Saturday afternoon winter hit. We stayed home to eat our spaghetti instead of going down to Ouchy to share in the pasta party. Sunday morning we woke up to several inches of snow. The temperature was hovering around freezing and the wind was gusting. We felt sorry for all the 10K and marathon runners who were competing in the morning. The children's 2.6K and 4.2K races ended up being cancelled.
At 12:15 Husband and I met two running buddies at the train station to go to La Tour-de-Peilz on the last special train reserved for half-marathoners. From the train we could see marathoners struggling against the elements on their way back to Lausanne. Once we arrived at La Tour-de-Peilz there was still an hour to wait before our starting time. The four of us took refuge in the village church where parishioners had prepared snacks and hot drinks. We finally joined the ranks outside and waited for our third-wave start. We could see a 1:40' pacer just ahead of us, and a 1:50' pacer just behind us, but we were hoping to finish somewhere in between. Soon after we took off, we noticed a runner with a 1:45' sign pinned to the back of his shirt, so we tried to stay with him. About a mile into the race, I discarded my top layer of clothing; an old t-shirt. After another mile I took off my beanie and gloves and handed them to Husband who put them in his pockets. Soon the second disposable t-shirt came off. The temperature hadn't warmed up any, but I had. We were working hard to stay with the unofficial pacer, but just over half way he started pulling away. I was feeling a bit lightheaded and told Husband to go on. After that discomfort passed, I started catching up little by little. I was angry at the wind, which helped me push harder. Husband and I ran together again until he accelerated on the last kilometer to finish strong. Despite circumstances we were less than a minute off our target time!
Gotta run...
Gotta run...
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