2025 Wake Up and Run Nyon

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This morning I woke at Four, before birds started to tweet, and before the sun started to rise. I woke so early, not to deice planes, like I did years ago, but to go for a group run with five hundred and fifty other people, in theory. In practice I think some people paid to participate but failed to wake up.

Wake Up and Run, in Switzerland, is based around a simple concept. Lunatics, like me, pay 38 CHF to join a 5km run at 05:30 in the morning. We get coffee, breakfast, a purple/pink t-shirt, a wake up and run glass and more.

The event is not timed. There are no prizes, unless breakfast counts as a prize. You get a warm up coaching session from 05:15 to 05:30, then you run the course, and then you have breakfast and head for home or work, depending on the time at which your professional day starts.

This morning I would have had a good 5K time, if the watch had counted the course as being 5K. It was counted as being just 4.97 kilometres. I suspect that the tunnel passages, and forest, affected the distance. I saw that some GPS gave longer or shorter distances.

Today I started strong so I was near the front. It's during one climb that I felt that I was close to overdoing it so I slowed down. In the process I fell behind the group I had been with, and on the Boiron climb others fell behind me, then people overtook me right up to the end. If it wasn't for the people running faster than me this would have been a solo run, once again.

I am a hiker, who cycles regularly, and runs every so often. I was comfortable, or at least felt I could sustain the effort for the entire run. I could have pushed, but I felt I was at risk of overdoing it, so I throttled back. I still got my best 1km time. I suspect that this is from keeping up with the faster group, until the climb by the Plage de Nyon.

And Finally

I am not sure that I would do Wake Up and Run again. I'm fine with waking up, and I am fine with the course. What I find a shame is that I run solo, rather than with people. Having people either drop back, or fly forward gives me a reason to strive to be faster but I would prefer not to strive to the point of coughing and spluttering like I heard others doing at the end. If I ran with people more, then such an activity would be more social.

I have a year to change my mind.