A Running Adventure by Lake Geneva!

I’ve lived in Switzerland for three whole years and just two days over two months now. Oui, that’s a decent time. Far from calling it an elephantine memory (although that would be great to have) but let’s say it is distinct. Perhaps, because of an automated long running function of re-running and re-telling of things, events and happenstances in my head and outside of it. But then it hasn’t been that long for things to have dust settling on them.

 

This post is one from those days when you make a move to a new country and make very sincere – sometimes overenthusiastic attempts to fit in. So there I was, enthusing over ‘I must fit in the Swiss life’ kind of thing from when this happened.

 

The first and foremost thing to do, I decided, to fit in was shopping!!

 

No, contrary to what you are about to deduce Swiss don’t shop much (well, if the number of stores and opening hours are any indication) but they do run a lot. It evidently takes more than hail, snow & storm, all put together, to stop this country from running! There are all kinds of runners here – day breakers, lunch hour runners, synchronised runners, bare foot runners, night owls and snow leopards, marathon runners and then there are ‘because everybody is running’ runners. I decided I must gear up for that and join the bandwagon and fall into the last category that I just made up (Ouch! I know, but that’s true). So I got nice and warm running pants (for winter) and a couple of running shorts (for summer) and then those ‘climate controlling’ gimmicky tees with several smallish oddly placed pockets that I’ve always wondered to fit what exactly??

 

After few weeks of preparation -mental, that is, I was finally sporting my running pants for the purpose of running. For the past several days whenever I would wear them they would automatically tone me down by a size and I would think, ‘I’m not in a dire need of a run, am I?’ (I could rather address some more pressing issues like online shopping or catching up on movie that I missed – before I was born!) The problem was I looked pretty fit just wearing them and I also convinced myself that wearing them and taking off must’ve burned some calories. 😛

 

But Adi had been subtly reminding me of my running pants, so out they came. Between you and I, all that sporty stuff was bought because you really look cool and ‘with a purpose’ in them and everybody who lives in Switzerland has to own them. It’s a rule. One that no one tells you about. It’s a given. You have to.

 

Anyway, there was no turning back now.

 

It was a perfectly sunny day. I downloaded some upbeat songs on the iPod for my ‘run’. Ready with sunglasses, phone, keys, hair in a ‘sporty’ high pony tail, I waited till around ten in the morning, you know, just so that even the late risers might finish their running and jogging. I did not want to get in anybody’s way. So I reach the area around the lake (walking) and think, right, I can start running now.

But, what are all these people still doing??

 

A woman in purple shorts and purple shoes and purple top and purple everything is running. In fact, she looks like she’s been running all morning!!! There are quite a few old people walking their pooches. Really? Do these tiny dogs need all that exercise? I mean, no offence, but they are only slightly bigger than a mouse. An Oakley sunglasses man then whizzes past me. God! Don’t these people have jobs to go to?

 

Okay, alright, focus is what I must turn inwards now. A few minutes into running I realise everything is jingling-jangling around me – stuff that I stuffed into my tiny pockets- my phone, my keys, even the sunglasses are shifting on my nose. It’s getting messy and disconcerting. But I keep running. After a few more steps my iPod falls flat to ground with a big thud while the earphones are still dangling from the ears. I immediately look around if anyone saw me (I hope not). When I stoop down to pick the iPod, my sunglasses fall off from my face! A few more running steps and I myself am about to fall in the lake! All of this has intensified the colour I had acquired with this bit of running. Great! I clearly looked embarrassed now. I can so feel being ‘red’ and throbbing and totally not ‘running ready’.

 

Suddenly few more people come running behind me and now I have to keep doing the drill. I do feel gutted and tired already and pant like a rabbid dog! Gosh! It looked so easy and I always thought I was the athletic type. I’m already on a lookout for a bench to rest my bum on. The first one I passed was already taken. And the second one. Gosh! I’m already picturing myself in tomorrow’s headlines ‘A girl of Asian origin found collapsed by Lake Geneva’ (something like this, but in French). Yikes! That would be a shame on an international scale. And then people will mock Indian athletes in caricatures and cartoons (Oh no!!). May be Switzerland will make it mandatory to have a certificate course done before running around Lac Leman (Mais non!!!). My heart is almost in my mouth and I must find a way. Or a bench.

 

And then like lightning, strikes the brightest idea in the world! I sit on my haunches and pretend to tie my impeccably tied shoe laces. There! That feels so much better. Repeat the exercise on the other shoe.

 

As I lift my head to look around I’m washed in relief at the sight of an empty bench. Trust me, benches at public places are the best thing since sliced bread! After a breather I make the rest of what’s left on foot – walking, that is, arriving home feeling a mix of happy, funny, embarrassed , relieved and for what it’s worth somewhat leaner!  🙂

 

By evening I narrate my biggish Adventure by Lac Leman to my husband who is about to split at sides laughing when my brother joins in on FaceTime. He suggests I should go running with a rope around my waist tied to the cedar tree in front of our house to keep myself falling into the lake!!

Ha ha! Very funny. Now they are both cracking.

 

These days I stick to more foolproof measures – Yoga and walking by the lake side. The following pictures were taken during some such summery, rainy, blustery, autmny and snowy days!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can follow more of my pictures from this slice of heaven here. 🙂

A bientôt! See you soon.