Lausanne 10k

HERE COMES THE SOLEIL
Lausanne is the San Francisco of Switzerland, a handsome city rising in a series of tiers above the blue waters of Lac Léman. Held as part of the city’s yearly ‘Festival du Soleil’, the fun run always attracts thousands of entrants from Switzerland and further afield. The event actually consists of three races held over courses of 4km, 10km and 20km. Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t enter the 4km race, due to the disgracefully ageist reason that it was only for kiddies. So, after having a tantrum, we duly entered the shorter of the ‘adult’ events. It could have been much worse. The 20km course was not just twice as long but also a rather hillier affair, looping up through the old town and past the gothic cathedral perched on a spur some 150m higher than the lake. The 10km route was mostly set in Ouchy, Lausanne’s gorgeous lakefront district, and included a couple of short, sharp inclines but nothing too vertiginous. I was motivated by the prospect of a free T-shirt with a sporty/silly slogan, for which item I am a perennial sucker – I still haven’t forgiven Suzie for not allowing me to buy myself one with the caption “Nobody Knows I’m A Lesbian”.

ITS NOT THE WINNING…
Lausanne boasts the moniker of ‘Olympic Capital’ and is home to the International Olympic Committee, the Olympic Museum (which is surprisingly dull, apart from the high jump exhibit, which is astounding) and numerous sporting bodies. Aptly, all the races were to finish in the stade Pierre-de-Coubertin, named after the founder of the modern Olympic games and the man who popularised that phrase so beloved of also-rans (i.e losers), “the most important thing is not to win but to take part”. I say ‘popularised’, because he actually lifted the words from a service performed at the 1908 games by Bishop Ethelbert (a fine name – Jon and Zee take note) Talbot, who concluded: “the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well”. It turns out that M. Coubertin also nicked the other phrase for which he is famous, namely the Olympic motto “Citius, Altius, Fortius” (Swifter, Higher, Stronger), from another clergyman, Father Henry Didon. Still, the iconic Olympic flag, with its five interconnecting rings, was all his own work and he did give the world its greatest sporting spectacle (apart from West Country cheese-rolling, obviously).

PREPARATION, PREPARATION, PREPARATION
Our pre-race dietary regimen, as recommended by Paula Radcliffe, consisted of maigret de canard followed by beignet de pommes, washed down by a fruity bottle of the local red, Côte de Vernaux. Additional carbo-loading took the form of grandes bières at, er, that epitome of Lausannois chic, ‘Le King Size’ (single women, and Chris, may be interested to know that the barmen all sport slinky red kilts). All in all, its amazing how Paula stays so thin.

THE NEED FOR SPEED
I’m quite a nippy sprinter, especially around dinner time, but distance running has never been my thing. An appropriate comparison can be seen in many of the Fred Bassett cartoons. Fred is always to be found at the back of the pack – his legs are pumping, his ears are flapping in the breeze, but somehow all this effort never translates into sustainable speed. Thus it was that the start gun found Suzie (also firmly in the enthusiastic rather than elite category) and I lurking furtively at the back of the densely packed crowd. However, this cowardice took on the air of cunning strategy during the race, as we found ourselves overtaking (similarly slow) people for the length of the course; a nice morale booster. All the entrants were cheered on by the literally thousands of spectators who lined the course for its entirety. The hordes of children shouting “A-llez! A-llez!” and holding their hands out for ‘high fives’ (or low fives, depending on their age and stature) were particularly enthusiastic. The sun, as promised in the Festival du Soleil PR, also put in a blazing appearance and the whole atmosphere was amazing.

IT IS A TRUTH, UNIVERSALLY ACKNOWLEDGED, THAT THE BEST DISTANCE RUNNERS ARE ETHIOPIAN
For the record, the 20km event was won, for the second year in a row, by 21 year-old Ethiopian Tolossa Chengere in a time of 1 hour and 2 minutes (note for 10km tail-enders: he was the small dark blur which passed you at warp factor 9). The women’s event, in contrast, was won by a 43 year-old, Elisabeth Kreig, who described herself as “une ancienne”, in a time of 1 hour and 17 minutes. Knocking off a couple of minutes for faffing and general gridlock at the start, my time for the 10km was 49 minutes dead and Suzie came home in a smidge under an hour (good for us but glacial compared to the winning times of 31:40 for men and 38:30 for women, respectively). In total, some 12,400 people crossed the line, to be rewarded with garish isotonic drinks, medals and, of course, those all-important t-shirts.


Nick Harris (April 2004).