After running around a bigger and a smaller lake in the canton of Zurich, it was about time to run around one in another canton: lake Hallwil in Aargau and Lucerne. The race around it is a popular half marathon, and last Saturday I participated in it for the first time.

I arrived quite early and had no stress picking up the race number and the goody bag. I watched the start of the 10K runners and went to have a look at the finish area, which was a ten minutes walk from the starting area. The lake to be circled later presented itself like this:

Apart from that, there was not much exciting stuff to do. I dropped my bag in the finish area and went back to the starting area. There, I went into the gym serving as the wardrobe and dropped my track pants and jacket, which was quite an effort because it seemed like all the 2500 male half marathon runners were getting changed at the same time.

I also bumped into Silvan, a friend I know from my exchange programme alumni organisation, and after five minutes warm-up, we went to the start together. There was an elite wave starting first, one with the team relay runners two minutes later, and ours another two minutes later.

As I wrote before, my goal was to confirm my sub-90 time from Greifenseelauf. I knew that it’d be difficult to judge my progress by the time elapsed, because the first few kilometres were a steady descent and much faster than the rest of the race.

The start was rather relaxed, the road being wide enough to avoid any elbow-to-face incidents. I ran with Silvan, and even though we started with what felt like quite an easy pace and chatted a bit, the first three kilometres were clearly sub 4:00 min/km.

We had reached the south end of the lake by then. The road became more narrow, and it was a bit up and down all the time from now on. Never steep, but never flat either.

The first aid station at about 5 km wasn’t quite ready yet, the cups were standing on the tables and you had to grab them yourself. Which I didn’t, but the weather was cool and I was well hydrated anyway.

The route was now directly along the lake, very pretty (probably, I couldn’t focus on the view too much) and very narrow. To pass people, it was necessary to run on the grass next to the path sometimes, and you always have the “let’s run slalom” idiots that are difficult to pass.

I was still feeling fine, and Silvan and I were always within a few metres of each other. Not chatting so much any more, though. About three quarters up on the way to the north end of the lake, the official 10 km split was taken. It was faster than a 10K race I did earlier this year, so the first few extra fast kilometres paid off.

There were many photographers along the route, most of them belonging to the official race photographer. I’m not going to buy any of the pictures (overpriced, in my opinion), but they do have a very nice feature: you can upload the GPX file containing the GPS data from your Garmin device to their website, and they show you all the pictures that were taken at the corresponding times and places.

This picture was taken at km 14, next to Hallwil castle:

To get around the castle, which is at the north end of the loop, we left the lake for a while, but afterwards until the end it was all next to the water again. Running was more or less single file now:

After the castle, I felt quite strong and pushed the pace a little.

There were a few hills here and there, but nothing massive. Silvan was behind me, I didn’t know how far, but something told me: not much ;)

This super artsy shot was taken at around km 18:

After this, the final stretch started. I was passing quite a lot of people, until about 1.5 km from the end where one guy managed to block my way about three times. (Mabe it was two times, but felt like ten times.) Jerk. Anyway, suddenly Silvan blasted by and I just followed him, passing the “blocker”. It’s amazing how on my own I could never have initiated an all-out finish like that, but following somebody seems to make that possible.

The last few hundred metres were full of noisy spectators and fun to run. Here’s a video of me and Silvan finishing, realising that we both had a new PB (his is three seconds faster than mine, hmpf… ;)). Half marathon at 1:27:21 now.

This is what the whole route looks like:

The rest of my Garmin data can be found here, if you really really want to know what my split for kilometre 17 was and what cadence I have when running with a heart rate of 170 bpm.

The aftermath

I took a shower in the very practical shower tent, got my stuff in the super crowded gym and hopped on the train home.

The take home souvenir from the race were these functional tights, which I’m looking forward to wear. Next summer then.

I think I’m close to being able to wear race souvenirs from head to toe very soon.

Doing laundry, I noticed how asymmetric my running technique seems to be. Or was it because it was all one big counterclockwise circle?

Like the pants, the shoes got their share of dirt, too. The foot pod is hardly visible anymore:

After some brushing action, they now shine like new again.

In the goody bag, there was this wristlet by X-Bionic, producer of super duper advanced sportswear at prices so advanced I only ever buy their socks :) It’s my new friend for weight training.

And finally, I got a real souvenir from that day. The day before, I had gone swimming, and because one of my toenails is quite loose (Four Days Marches aftereffect, still), I fixed it with adhesive tape. I thought “I’ll just leave it there for the race.” A very, very dumb idea. During the last 3 km I felt it starting to come off and rub against the toe next to it, and when I took off the socks, it was literally a bloody mess. The nail is still there, but the toes now have some kind of holes:

That’ll teach me! And you for reading until here and looking at gross pictures. Also, I should have known. Stupid kid.

Anyway, I hope the holes improve until Saturday, because that’s when I have my next race. Meanwhile, I’m happy with my new PB and try to find out how many lakes there are with races around them. (A lot!)