13.8m/22km Long run

In terms of distance, I know it is not that long really, but in terms of time 2h 6mins it was very long. In both time and distance dimensions this has been the longest run I've done in ages and was important for me as I need to go longer than 13.1 in the lead up to a half marathon to prove to myself that I can still do the distance, which of course I can, but somehow going beyond the target distance gives you the confidence to push out harder knowing for sure if you need to simply slowing down will permit you to finish the course.

The plan was for me to run to Luins and find Jason at his place and take if from there. Luckly a cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland had closed the airspace over northen europe and so Jason's missus could not escape to Ireland as planned so the run was on, off, then on again. I needed to be back by 9am so we arranged to meet at his at 7am. Google maps spelt his street with an i instead of y so I had to call for directions the night before. Two things went wrong, his good lady talked me into taking the vineyard route (which was much better from a lack of traffic and scenic perspective) and I thought I was meeting him at his house. So from the map the main road is 5.4km so I left myself 30mins and set off at 6:30am. Unfortunately taking the vineyard route meant the dreaded hill - this time 7% from km 1.5 to km 2.8 taking me up 500ft. Very hard work. The straight travese of the hill side was a joy and I tried to get back to a decent pace (well sub 10 min miles!!!) then realised I'd hit the 5km mark and there was at least one more village before Jason's place and it was 6:57 - opps. I was going to be late. I picked up the pace and as the church bells clanged in Vinzel to annouce 7am I still had one more click to do. Picked up to race pace and tanked it into town found his road then his house and no sign of life let alone runners. His car is parked up outside so I am sure this is his place. I remember the wife and kids inside, so stop myself ringing the doorbell. Go to the garden and climb over to see if there is anyone inside. Nothing stirs. I admire the sunrise which is spectacular and then go back inside to leave my map on his door mat to prove I've been there. A flash of yellow outside at the top of the drive could be a runner so I open the door and call out Jason - it's him! Phew. He's been running up and down the main road to warm up as that's where we were supposed to meet while I was waiting at his house. Ho hum. Still now I know where he lives and that the vineyard route is 7km.

We decide to go easy down to Gland and follow the parcours vita that is near the sports centre and goes through some woods.

After that Jason introduces me to some great little paths and chemins between Rolle and Gland that are just what I need to have some more "flat" options on the Geneva side.

We go through a cloud of insects and Jason gets a mouthful of flies and spits them out in a big sneeze right at the same time I get a fly in my eye. He offers to remove it for me there and then but I decided to live with it until I get home.

Next up is a great event that made me think of my mate Dave in England who has a complex relationship with dogs. Jason assures me that there is a tunnel under the railway just along this lovely section of path. The path looks to me a lot like the drive to a massive mansion house just up ahead. The sign says something like "Keep out losers, 30 francs fine if I catch you on my land." But Jason assures me they tolerate runners like the owner of this place is one of his best mates. He points out the galloping horses in the paddock. As we get to about 100m away from the front door a woman in horse riding gear appears followed by a guy with two horses. And then the dog. This thing was massive. It was bigger than many humans I know and it was the kind of hunting dog you could imagine the Iceni using to give the Romans a hard time when they invaded England. It sees us, stops dead and stares right at us. Jason stops dead and shouts at me urgently to do the same. So there we are stopped in our tracks with a killer giant war hound 20m in front of us. Only one thing to do - blagg it. In excellent French Jason shouts "Hi good morning, we're only here to use your tunnel!" We get an odd look, but the lady of the manor calls of the war hound and horse man nods at us as if to say ok you can go through. Which we do. Jason confidently assures me the tunnel is just around the corner. Or perhaps they moved it. Later we cross a bridge.

We part company and Jason heads up back to Luins and I push on for Rolle. Time of day shows that I've got plenty of time to get down to the lake side and loop the castle before heading for home. I was glad I did. As I got to the edge of the lake I could see what at first I thought were riot police, then creatures from a bad doctor who circa 1950, but what were in fact firemen learning fireman things. In groups of 10-15 all along the lake past the castle and long the football pitch they were learning how to connect fire hoses to other sections of fire hoses, then the more advanced class were working on climbing ladders and the top bannanas got to connect their fire hose to the fire hydrant and spray the football pitch with water. No that looked like real fun. What a great job.


27 mins in the dangerous grey zone getting over to Luins, but around one hour in zone 2 and the rest in zone 1. So happy days, time on feet was the name of the game and I got lots of it!

Average pace was 9:10 so Jason is a minute mile faster than last time, yee ha. At this rate of improvement I'll be slowing him down in about 3 weeks.

After I got home my daughter managed to remove a fly from my eye. But it still hurt. I needed to use Jason's q-tip tip for removing insects from your eye which worked a treat. The dead fly was massive. Yuck.