The 2009 Chamonix Marathon, June 28, 2009, France
Today was not an ordinary day since we had to get up very early to watch the Chamonix marathon start at 7:00 a.m. in the Place du Triangle de l'Amitie. The excitement was palpable and my heart was pounding in sync with the runners. All announcements were being made in both French and English and it so happened that the woman doing the English translation is from California. She lives in Chamonix and said there were around 1,700 runners with perhaps 10 from the U.S. Runners and families of runners arrived from all directions...View image... proudly wearing red Chamonix Marathon t-shirts. Many, many runners were carrying hiking poles. A smart move because hiking poles absorb some of the pounding on your joints and would also help on the uphill and tricky sections of the course.
A brief refresher about the tough 42.195 km/26.2 miles Chamonix Marathon. The course begins at 1,036m/3,398', goes up to 2,201m/7,221', down to 1,363m/4,471', with one last uphill at 2,016m/6,614'. The hiking poles will come in handy along with mega-stamina to complete. There were mandatory cut-off times and if you weren't at a certain spot by the required time, it was "three strikes and you're out."
The countdown began...View image... and 1,700 runners flashed by in a blur...View image...smiling and waving. Ha! That won't last long. I know from experience and while the crowd is shouting, "looking good", you really look like the paramedics should have begun CPR or thrown you into a body bag miles back.
It was spine-tingling and emotional watching the runners set off preparing for the physical and mental challenges ahead. The two of us were walking back to the hotel for breakfast when four men ran towards us heading to the START of the marathon! They obviously overslept, and then after beginning at the Start line, they passed us again, trying to follow the marathon route. We heard them conversing among themselves (in English) about how stupid they were, didn't have a map on them, etc. If they managed to follow the correct course, 10-minutes is nothing over 42.195 km/26.2 miles unless you are an elite runner. A comical touch to the marathon for us, not them.
By the way, the first male finisher was Christophe Assailly in a time of 4:03:23 and first woman finisher, Maud Giraud, ran it in a time of 4:54:02. Excellent times.
Breakfast at Hotel d'Arve, paid the bill and walked to the Chamonix train station pulling suitcases. The ticket window/train information window was empty so I got in line to recheck the train times to Annecy. If you could have seen the look on my face when the attendant said the next train was at 3:30 p.m.. At first I thought I'd done it again, we did need reservations and the train was sold out. No. The woman who gave me the original train schedule gave train times for Lundi (Monday) and today was Dimanche (Sunday). Unless someone performed a lobotomy while I slept, it is ingrained in my soul that Sunday is the worst day of the week to travel. Sunday train and bus departures are practically non-existent and it was only 8:15 a.m. What to do! Walk all the way back to the hotel? Change our plans?
Decision. Might as well just take the next train from Chamonix to St. Gervais-Le Fayet, pray there is someplace to store the luggage and explore the area for six hours. Serves me right for not scrutinizing the original train print out. This is not the first time that I've made this error and I fear that it won't be the last.
