hills hurt

it was rather bizarre catching the 8:30am s-bahn from zürich hb with 400 other runners on saturday morning. i, however, was mostly incredibly relieved to actually be on board, after getting briefly but completely lost trying to find the distractingly simply named 'platform 1'. being swiss, there wasn't so much friendly banter going on amongst the punters, but there was a certain feeling of early morning pre-race camaraderie in the air as we queued patiently for the gondola up to our start.

the sola is incredibly simple, pure and elegantly organised. perfectly captured from the swedes by the swiss. 15 runners per team, 600 teams, a continuous day-long running relay circling the (hilly) forest in and around zürich. and of course never an organisational mistake.

as said, mine was the superfun 14km leg around the backside of the uetliberg. the first 4km were smooth downhill brilliance, and i was cruising at 3:30s. then came a short very sharp climb that really knocked me about. i was almost getting things back together when the second big hill hit at 10km. ouch. luckily the 3km home was more sweet downhill firetrail. running fast is so much fun! if only i had had the strength on the uphills as well.

some power-napping brought me back to life for the relaxed bbq at microbiology in the evening (good for some well-deserved teammate back-slapping and congratulations), which was a good warmup for the sola party in at eth zentrum. farnoush and i made the most of the sleepy live band and the only dance option, the 'latin' room, but definitely enjoyed the smokefree atmosphere - yay for sporty types!