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Published: July 30th 2008
It all started a couple of months ago when I had a braai at my house and my good friend Richard and I had had one too many drinks. Richard then suggested we do this crazy race up in the Alps that he had read about. 10 mins later after much intense concentration whilst trying to punch in our card details we had flights to and from Geneva.
Took the late flight out of Luton (never ever fly from this god forsaken place) and arrived in Geneva around 2230. Jumped in our shuttle and we were on our way.
Eventually found our chalet(which belongs to my lovely friend Armelle) the problem was that the key was hidden away and we had a lovely hand drawn diagram of where it was but at midnight with no light other than our cell phones things were not looking good. About 20 mins later I found it, it really felt like we were partaking in some crazy treasure hunt expedition thing.
Made a massive pot of pasta and had some chocolate and went to bed.
The race itself was nothing short of incredible. It was supposed to be a 23km run in the mountains
Geneva Airport
Why do people always spell my name like this!which turned into a 26km race because a race marshal was in the wrong place.
The views were unbeatable, running through the tiny french villages with young and old cheering us on was something very special.
It was very hard, I have never run at altitude and I loathe running up hills so basically this was the complete wrong race for me. Some of those hills were simply ridiculous, even the goats would have struggled. We started in the valley at 900m above sea level and finished at 2200m, so that gives you some idea of the altitude changes. The last push to the finish was up this massive slope which was a real kick in the pants. At the finish there was free beer and an extremely annoying french lady on the microphone. It was awesome sitting up there just knackerd as all hell drinking our beers in the sun.
Had the most incredible massage from this little french girl afterwards that took away all the soreness in my legs. Quite amazing.
The next day we caught the cable car up the mountain and watched the marathon runners. So much fun, Rich and I were shouting ALLEZ
ALLEZ at the top of our lungs. Then hiked up to Lac le Blanc which was stunning. It's hard to even explain the beauty of this place. Brought a packed lunch and sat on a rock in the sun. A good moment.
Can't wait the marathon next year.
ALLEZ ALLEZ!!
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Rich
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Incredible
An unbelievable weekend indeed!! Lloyd sir you are a legend! Bring on the marathon!! You can't beat the beauty of this place!!