Visiting Geneva

Switzerland is not huge but the various cities I been to has all its uniqueness. Geneva is just a stone throw from France so it feels a lot like France. Saturday morning I was flying down to Geneva from Zürich. A short half an hour jump. The airport is not many kilometers from the city so the travel was very smooth compared to a 3 hour train trip. Weather was stunning. 20 degrees and sun. I been to Geneva a handful of times before so had no really need to explore. Luckily. Because the day prior to marathon is not the best time to walk around.

I picked up my race number and then took the tram to the neighborhood of Carouge.

Carouge

This neighborhood is about 15 minutes by tram from central Geneva and well worth a visit. It is very laid back Italian style neighborhood and Saturdays it is a market so people were sitting outside enjoying local food and wine. I love these kind of places but it was completely packed so I went to a cafe, sorry Boulangerie and had a baguette. Cargo loading had started. Then I didn’t do a lot, spent some hours in a park finishing my book and then had a coffee.

Pre run evening

Initially I had plans to see a “relative” of mine living in Geneva but we had to cancel last minute but luckily some friends from my Zürich runcollective was also there so we met up for dinner. Actually two dinner. I wanted pasta and they meat so we had two dinners before walking a little at the lake. Both pasta at La Grappe D’or and the meat place, Entrecôte Couronnée where I had desert and Aperol (maybe I should stick to wine as pre race drink?). Time went very fast and we spoke about expat life in Switzerland. Did you know that 60% of Genevas population are expats? Now unfortunately a lot of them has to leave due to change of international organizations initiated by the US. After the dinner I was falling asleep like a baby until the morning. Good sleep is most important for me prior marathon.

Race day

Woke up just before 7, had breakfast and took off to the run that started at 9. Normally I do not run for warmup but my friend forced me so I joined. It did though got longer than expected because we talked and suddenly realized start is very soon so had to pass a hilly park to be in our start blocks just minutes before 9.

I had hope for a new PB and qualification time for Boston but that plan was scrapped already before start. Legs were too heavy and weather was going to be too hot. I started as good I could though. Never had this flow feeling so had to push from kilometer 1. That is not very nice when it is 42 of them.

The. Purse was very beautiful and people in this city knows how to cheers. So many people was screaming my name or “Go Sweden” and it was also a lot of Swedes watching, at least 10-15 times I got Swedish cheers and was running partially alongside another Swedish girl.

The course was very nice through housing neighborhoods and mostly out on fields. It made it steaming hot and there was rarely any shade to take cover under. In the end I suffered quite a lot from the heath and especially losing salt.

Just after 30K I had to give up and walk a bit. I wished I was a camel carrying water. It was just hot, hot and hot and I started to get negative thoughts. I had been running quite good until this point so decided to take it easy and not risk a sub 4. Around me people started to faint and more and more ambulances was around picking up runners.

I had good margins to sub 4 so took it very easy the last 12K. Ran a bit, walked a bit and had 2-3 cups of water to drink whenever I saw any. And one on the head but that was dried up until the next oasis. The last kilometers felt so long but I was so happy to finish. Time was also not very bad, 3:46:31 and 21st female in my age. I could really recommend this race combined with a weekend trip in Geneva. All positive vibes and Geneva is a nice city. 37th marathon medal now conquered. Next one I already signed up for and that will be even hotter.

/ Pernilla that had a nice run in Geneva