Greifensee Lauf

Arriving in Switzerland, one of the first things you notice is how fit everyone is. In the year + we've lived here, I think I've encountered fewer than 10 overweight people. And, in most cases, those who are overweight are not Swiss!

So, Jason and I have tried to become more active. When you go outside, you see people hiking, biking, running, walking, everywhere. It's good motivation for us, so he's gotten back into running and bikes to work a few days a week now. I've started running for the first time in my life. I used to say that the only reason that I'd ever need/want to run is if someone with a knife is chasing me, but I can actually say I enjoy running now! Maybe it's the environment? Running in the woods with breathtaking views of the Alps and the lake is much better than running on a track or in a subdivision! I find it quite relaxing actually, especially now that I've discovered downloading audiobooks to my iPod. I listen to books instead of music and it makes me want to keep going to see what will happen in the book.

So, obviously, with all these runners, there must be races, right? There are marathons, half-marathons, 10k, 5k races nearly every weekend somewhere in Switzerland. They even have races for the kids to do. So, along with some of our friends here, we decided to run in the Griefensee Lauf (Greifensee is a small lake, and "lauf" means run). Being new to the sport, I just did the 5.5K. Jason did the 10K, and Aidan and Jason did the 1.2K kids run. The Greifensee is a serious half-marathon that runners from all over the world come to compete in. Last year a Kenyan finished the half-marathon (13miles) in just over an hour! So, along with us beginners, there were many serious atheletes in the 40,000 or so participants. MuKi/Vaki means "MotherChild/FatherChild"-this is the race Aidan did with Jason.

Here is Team Barnett! Ready to race...

Team Barnett, with our friends Team Starkey- Rob and Jack

Aidan did a great job. He ran the whole time and finished the 1.2K in 6 minutes 24 seconds! He was so proud of the medal he won and the t-shirt he got. Many of his friends from school ran too, so it was lots of fun for him. He's already talking about doing another race soon.

Here, you can just see half of him running on the left side of this pic. It's hard to take pics in the crowd!

Post-race medal winners!

After Aidan's race, I had to run down to the start of the 5.5K. I only had 25 minutes to get there and the start was far from where Aidan's race ended. I was so stressed. I had to run to get to the start line and made it with only 2 mins to start! So, I was already a bit winded before I even began my run. Not setting me up for success! But I started off strong and even passed people in the first K. Then I stupidly trusted my Nike+iPod chip to tell me what my pace was, and it ended up being off by a few mins/k's overall. I thought I was doing better than I actually did, so I didn't really push myself. I finished in 35 mins 38 secs, but I had hoped to finish in about 33 mins. Oh well. At least I finished and didn't hate every minute of it. I much prefer running in the peaceful woods than dealing with crowds of 40,000+ and being over taken by people. But I think I'll try another race soon. Just to get used to the pressure! I'm competitive in every other sport I play, but with running I am so not. If I can't beat 'em, I don't even want to join 'em. I know I'm out of my league, but I'm going to keep trying to compete just with myself to better my time or extend my distance. I can't let others get to me. Good luck to me with that!

Here I am post race, relived to be done!

Jason is a much more competitive runner than me. He was dead-set on finishing his 10K under an hour and he did by a lot! He finished in 54 mins, 58 secs! Super good! But, with all the other serious runners around, that still only placed him at 117 in his age category and over 45o in all men! (At least his race, got places. The 5.5K was "just for fun" and didn't even get to have a winner-slightly demeaning. I made Jason put the results from my race into Excel and find out my place. I came in 100 out of 253 runners. I guess not so bad.) He's very proud of himself and is thinking of working himself up to a half-marathon sometime next year.

Jason post-race, sweaty as can be. The weather was HOT and sunny.

Aidan and I in the expo area, waiting for a turn on the merry-go-round.

We were all so happy to finish our races and head home after a long day. Lainey was a great cheerleader but was not happy with me that day. I had told her she was too young to run in the race, but when we got there she saw 2 kids from her class running in it. "I told you I can run, Mommy!" is what I heard all day. I promised her the next run she could do, so there's one in Oct. and one in Dec. coming up. At least she did have fun with some friends there and she got a cute photo taken in the expo the night before at the Pasta Party.