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The Race That 20% of Geneva Runs

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!

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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.

imagephoto 1 (2)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!

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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.

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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.

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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?

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A Fun Lunch Run with a Twist

Happy Friday! This weekend is going to be a nice break after so much travel the past few months. Since the weather is supposed to be sunny and unseasonably warm, a few of us are heading to the Saleve for a hike during the day tomorrow. The rest of the weekend includes some baking, curling up with my book and catching up on a few of my favorite television shows. There are certain shows that Bo and I watch together but when he’s out of town, I tend to watch my guilty pleasures, aka the shows he doesn’t like.

  • Scandal
  • Nashville
  • Revenge

But, before I can focus anymore on the weekend,  I have to share today’s workout with you all! It was a tough one but so much fun! As many of you all know, Renaud is my most athletic friend. Always up for an adventure, when he invited me to join he and a few other co-workers for their lunchtime workout, a run with a twist.  I gladly accepted!  I love getting out of the office during lunch to enjoy some fresh air and clear my mind before starting the second part of the day. I realize just how lucky I am to have this opportunity and therefore feel the need to take full advantage of it as often as possible!

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The workout was described to me as a mix of running and strength. Since I’m trying to get back into my running groove and am always trying to find new ways to squeeze in strength training, it sounded perfect! In fact, it reminded me a lot of the running boot camp workouts Anne features on her blog.

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We ran, or I should say I followed behind as quickly as possible, just under 2 miles to a large park and sports area, Les Evaux. This park is HUGE and has sports fields, ropes courses, playgrounds galore, and running trails! Today we spent time on the “yellow trail” which is not only a nice, wooded path, but it also features workout stations where you can do everything from pull-ups to dips!

We continued our workout with one loop of the path that was a mile in distance, following the yellow arrows. Renaud pointed out each of our workout stations, giving me directions and tips as we ran past them.

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After the first loop, our second loop included stopping at each station and doing the exercise 3x as a group. The guys motivated me to push just a bit harder or do one more rep. I don’t have pictures of each station but these are the ones I remember: hanging ring leg lifts, parallel bar dips, balance beam, push-up station, dip station, incline pull-up station, agility drill station, jump station,  and step up station.

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After completing each of the stations, we would run to the next station until we finished the loop again. By this point, we’d been working out for an hour and all I wanted was a bus to pass by, ready to give me a lift back to the office. Nope, unfortunately, we had another 2 mile run back to the office!

This running boot camp was such an efficient workout, combining a 5.5 mile run with lots of strength work. The loop with the strength exercises was challenging but provided a welcome change versus another mile of running. We did our best to sprint between the stations, though, after a few of them, such as the step ups, running wasn’t exactly easy. Many of the exercises  were ones that I have never done before nor would even think about incorporating into my training, such as the balance and agility work! Even though I was in the back of the group, I hope to join the guys again next week. Practice makes perfect, right?

If you could do only one strength exercise, what would it be? Mine would probably be dips push-ups!

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A Day in the Life: November 12, 2014

Almost a year ago, I shared a Day in the Life post  with you all. As things have changed since I last shared, I figured that today was the perfect day to share with you!

IMG_2545[1]5:30am Alarm #1 goes off even though my eyes have no intention of opening yet. We stayed up one episode too last night watching Season 2 of The Newsroom.

5:35am Alarm #2 goes off and luckily this time Bo reminds me that we will be late to swim practice if we don’t get out of bed immediately.

5:55am We head out the door twenty minutes after changing into swim gear, making coffee, grabbing my breakfast and snacks and work clothes.

6:10am Since it’s early and there is no traffic, it only takes us 15 minutes to get to the pool which is about half the time it takes to drive the same distance in the evening. Some mornings we listen to the radio but this morning we listen to an old Dave Matthews cd.

6:20-7:20am – Today’s swim practice is tougher than normal, not due to the distance, but the strokes. We did almost 500 meters of butterfly, which I have only learned this year. One swim practice per week is dedicated to drills while the other one focuses on speed. After completing 200 meters of legs only butterfly drills my legs and abs were really wishing it was an endurance day, that’s for sure!

IMG_2939[1]7:20-7:45am Shower, blow dry my hair, apply makeup and get dressed quickly as I have a meeting starting promptly at 8.  I’m excited that Fall has finally arrived in Geneva which means tights, tall boots, warm orange colors, and my favorite navy wool blazer!   IMG_33758 – 8:15am First meeting of the day lasts only 15 minutes, 45 minutes shorter than planned.

8:15- 9am Go through work emails and eat breakfast. My breakfast these days is oats with a banana, flax seeds, cinnamon, and vanilla protein powder with coffee on the side. I’m bringing my coffee from home as I love the flavor and it saves just a little bit of money each day. When I go through my work emails each morning, I do my best respond to as many as possible then flagthe ones which need to be responded to later.

9-12pm Three hours spent working on a presentation.

12-1pm I enjoy every minute of lunch today, catching up with a co-worker, helping her plan her upcoming trip the United States. Even though I don’t always take advantage of the Swiss hour “lunch break” I am thankful to know that I can always count on having an hour mental break during the day. Last week, when working from our New York City office, I felt a significant difference in my afternoon productivity since I didn’t have a single break and found myself eating lunch during meetings or while working.

1-7pm Six hours of video conferences and conference calls is straight up exhausting, especially when I’m leading three of them.  I’m working on a project that is based on the West Coast which means time changes are resulting in late meetings at least a few times a week. Luckily tonight’s call is done by 7pm, earlier than most.

7-7:30pm I catch up with my mom and write a few thank you notes during the bus ride home.

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7:45pm Only 15 minutes after walking through the door I’ve changed into my favorite sweatpants, lit our pumpkin candle I brought back from the United States and am catching up Bo. We end up having a long discussion about an article he read in Business Insider about lasting relationships and their two basic traits.

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8-8:30pm Enjoy a small salad and homemade chili with Bo while we research Florence, in advance of our anniversary trip.

8:30-10:30pm We get wrapped up in two more The Newsroom episodes before I fall asleep on the couch.

How about your day? What does it look like?

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