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Unfortunately, this old French proverb about the weather (‘in April do not take off your clothes, but in May do as you please’) no longer holds true as so far this May we might have had only one single day of sunny weather (last Sunday) and we made use of it to go here:
i.e. to the Tulip Festival at Parc de l’indépendance in the small town of Morges (see my wife’s entry for some very nice pictures). As a result, I have not been very regular with my long runs … so that last month I did not manage to keep up with a friend’s pace when I went running with him (on 12 April) in the countryside of the canton of Geneva – here in the commune of Satigny, along the small river Nant d’Avril.
If the weather had been nicer I might even have gone to Leysin today as my feet are really itching to move on some more rugged terrain and I long to feel a little vertigo again …
[Click to enlarge; full entry here]
Yesterday, when I cycled down to the lake and I looked at the two ‘towers’ of Aï and Mayen (see the red circle), I saw that there was almost as much snow as when I shot this picture in January (2013). When I reached Ouchy a little later, there were even some clouds as low as the top of Tour d’Aï (the peak to the right in the circle – please note that this picture was not taken from Ouchy but from Signal de Sauvabelin).
True, I do own some equipment for treacherous terrain, but running in the mountains when there is still a lot of snow and it is raining is a little too dangerous (after all last year I had three ‘accidents’ while running in the mountains, so I have decided to be a little more cautious this year) …
[Screenshot of http://www.lausanne-meteo.ch]
And this night I was woken by the heavy rain (so that I ended up not being able to sleep and I decided to continue reading Rebecca Solnit’s admirable essay on walking – Wanderlust: A History of Walking). By the time I had finished my previous entry, the rain had abated but as I am writing these words there are still some very dark clouds.
I wonder whether I shall find the courage to go out and do one of my favourite Sunday runs:
In fact, I wrote this entry to force myself to do so as by having told the whole world about my lack of motivation I almost feel obliged to change, put my shoes on and step out in this miserable weather for a nice, long run.
POSTSCRIPT (13 May)
I did manage to muster the ‘guts’ to go out … as my wish that the weather would change for the better was fulfilled a little later on.
(Ch de la Fontaine des Meules, in the beautiful forest of Jorat)
… and I even ended up running over a longer course (probably 25k in all) than the target I had set for my run, …
… only to get drenched at some point …
… and then have to set my eyes on this eyesore (Biopôle complex at Croisettes – I loathe most of the contemporary architecture built in this country to the extent that I shall have to blog about it!) on my way down, not far from home.
However, a nice rainbow was my reward a little later in the evening … after a nice, warm bath.
Some favourite posts on running on this blog:
- Courir à Sauvabelin lorsqu’il a neigé
- From Lausanne to Villeneuve … running
- Autumn run near Zermatt – part II
- De retour à Zinal … 2ème partie (du Petit Mountet au glacier de Zinal)
- Quelques photos de Sierre Zinal 2013
- De Belalp au refuge d’Oberaletsch le long de la Panoramaweg … le pied géant ! [even if still not finished!]
- Running in the UNESCO-listed area of Aletsch
- Running in the mountains (Alpes vaudoises) after work
- Running on ski slopes … part 1
- To sign up or not to sign up for a local ultra-distance running race in September 2013?
- Is it possible to run a marathon with minimal training?