, sporting as much red as possible. Red was not a common color as most other runners were wearing either black or neon colors.
As usual, there was an official warm-up before the start including fun music and group led stretches and exercises. The three of us opted to chat and catch up versus focus on the warm-up as we were all aiming for a PR in fun. Our goal was to take in the sights and sounds of Old Town as this truly is one of the most fun weekends in Geneva. The city felt alive with the influx of people, live bans filling the streets and scent of mulled wine lingering out of every bar.
Due to the packed streets and large group of women running, we could barely move for the first lap through Old Town as you can see from this picture. The loop took us through the old medieval portion of Geneva, around the Russian Church area, past a few small parks and through Parc Bastion. The entire course was lined with people cheering, ranging from children asking for high fives to families banging pots and pans or shaking cowbells!
By the second lap Kerrie and I were flying through Old Town, taking our pace down to what felt like an 8:30 or so. You can tell from my smile in this picture that I was happy to be running faster and have the crowd behind and in front versus next to me. We definitely spent the first half weaving through runners, as best as possible, trying to push forward.
We finished in 29:02, a 9:33 pace, which was perfect considering we chatted the whole way and started towards the back. I grabbed a warm cup of tea and goody bag before we each parted ways. Our plan was to meet back up to cheer the men on later in the day. Bo and I wandered through the participant area and enjoyed a warm bowl of soup before heading back home.
Bo and the rest of our guy friends didn’t run until 5pm so by the time their race started there were white twinkling lights and torches lighting their path. There were more people out lining the streets than earlier and the entire area was buzzing. There were a few of us standing together cheering for the men, sipping on hot, mulled wine and laughing at ourselves as we screamed French motivational phrases at the runners as they sped past.
As you can tell from the neon blur above, our friend Ranald, kept a wicked fast 6:48 per mile pace while Bo and the rest of the guys all finished strong and had a blast!
The Course de l’Escalade race was a wonderful way to end the Fall running season in Geneva which included three great races following the Berlin Marathon. We are already looking forward to next year!
Your turn: Have you ever participated in an event which has different distances for men versus women?
