Matt’s France Marathon

Contribution: Matt Upton. _{Edited/posted by Harold P.}

Event Name: Lake Annecy Marathon

Date: Sunday, April 14, 2024

Location: Annecy, France

Synopsis: This was my first international marathon, and by far the most scenic marathon I have ever run.

Briefly describe the overall venue & course:
Annecy has been rated the best place to live in France, for good reason. Located on the banks of the second largest lake in France, and nestled at the base of the Alps, Annecy has it all. The marathon route weaves between the mountains and the lake and starts and finishes on the edge of the old city.

What was provided at the aid stations?
The aid stations had water, and Coca-Cola, but lacked any sports drinks. I found out the hard way that Coca-Cola was still carbonated and I suffered for a few kilometers after taking some (as a substitute for the sports drink I was expecting along the course).

For nutrition, they supplied orange slices, bananas and some apricots. I steered away from the supplied nutrition except for the orange slices.

My biggest problem with the aid stations was they were poorly organized. One ran out of cups, so a queue formed for people that carried water bottles (luckily I decided to do so at the last minute). Generally there was only 1-2 people filling water bottles, so lots of time was lost. Another station was completely out of water when I passed. This explains why there were quite a few folks with hydration packs.

How was the weather? :
It started out beautiful, but was 24 degrees when I finished. There were quite a few people that had heat stroke, and it was quite the shock to the system after training throughout the winter in Canada.

My Race Experience:
This was a race that I added after I started my training plan for the Ottawa marathon. Since I was going to be in France at the time of the marathon, and with 6 weeks remaining before Ottawa, I decided to sign up as an extended training run.

As the race neared, my expectations increased and I was hoping run a sub 4 hour marathon (which I haven’t done for quite a number of years). As I approached the start line (which was only 400m from our apartment), I realized my corral was very far back (5 of 6) and I was at the back of the pack to start. After starting on the street, the route quickly switch over to a bike path and was full of twists and turns. This made the first 4k extremely slow and difficult to pass.

After the route left the downtown area, there was a bit more room to pass and I was able to start getting my pace back on track. I definitely hit a bit of a wall at the turnaround section of the course (it was largely an out & back course). After an incline that provided me with some trouble, I was able to find my new pace and continued to pass people a lot more than I got passed (I realized this after I saw the splits at the end of the race).

On the way back to the city, the heat with definitely becoming a factor and I encountered the problematic water stations. There were a number of people getting medical attention in the last 5-10km of the course.

In the end I came in around 4h 18m, which was a disappointment at first. However, in hindsight, I faired much better than most and passed a lot of people throughout the race. I’ll use this as a nice training run, and chase my sub 4 hour goal in Ottawa.

Would you do this event again? Why?
I’ll be back. It is so close to our apartment, and such a scenic course. I also could do a lot better if I wore a hydration pack, had better weather, and started in a better corral at the start line. I have to try it again.

Would you recommend this event? Why?
The scenario of this course is hard to beat.

Closing thoughts. Any hints for others planning to do this race? Where to stay? Things to bring? What to wear?
If anyone is ever interested in this event, reach out. We have an apartment in Annecy and this is a great location to visit ahead/after the marathon itself. It is very active community with a ton of festivals and things to do. I can’t get enough of Annecy.