Following the weekend of 2 Thanksgivings, I participated in the Escalade Course du Duc; this is a 20km race that is held every 5 years. The Escalade is an annual event each year to commemorate the Genevoise defending the city from the French invaders and there’s typically several different runs in the city and a weekend long city festival. Typically, I’ve missed this event every year as it is the first weekend of December and during ski season; however, the Duc race is Friday night so I was able to do both.
The race starts in Reignier, France at 9:30pm and all runners are bussed to the beginning on packed buses (standing room only) a few hours prior to the race....I spent a lot of time on my feet! Running the race was nice as there were quite a few supporters, some live bands, many sections of the route were lit with Christmas lights, and all of the runners also received headlamps to help light the way. There were quite a few coworkers running along with client contacts that I knew.
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| The Route |
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| Starting Line |
Verbier Opening - Saturday
The following morning, I awoke at 5am to meet friends to drive to Verbier for their official opening ski weekend. This was my second ski outing of the season as I went to Saas Fee for the 'Ski Test' the weekend before Thanksgiving (no broken skis similar to prior year).
For Verbier, they have a promotion for their opening Saturday where skiing is free for everyone dressed as Santa Claus so a small group of us dressed up for the event. It was very funny to see 2,656 Santa Clauses on the Ski mountain, but it also made it quite difficult to find anyone.
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| All the santas preparing for the group shot mid-mountain |
The event was a blast with free skiing, a voucher for 2-for-1 skiing later in the season, free vin chaud during the group photo, and we finished the night with raclette to kick-off the ski season!
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