The impossible dream?

Sixteen years ago I ran my one and only full marathon. I had always dreamed of running that distance some day and the fact that the first Lausanne Marathon was held on a Saturday was the deciding factor to go for it. My goal was to finish in under 4 hours, which I did, barely. Am I totally delusional to think that maybe, possibly, I could still run a sub 4-hour marathon (a Boston qualifying time at my age)?

Gotta run…

Resolution

Husband and I have been talking about entering a marathon this year. We want to run a Saturday race so we can still go to church on Sunday. The only Saturday marathons in Switzerland are mountain races; we’re talking 2682 meters ("Der härteste Marathon der Welt!"), 1944 meters, or 1890 meters of climbing, no thanks! The Médoc Marathon is also held on a Saturday. We were notified last week that we could now sign up, but international registration filled up almost immediately. I guess we could always go out and run our regular 12K route three and a half times one Saturday.

Gotta run…

Gemunden

I’m attending ABSS (Advanced Bible Study Series) in Germany this week. We’re out in the boonies and have quite a bit of free time in the afternoon, which suits me just fine. This is my fourth time here, so naturally I have a regular route. Through the fields, onto the farm road, into the village (that they seemed to have moved farther away since last year), then back. One more chance to run tomorrow afternoon, hopefully with several others.

Gotta run…

Kerzers Lauf

Last year, a friend who lives in Kerzers casually tossed a signup form for their local race on my coffee table. It was the 30th anniversary of this race that now attracts close to 8000 runners. It’s one of the town’s biggest events of the year (Kerzers, population 4467). Planning the day is a logistical feat. To avoid bottlenecks on the narrow forest paths, runners start every 2 minutes by blocks of several hundred. Husband and I entered the 15K event and were hooked. Now the Kerzers Lauf is on our race calendar. Hurry if you want to join us; tomorrow is the deadline for early registration.

Gotta run…

Close friends

C. and B. are great running buddies. They sometimes look up my race results before I do and tell me how I did. They even paid my sign-up fees for 3 of the Trophée lausannois races as a birthday present last year. C., an elite runner, gives me training advice; B. and I email regularly to give details about our runs and encourage eachother. I just wish we could actually run together from time to time (unfortunately, they are not close in the physical sense). Maybe we’ll get the chance at the retreat we’ll attend in two weeks.

Gotta run…

Trophée lausannois, 2

J.-L., the neighbor with whom I went to Thursday night’s award ceremony, ran all 12 of the Trophée lausannois races. He and the few dozen others who crossed all 12 finish lines (including a few little girls who couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8) got an actual trophy. It was J.-L.’s ninth year in a row to receive the trophy. He wants to make it an even 10, so this year he will enter all the races again. But my guess is he won’t stop there. I would be surprised if he missed a single Trophée race in 2010.

Gotta run…

Trophée lausannois

The Trophée lausannois is a series of 12 races held in and around Lausanne from January to November. The first five runners in each category receive a prize. To be ranked, you must finish at least 7 of the races; I ran 9. Fortunately for me, several faster women only entered 6 races, which put me in the number 5 spot. An awards ceremony was held last night. The sponsors bragged about how much they spent on prizes, but there were so many categories that they must have run out of funds before getting to us lowly firth place runners. I got a towel. At least the food and the company were good.

Gotta run…

Three’s company

Two of the Lausanne Pepperdine students are in training, one for a half, the other for a full marathon this spring. They wanted to check out my route, so the three of us went for a long run yesterday. I always feel honored when people less than half my age want to run with me! I’m not used to talking so much while running (I’m not in the habit of talking out loud to myself), so it was definitely a challenge to keep up the pace and the conversation at the same time.

Gotta run…

Le Nord

I just got back from a great women’s retreat in Lille, France. The program was packed, so we only had one hour of free time after lunch Saturday. Fortunately, the center we stayed in had a beautiful park. Unfortunately I was the only one who had brought running shoes. Fortunately, it was a beautiful day. Unfortunately, we had had sauerkraut for lunch. Those last two laps were murder, but I tried to smile as I passed the other ladies strolling along the lanes.

Gotta run…