Marathon Rating:
The Luxembourg Night Marathon is as unique as Luxembourg City itself. Luxembourg City, of course, is the capital of Luxembourg the country (or rather more correctly, The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg), a small European nation about the size in area as the U.S. State of Rhode Island. But the city’s historic role and its modern-day importance as one of the tri-part administrative capitals of the European Union (a role shared by Brussels, Belgium and Strassbourg, France) give this urbane and fairy-tale location a feeling of being even more “European” than many other places in Europe.
THE PLACE:
Landlocked, and located in the center of Northwestern Europe between today’s Germany, France, and Belgium, Luxembourg, in fact, has always occupied an important, if not outsized, role in European politics. But in most of its 1,000-year history, this was due both to its location, its religion (99% Catholic until recently, which often mattered greatly in alliances with Popes and competing royal dynasties), and above all else, its strategic, impenetrable defense structures. Known as the “Gibraltar of the North”, Luxembourg was a valuable chess piece that clashing rulers wanted to control as an outer fortress to their own empires. Throughout history, particularly in the last four centuries, it found itself allied or otherwise dominated by French kings (and later, Napoleon), the Prussians, the Dutch, the Belgians, the Spanish, the Austrians, even the Nazis, who simply walked in and took it over.
The city and its fortresses which made everybody want a piece of it were built atop steep cliffs, protected on virtually all sides by high stone walls rising above deep gorges carved by the Alzette and Pétrusse rivers directly below. Augmenting this was some 14 miles of “casemates”: vast networks of tunnels, galleries and staircases built beneath the city in order to move troops and canons quickly to their defense posts in case of attack. The casemates (some of which can be visited today) were so extensive, in fact, they were later used as bomb shelters for 35,000 people during World War II. Today, along with Luxembourg’s Old Town, they are protected as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, but can be easily visited for a fascinating tour.
These contrasts then–the historic core with its palace buildings, parks and squares, cathedral, and cobblestone lanes perched dramatically on cliffs above deep green gorges studded with village-like clusters of buildings–are what give Luxembourg its Disney-esque beauty. Juxtaposed on this, however, is the modern Luxembourg, buzzing with both EU business and–due to its pro-business tax laws–with international banks and technology firms (for example, Amazon, Apple, eBay and Skype all have their European headquarters here).
This not only means that there is a corresponding modern city of glass steel high-rises in the newer sections of town, but that 47% of Luxembourg’s residents are ex-pats who’ve been drawn to working and living there. This is turn brings this relatively small capital an extraordinary amount of multilingual, multicultural, creative and eclectic energies, with people from 170 different countries calling it home.
THE RACE:
So, Luxembourg, as you might guess, is already a very pretty and interesting place to visit on its own for the weekend, but what the organizers for the Luxembourg Marathon seemed to have figured out is how to make that weekend into a street party for both the runners’ and the spectators’ delight.
Holding a city marathon on a Saturday night is unusual enough, but this one–starting at 7:00 PM just when the early summer sunset is lighting the town up with long shadows and a golden glow–also brilliantly: a) combines a course that stays 100% of the time in the city without appearing to double back around any spots, b) incorporates a range of its “older and newer”, “upper and lower”, “city streets and urban forest” areas of town along its scenic course; and c) brings, get this, an international Samba Festival into the mix of its already long menu of live music acts (from folk dancing to brass bands) to entertain the crowds at almost every half mile of the race.
Next, this marathon goes further and adds a magical, pop-up “Light Village” courtesy of the local energy company with lanterns, torches, and colorful giant balloon creatures lit from within that runners move through in the forests of the Pétrusse Valley gorge. It also adds unusual touches such as allowing runners to finish the 26.2 mile course with a “Go-Go” friend, that is: a family member or friend who donates € 5 for charity, gets a special T-shirt, and supports the runner right through to the finish line, which incidentally happens in a huge convention hall with disco lights, music and cheering crowds.
The effect of all this entertainment, not to mention that thousands of families and folks lining the course out for a night on the town, is that in any part of the race and in any area of the city, the night is alive with lights, drumming, and live and DJ-played music floating above the trees and in between each city block.
[SPOLER ALERT FOR RUNNERS BELOW. Skip to the next paragraph if you’d like]
And the difficulty level of the Luxembourg Marathon course itself? It’s actually quite high and you will not be achieving a Personal Record or Boston Qualifier in this race. In retrospect, I’m glad I did not know beforehand about it being “one of the most difficult city marathons in Europe”, a line I happened to read in a local events magazine aboard the plane just as I was landing in the city. I also realize now, that I can’t recall ever seeing a detailed elevation profile on the organizer’s site and that was probably left out on purpose.
Now, none of the difficulties come from the facts that you are sometimes running in dimly-lit lanes or occasionally over cobblestone, or that the event also includes both a half-marathon and marathon relay, with a heck of a lot of those participants popping up in places, full of energy, and crowding full marathon runners out in some of the narrower sections of the course. No, the difficulty is all about the ups and downs of hills.
But as would befit a city whose charming postcard views rely in some part on the fact that it is perched on various dramatic levels… well guess what? If you’re going to run among all that charm, you’re also going to have to run those levels and what goes down must come back up, and vice versa.
[SPOILER OVER]
So, all in all, the Luxembourg Night Marathon is a unique race in a pretty unique and beautiful setting. [I’ve run only one other night marathon, the Las Vegas Marathon, which took place on a Sunday evening and really fizzled out for the majority of times that its course was not near the Strip…I am sure there may be some other night marathons, but I’m not aware of any off the top of my head that take place in a packed city, smack in the middle of a Saturday night street party].
Given when in the weekend the race sets off, this particularly makes Luxembourg a perfect 3-day weekend visit as a marathon destination.
If you arrive early on a Friday morning as I did, stay in one of the hotels around the Old Town, and use Friday to get your runner packet at the marathon expo, first. Then do one of the excellent guided walking tours offered by the City Tourism Office, and next go on a guided tour of the Bock Casemates or visit the Palace of the Royal Dukes.
You can use Friday evening to go down into the lower town of The Grund for dinner and drinks (there’s actually an elevator if you don’t want to tire your legs). On Saturday, you can take it easy but still take in some live music near the bandstand while sitting in a café off the Place d’Armes, or stroll through the farmers market at the nearby Place Guillaume II. Have a late lunch, take a nap, and then get ready for the shuttle bus to take you to the marathon start. Run the marathon and take it all in, and then linger afterwards at the “county-fair” like atmosphere outside the finish line. Use Sunday to try anything you may have missed on the last two days, and then fly out Sunday night.
Alternatively, as the marathon generally coincides with pre-summer, three-day weekends in many countries (for me as an American, this race takes place on our Memorial Day Weekend, but I know that the same dates serve as bank holiday weekends in other places), you can also do what I often do and tack on another European destination for a few days since you’re already “in the neighborhood”.
All in all, while the Luxembourg Marathon may not be your very first European marathon (the destination can never be the same experience as say, Rome or London) but whenever you do it, it will guarantee you a beautiful destination and a totally memorable marathon!
P.S. – Because the Luxembourg Marathon happened to be a milestone, 50th, for me, I had a special shirt made to celebrate (see photo). But since my 50th birthday was actually 5 months later — yes, I ran this a bit ahead of schedule for a goal to get to 50 marathons before my 50th birthday, which is in October) — you’ll never guess what my race bib number was… It was “1050” (October=10 + 50).
See, I told you there was something magical about this marathon! 🙂
