Running from Bassins to Nyon Along the Toblerones

Yesterday I ran twice the distance I usually run during a social run. As a group we ran from Bassins to Nyon via at least part of the Toblerone trail. We had aimed to run along the entire trail but we missed a turn near the top and ended up following the roads that I usually cycle along instead.

If we had taken the right route we would have run around 18km, mostly downhill, along the Toblerone defensive line. It is a narrow trail with Toblerones, pill boxes and more. It goes through the trees, by the river, and can be quite technical, with tree roots and rocks sticking out as well as other obstacles.

The Toblerone were placed there during the Second World War to provide a first line of defense. The concept is to retreat from Geneva, and defend the line from Bassins down to the lake, before retreating, again, and again, if someone tried to invade Switzerland. Switzerland’s goal, if someone tries to invade it is to retreat deeper and deeper into the mountains, defending every valley along the way.

On the Fifth of September they have a Journée Porte Ouverte at the Villa Rose, one of the bunkers that you can visit. These villas are bunkers with a roof, but the windows are painted so that airborne reconnaissance aircrafts, but also tourist vehicles drive by, without realising that this is a military defensive position. I don’t remember where I read that.

For the first ten kilometres I felt okay, but from the twelfth kilometre onwards I began to feel tired due to two things. The first is fatigue. Usually, socially I run from 5-10km. I rarely run further. The second reason is speed. I ran my fastest 10 mile and 15km distances during this run.

I believe that if I had slowed earlier in the run, and controlled the pace sooner I would have been able to do the entire run, without needing to walk. The challenge, with running, and cycling, is to find a group that is comfortable, that doesn’t push us too hard.

I like linear hikes and runs. I like running, walking and hiking from point A to point B, thanks to trains, buses or other forms of transport. By using a bus, and the train in this case, I did not use a car so I did not need to return to the start to get the car back. We could go in a straight line from A to B, and get on with the day.

And Finally, I’d love to do this run again, following the correct path, and slightly slower, to last for the entire distance. It’s a shame to burn out just as we got to Gland but that is where I expected to flame out. If we had taken the right route I might have caught the train from Gland back to Nyon. It’s worth doing again.

Disclaimer: Due to the drought and storm there were fallen trees along the route that we had to go over, or under, so it might be wise to wait a bit. I did not see tape to block passage on the route we ran. By making a navigation error we took a safer route.