Geneva Marathon - May 7

For the Geneva Marathon, my employer sponsors its employees to run any of the races for the Geneva marathon weekend.  During the prior year, I ran the marathon and in the current year, I ran the relay marathon with my work team.  This was a nice break from a full marathon as we were able to divide the distance across 5 people. The race was well organized, we had great running weather (overcast and cool), and the whole team ran quite well.

We did run into the following logistics' issues that I had not considered when planning the marathon that made for some unexpected twists to the weekend:

1) Bib Collection and Sharing - Typical of most marathons, the Friday and Saturday before the race there is an expo where runners can collect their running bibs where vendors also sell gear and Geneva was no different.  When running a relay marathon, the captain is responsible for gathering the bibs for all team members and then getting the bibs to all team members.  You would not expect this to be an issue, but becomes a logistical puzzle when the expo opens Friday after work, team members live across a large area, and everyone starts at different locations on race day.  We figured it out between getting bibs to those near me, friends of teammates, and I met our first runner on race day.

2) Gear Check - Not really an issue, but there is no gear check in a relay race other than you must give your bag to the person immediately after you or give your pre-leg clothing to the person that finishes prior to you.

3) Race Start - This was interesting.....so the race oraganized transportation to the start of the 1st 4 legs from the start of the race, but then you may be stuck waiting for the prior runners to reach you.  As the third runner, I found a bus route (2 buses) to get me to the start of my leg.  The morning of the race, I boarded the first bus and after the first few stops I notice signs that the bus route that day would stop short (thus forcing me to miss my connection) due to the marathon.  As I was reached the end of the bus line for that day, I was in the middle of nowhere and 6k from the start of my leg with an hour to spare.  I contemplated adding more distance to my planned run, but ultimately called an Uber for transport to the start of my leg.  The Uber arrived and we quickly ran into multiple closed roads and longer delays so we had a fun experience of using google maps and navigating while speaking a mix of French/English to get to the start of my leg.  We made it and I still had some time to spare luckily.

4) Finish Line - The last twist when running a relay marathon compared to a full is after running your relay leg you must get to the final 0.5k of the race (where there are multiple closed roads) to cross the finish line with your teammates and get your medal.  This was relatively easy in the grand scheme of the day.

PwC Speed Machines