Trotteuse Tissot

Cantons | Fifty | La Chaux-de-Fonds | Ninety | Traces | Twenty-Five | Vesuvio

10 December 2022 - La Chaux-de-Fonds

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Today started like many on Saturday a cup of coffee. I spent the morning on Christmas cards finishing up the ones for people whose addresses I had. A bit of breakfast and headed out of the door to cross that Canton off my list of running Trotteuse Tissot. It was the bus to the train to the Zürich Hauptbahnhof. Then I boarded the train to Biel, where I luckily got a spot in the restaurant car. I always feel like a boss drinking coffee and reading my economist as the mountains wizz by. It was a beautiful morning as the first new falling snow of Winter covered all the land. In Biel I got on the wrong train; well the wrong half of the train. Today I encountered an interesting new phenomena of a train that splits halfway down the track and then the halves go in different directions. Not knowing this was a possibility I got on the wrong half. I tried to get off and correct my error in lehut but I didn't make it to the back section of the train in time. Ergo I was stuck in La Heutte for an hour. The small train station was closed so to find somewhere warm I thought I would go to the church. Along the way I saw a sign:

Surely I cannot be so lucky, I thought. Maybe it is just some kid thing with climbable dinosaurs. But, wait, I'm in the Jura mountains! The rocks here from the Jurassic. That's literally how it got its name. And so I followed the trail off into the forest.

An hour later and very happy I got back on the train and made my way to La Chaux-de-Fonds. As part of the celebration for this race the museums in the town were free today. I started off in the museum of clocks. La Chaux-de-Fonds is an industrial town founded in the 19th century around the clock building business. In the history museum I learned that it was built by immigrants. And the 20th century this included Portuguese immigrants who were forced to hide their children because they were not allowed to immigrate with them. They called them enfants du placard because they were forced to hide in closets. Their education was clandestine. And today the form an important part of the community. The art museum was kind of blah and focused on Nina childress who basically paints rock stars. There was some older stuff too, but fairly lackluster.

After museuming I headed out to look for a souvenir shot glass. In most towns in Switzerland this is an easy thing to do and they have a vision of the city painted underneath a gold rim. La Chaux-de-Fonds is, I guess, not old enough. No souvenir shop had a shot glass for the town. So I settled down in a tea room to read until the race was set to start.

So here I am after the race eating my chicken cordon bleu. With my weight being up so much since the holidays I really have to ask myself how I was able to perform so well today. There was a very thick crowd and there was snow on both sides and I didn't have spikes. I wish I had spikes. I tried to buy spikes on Thursday but apparently now the local sporting goods store wants to sell winter shoes with spikes rather than spikes I can attach to my running shoes. But that is neither here nor there. There was a two and a half kilometer loop and I performed better on each one as the crowd thinned. On the third I thought I might pass some people but then I veered out into the snow and slush and fell. Live and learn. Still, I managed to average under 5 minutes a kilometer for the whole 7.5K even with the crush of people along the race course. I'm fatter since Thanksgiving but I can't help ignore the fact that I haven't been drinking up until this race. Maybe I've been looking at the wrong metrics. Maybe weight is less, way less important than alcohol consumption. This is one of my best winters in a number of years. And next month I'll be testing it in Hawaii with a half marathon. Flat course. Not too many people on the road. Can I break 1:45? It'll be 3 weeks into my dry January and I have to admit if I can then... I know the variable that's holding my performance back. But also I enjoy the celebration of a job well done.