Running through three countries in a marathon!
3:43pm, 17th Oct 2024 | Sparkasse Three Countries Marathon | 14 Comments
Blog by ptr_runner
| More by this blogger
| More bloggers
After doing Munich marathon last October for the second time, I decided I would do something different this autumn. On the same day as Munich was this, the Three Countries Marathon.
Starting on a small island in Lake Constance called Lindau, but a part of Germany, you run across the bridge back to the "mainland" before heading round the lake and crossing the border into Austria. Running through the popular tourist spot of Bregenz, you keep following the shores of the lake until you cross the border into Switzerland.
It's a short-ish loop in Switzerland before you do your final border crossing of the run into Austria and head to the finish line in Bregenz. But there's a lot more to say than that, so grab a brew and let's get into it.
As usual, I write these race reports in some detail, so if you'd rather the TL:DR, you'll find that here:
Legs felt good all the way out to about 35km. A lack of long runs (again) in training meant I faded fast after this point. Finished in 3:54.46.
On race day, I was woken up at about 4:20am by my 8 month old daughter chatting away in her cot, not at all interested in sleeping. I finally got up about 5am and had a cup of tea with my bowl of porridge. I wasn't going to forget breakfast again (see race report from Obermain Marathon Apr 2023).
I left the house at 6am and Bregenz is a 2 hour drive away. The race is point to point, so the instructions for runners are to park up at the finish line in Bregenz. This is where race HQ is, and where you collect your race number. You then have the choice of taking either a ferry or a train to the island of Lindau. By 8am, the car park was pretty full already, but I found a spot and walked over to the conference centre / theatre building to get my number. There was a huge queue for the half marathon, but thankfully the full line was empty.
Got my number and headed out to find a loo. I didn't have that much time to get back to the car and drop off my trousers & coat etc, so I skipped the toilet queue and headed outside. Back to the car, deposit stuff, pick up hydration pack, hat, sunglasses etc and swap into my run trainers.
I then went to go and find the ferry. This turned out to be quite a long way from the race HQ, a 700m walk according to google maps. I joined the back of the (very long) queue at 8:29am. According to the race website, there was a boat due to leave at 8:30am and another at 8:35am. I planned to get on the latter.
The ferry ride takes roughly 25 minutes, which would get me onto Lindau by about 9am, giving 45 minutes spare to go to the loo, do a little warm up and get into the starting pen. Unfortunately, what transpired was that the 8:30am boat was full and left early, so the two boats I could see were the 8:35am and the 9:10am.
This was important, because the website clearly said that the 9:10 would get runners to Lindau after the marathon start.
I heard voices around me muttering concern about getting the right boat. I too was concerned. At this point, one of the two boats started to back away from the dock and the queue of runners was being directed onto the other boat. I got talking to a couple of other marathon runners, two friends, a German and a Canadian. We all agreed that the race organiser must know what they're doing, and the queue was moving along slowly, so we stuck with it.
We must have been within the first hundred or so people onto the boat, so we went up to the first floor and grabbed a table. It very quickly got very full and it wasn't long before there were runners packed tightly in. We sat here chatting and waiting for some time. 8:40 passed, 8:50 passed, when it got to 9am, we finally acknodleged that the boat we were on must be the 9:10, and as such we might well be missing the start of the race.
Looking around the room, it was clear that whilst most runners had yellow numbers for the Half marathon, there were plenty like us with green full marathon numbers. With so many runners on board, there was no way I was going to be able to get to the loos on board and by this point, I really needed a pee.
At about 9:12am, the boat started moving and we back away from the dock, turned round, and set off for Lindau. About 10 minutes into the journey, over the tannoy a voice told us that the journey would take another 15 minutes and if we were lucky, we would see the marathon start as the boat was docking...
This part of the event really, really needed some monitoring from race officials. There should have been a person/people going up and down the queue, filtering out the marathon runners to get them on the boats before the half marathon runners who had a much later start time and could use the later boat.
Fast forward, and as that tannoy voice had said, we could hear the race start countdown as the boat was being tied up to the dock. I had left my table and pushed my way to the top of the stairs. The stairwell and passageway was full, and I had a young Swiss guy stood with me that was also keen to get off and start his marathon. We did our best to push through the crowds, and we both jumped over a rope fence to skip past the queue to get off the boat. As we ran, we joined the back of the race pack and went past some of the 5 hour + Pacers.
I ran over the timing mat at the start and hit the start button on my Garmin. I'd made the race, but only bloody just. I felt sorry for my new friends i'd shared a table with on the boat because they had to drop their bags before they could start. I had decided against a drop bag and was on the boat ready to run, so they would have been even later starting.
Just after the 1km mark, you run across the bridge from the island of Lindau and into "mainland" Germany. Shortly after 2km, I found a quiet spot to have a pee, that was a relief. It's not until about 5.5km that you leave Germany and cross a bridge over a river that marks the border with Austria. Unfortunately, I didn't notice it in time to get a picture, but it wasn't that exciting.
You keep running along the shore of the lake along a nice wide dedicated footpath, heading for Bregenz. You run past the ferry terminal that i'd used to get to Lindau in the first place, then carry on towards the centre of Bregenz and then past the stadium that will serve as the finish line. We're about 10.5km in at this point.
After 12km, the route sticks to the lake shore and diverts away from the tarmac path onto a gravel / dirt path. As we go past 13km, I see up ahead in the distance the 4 hour pacer, not quite visible in this pic, mind.
It takes me until just after 16km to catch the group and I have a decision to make. My expected finishing time is sub 4, maybe as low as 3:50. The legs are feeling good at this point, but it's still early (in marathon terms). I know that if I just settle in with the 4 hour pace group, i'll definitely come in under because I started after the pacer. But why not try a little harder, push past this group and see how we get on?
I'll note here that I use a Connect IQ app on my Garmin watch called Peters Race Pacer. That is my name, but I didn't create it. I find it extremely helpful in a marathon setting for two reasons. 1) You hit Lap at every KM marker at it "resets" the displayed distance to the nearest KM, so accounting for GPS errors if you're running between buildings etc. It also adjusts the displayed pace, so you get a better idea of what pace you're actually running, rather than too fast / slow if your GPS has gone a little haywire. 2) It displays an estimated finishing time (displayed as "ETA") which I find comes in really handy saving you from having to do the mental maths as to how many seconds/km you need to speed up or slow down to hit a certain goal time.
As I caught the 4 hour pace group, my ETA was 3:45.09. I figured i'd stick to my pace and run past the pace group.
Not a lot really happend for the next 3km or so, we were running through a pretty quiet section with no roadside supporters, but at 18.5km, I heard lots of cheering from up ahead and long whitsle blows. As I rounded the corner, I saw a motorbike, a couple of bicycles and a bloody fast runner coming towards me. This was the guy in first place and I noted from the KM marker sign facing the other way that he had just passed 33km, putting him over 14km ahead of me. Phenomenal. I can only dream of running that fast for that long.
Back to the quiet, and we keep moving. Another km passes and we turn right over another bridge, I tried to get a picture but my phone chose that momnent to freeze. Don't worry, you'll see it later when we're at km 32.
We're now heading for Switzerland, running through some little towns or villiages that are very peaceful this Sunday morning. The entire route is on closed roads, so we have Fire Brigade and Police personnel out at most junctions with barriers up keeping the streets clear for us.
We pass through the aid station at 24km and we're in sight of the Austrian/Swiss border.
Interesting point here, whilst you can cross most international borders within Europe on a motorway, you can't do this for Switzerland. All road borders are on small roads with built checkpoints. They're often not staffed, but they are still there.
We run right through this checkpoint, and into the canton of St. Gallen and the town of St. Margarethen, the inhabitants of which had come out in force to welcome the runners. It was quite the departure from the realitively quiet route thus far in Germany and Austria. At one point, we even had a cheerleading squad putting on a display as we ran past, great fun!
Sorry for the blurry pic!
At this point, my ETA has slipped slightly to 3:47. 46. I actually start to wonder if I have the legs to push on a little and aim for a PB (currently 3:44). It's too early to pick up the pace yet though. Unfortunately, we don't stay in Switzerland very long, and by km 28 we're joining a path alongside the Rhein and jumping back into Austria. We're seen off by a few yound lads beating some Swiss flag painted oil drums. Quite the send off.
This now marks a ~4km long "straight" along the river before we jump back onto old ground. I escape the monotony of this by eating another waffle. Not horrendous, but it's getting more difficult to eat with a dry mouth at this point in the race.
It's here we cross that bridge again that I mentioned at km 19. Hope it was worth the wait.
Between KM 34 - 37 we're running through a town called Hard. It's shown on all the km marker signs. Perhaps it's psycological, but it was here that I started to suffer. The cramp had set in affecting my right quad and I stopped briefly to try and strech it a little, but without wanting to trigger cramp anywhere else. This worked well actually and relieved the pain for a km or so. My run pace dropped off considerably after 35km. This is the lack of long runs in my build up showing through. I just don't have that long endurance stamina in the legs.
My ETA had dropped to 3:51.22 at 37km. This is always a pivotal point for me. With only a parkrun left to do, I know I'm going to make it. I know I can run a 5k anytime, anywhere, so it's just that left.
It really is true that the marathon doesn't start til after 30km!
I kept shuffling, a short pause here and there to stretch, or to take on the last of my ISO drink, and before I knew it: I was running into the stadium and past the 42km marker.
I did manage to lift the pace a touch for my last km. I vowed to not walk in that bit, and to just get it done.
Half a lap of the track and across the line.
Offical time of 3:54.46. Right around where I had expected before going into the race. I was confident of going under 4 but hopeful to be closer to 3:50. I think this result was exactly what I deserved based on the training i'd done in the build up, so i'm pretty happy with it.
And realistically, i was just happy that i'd been able to spend 4 hours out running and enjoying myself. isn't that what it's all about?
So that's a rundown of the race, how about a short (I promise) review.
I entered this wanting the novelty of running through three countries and of course it certainly delivered that. Elevation gain was exceptionally minimal and a fast time could be achieved. I hadn't realised there would be a short trail section, but I doubt this would have impeded a PB attempt.
What I would say, is that the actual route is not particularly captivating. You do get plenty of views of the lake, but once you've seen it, you've seen it. There are some impressive hills in the background, but more often you're focussing on the road in front of you. As such, the scenery isn't the draw. The route intrinsically isn't the draw either.
Would I reccommend this race? Maybe. There can't be that many places on earth where you can run through multiple countries in a marathon, so if that sounds like a box you want to tick, get signed up. Entries are open for 2025.
If that's not all that appealing to you, then maybe skip this one and go for something else. If you're in Germany, Munich marathon is good. I'm sure there are decent runs in Austria and I know Switzerland has far better races (and scenery) on offer.
With that, thanks for reading.
Starting on a small island in Lake Constance called Lindau, but a part of Germany, you run across the bridge back to the "mainland" before heading round the lake and crossing the border into Austria. Running through the popular tourist spot of Bregenz, you keep following the shores of the lake until you cross the border into Switzerland.
It's a short-ish loop in Switzerland before you do your final border crossing of the run into Austria and head to the finish line in Bregenz. But there's a lot more to say than that, so grab a brew and let's get into it.
As usual, I write these race reports in some detail, so if you'd rather the TL:DR, you'll find that here:
On race day, I was woken up at about 4:20am by my 8 month old daughter chatting away in her cot, not at all interested in sleeping. I finally got up about 5am and had a cup of tea with my bowl of porridge. I wasn't going to forget breakfast again (see race report from Obermain Marathon Apr 2023).
I left the house at 6am and Bregenz is a 2 hour drive away. The race is point to point, so the instructions for runners are to park up at the finish line in Bregenz. This is where race HQ is, and where you collect your race number. You then have the choice of taking either a ferry or a train to the island of Lindau. By 8am, the car park was pretty full already, but I found a spot and walked over to the conference centre / theatre building to get my number. There was a huge queue for the half marathon, but thankfully the full line was empty.
Got my number and headed out to find a loo. I didn't have that much time to get back to the car and drop off my trousers & coat etc, so I skipped the toilet queue and headed outside. Back to the car, deposit stuff, pick up hydration pack, hat, sunglasses etc and swap into my run trainers.
I then went to go and find the ferry. This turned out to be quite a long way from the race HQ, a 700m walk according to google maps. I joined the back of the (very long) queue at 8:29am. According to the race website, there was a boat due to leave at 8:30am and another at 8:35am. I planned to get on the latter.
The ferry ride takes roughly 25 minutes, which would get me onto Lindau by about 9am, giving 45 minutes spare to go to the loo, do a little warm up and get into the starting pen. Unfortunately, what transpired was that the 8:30am boat was full and left early, so the two boats I could see were the 8:35am and the 9:10am.
This was important, because the website clearly said that the 9:10 would get runners to Lindau after the marathon start.
I heard voices around me muttering concern about getting the right boat. I too was concerned. At this point, one of the two boats started to back away from the dock and the queue of runners was being directed onto the other boat. I got talking to a couple of other marathon runners, two friends, a German and a Canadian. We all agreed that the race organiser must know what they're doing, and the queue was moving along slowly, so we stuck with it.
We must have been within the first hundred or so people onto the boat, so we went up to the first floor and grabbed a table. It very quickly got very full and it wasn't long before there were runners packed tightly in. We sat here chatting and waiting for some time. 8:40 passed, 8:50 passed, when it got to 9am, we finally acknodleged that the boat we were on must be the 9:10, and as such we might well be missing the start of the race.
Looking around the room, it was clear that whilst most runners had yellow numbers for the Half marathon, there were plenty like us with green full marathon numbers. With so many runners on board, there was no way I was going to be able to get to the loos on board and by this point, I really needed a pee.
At about 9:12am, the boat started moving and we back away from the dock, turned round, and set off for Lindau. About 10 minutes into the journey, over the tannoy a voice told us that the journey would take another 15 minutes and if we were lucky, we would see the marathon start as the boat was docking...
This part of the event really, really needed some monitoring from race officials. There should have been a person/people going up and down the queue, filtering out the marathon runners to get them on the boats before the half marathon runners who had a much later start time and could use the later boat.
Fast forward, and as that tannoy voice had said, we could hear the race start countdown as the boat was being tied up to the dock. I had left my table and pushed my way to the top of the stairs. The stairwell and passageway was full, and I had a young Swiss guy stood with me that was also keen to get off and start his marathon. We did our best to push through the crowds, and we both jumped over a rope fence to skip past the queue to get off the boat. As we ran, we joined the back of the race pack and went past some of the 5 hour + Pacers.
I ran over the timing mat at the start and hit the start button on my Garmin. I'd made the race, but only bloody just. I felt sorry for my new friends i'd shared a table with on the boat because they had to drop their bags before they could start. I had decided against a drop bag and was on the boat ready to run, so they would have been even later starting.
Just after the 1km mark, you run across the bridge from the island of Lindau and into "mainland" Germany. Shortly after 2km, I found a quiet spot to have a pee, that was a relief. It's not until about 5.5km that you leave Germany and cross a bridge over a river that marks the border with Austria. Unfortunately, I didn't notice it in time to get a picture, but it wasn't that exciting.
You keep running along the shore of the lake along a nice wide dedicated footpath, heading for Bregenz. You run past the ferry terminal that i'd used to get to Lindau in the first place, then carry on towards the centre of Bregenz and then past the stadium that will serve as the finish line. We're about 10.5km in at this point.
After 12km, the route sticks to the lake shore and diverts away from the tarmac path onto a gravel / dirt path. As we go past 13km, I see up ahead in the distance the 4 hour pacer, not quite visible in this pic, mind.
It takes me until just after 16km to catch the group and I have a decision to make. My expected finishing time is sub 4, maybe as low as 3:50. The legs are feeling good at this point, but it's still early (in marathon terms). I know that if I just settle in with the 4 hour pace group, i'll definitely come in under because I started after the pacer. But why not try a little harder, push past this group and see how we get on?
I'll note here that I use a Connect IQ app on my Garmin watch called Peters Race Pacer. That is my name, but I didn't create it. I find it extremely helpful in a marathon setting for two reasons. 1) You hit Lap at every KM marker at it "resets" the displayed distance to the nearest KM, so accounting for GPS errors if you're running between buildings etc. It also adjusts the displayed pace, so you get a better idea of what pace you're actually running, rather than too fast / slow if your GPS has gone a little haywire. 2) It displays an estimated finishing time (displayed as "ETA") which I find comes in really handy saving you from having to do the mental maths as to how many seconds/km you need to speed up or slow down to hit a certain goal time.
As I caught the 4 hour pace group, my ETA was 3:45.09. I figured i'd stick to my pace and run past the pace group.
Not a lot really happend for the next 3km or so, we were running through a pretty quiet section with no roadside supporters, but at 18.5km, I heard lots of cheering from up ahead and long whitsle blows. As I rounded the corner, I saw a motorbike, a couple of bicycles and a bloody fast runner coming towards me. This was the guy in first place and I noted from the KM marker sign facing the other way that he had just passed 33km, putting him over 14km ahead of me. Phenomenal. I can only dream of running that fast for that long.
Back to the quiet, and we keep moving. Another km passes and we turn right over another bridge, I tried to get a picture but my phone chose that momnent to freeze. Don't worry, you'll see it later when we're at km 32.
We're now heading for Switzerland, running through some little towns or villiages that are very peaceful this Sunday morning. The entire route is on closed roads, so we have Fire Brigade and Police personnel out at most junctions with barriers up keeping the streets clear for us.
We pass through the aid station at 24km and we're in sight of the Austrian/Swiss border.
Interesting point here, whilst you can cross most international borders within Europe on a motorway, you can't do this for Switzerland. All road borders are on small roads with built checkpoints. They're often not staffed, but they are still there.
We run right through this checkpoint, and into the canton of St. Gallen and the town of St. Margarethen, the inhabitants of which had come out in force to welcome the runners. It was quite the departure from the realitively quiet route thus far in Germany and Austria. At one point, we even had a cheerleading squad putting on a display as we ran past, great fun!
Sorry for the blurry pic!
At this point, my ETA has slipped slightly to 3:47. 46. I actually start to wonder if I have the legs to push on a little and aim for a PB (currently 3:44). It's too early to pick up the pace yet though. Unfortunately, we don't stay in Switzerland very long, and by km 28 we're joining a path alongside the Rhein and jumping back into Austria. We're seen off by a few yound lads beating some Swiss flag painted oil drums. Quite the send off.
This now marks a ~4km long "straight" along the river before we jump back onto old ground. I escape the monotony of this by eating another waffle. Not horrendous, but it's getting more difficult to eat with a dry mouth at this point in the race.
It's here we cross that bridge again that I mentioned at km 19. Hope it was worth the wait.
Between KM 34 - 37 we're running through a town called Hard. It's shown on all the km marker signs. Perhaps it's psycological, but it was here that I started to suffer. The cramp had set in affecting my right quad and I stopped briefly to try and strech it a little, but without wanting to trigger cramp anywhere else. This worked well actually and relieved the pain for a km or so. My run pace dropped off considerably after 35km. This is the lack of long runs in my build up showing through. I just don't have that long endurance stamina in the legs.
My ETA had dropped to 3:51.22 at 37km. This is always a pivotal point for me. With only a parkrun left to do, I know I'm going to make it. I know I can run a 5k anytime, anywhere, so it's just that left.
It really is true that the marathon doesn't start til after 30km!
I kept shuffling, a short pause here and there to stretch, or to take on the last of my ISO drink, and before I knew it: I was running into the stadium and past the 42km marker.
I did manage to lift the pace a touch for my last km. I vowed to not walk in that bit, and to just get it done.
Half a lap of the track and across the line.
Offical time of 3:54.46. Right around where I had expected before going into the race. I was confident of going under 4 but hopeful to be closer to 3:50. I think this result was exactly what I deserved based on the training i'd done in the build up, so i'm pretty happy with it.
And realistically, i was just happy that i'd been able to spend 4 hours out running and enjoying myself. isn't that what it's all about?
So that's a rundown of the race, how about a short (I promise) review.
I entered this wanting the novelty of running through three countries and of course it certainly delivered that. Elevation gain was exceptionally minimal and a fast time could be achieved. I hadn't realised there would be a short trail section, but I doubt this would have impeded a PB attempt.
What I would say, is that the actual route is not particularly captivating. You do get plenty of views of the lake, but once you've seen it, you've seen it. There are some impressive hills in the background, but more often you're focussing on the road in front of you. As such, the scenery isn't the draw. The route intrinsically isn't the draw either.
Would I reccommend this race? Maybe. There can't be that many places on earth where you can run through multiple countries in a marathon, so if that sounds like a box you want to tick, get signed up. Entries are open for 2025.
If that's not all that appealing to you, then maybe skip this one and go for something else. If you're in Germany, Munich marathon is good. I'm sure there are decent runs in Austria and I know Switzerland has far better races (and scenery) on offer.
With that, thanks for reading.
Got something to say?
To see the comments on this blog, or to add a comment yourself, you need to either sign in or register as a user.
ptr_runner
I've been a runner for as long as I can remember. I was a 100m sprint specialist during my school years, before moving to long distance running around 2014 when I decided I wanted to run a 50k. Have completed 8 marathons and 3 ultras since then, and only plan on doing more!Profile | Blog | Other Blogs