In mid-October each year, the French city of Lyon welcomes 40,000+ runners to a series of Run in Lyon races. It’s a great time of year for a race in this city – temperatures are in the 50’s and 60’s, the summer tourists are long-gone, and the trees lining the rivers are turning yellow and orange. Speaking of rivers, the city is sprawled across two of them: the Sâone and the Rhone, the banks of each playing host to much of the Run in Lyon courses. The 2024 edition had two special meteorological guests that meant mostly slower times than 2023: morning rain and a whipping 20mph southerly wind. With this 10k course, if you could pick any direction to not have the wind come from it would be south.

Run in Lyon races on offer

There are four main races on offer: a full marathon (42k), a half marathon (21k), a 10k, and a 5k charity run, plus some kids races. While the marathon and the half marathon see dozens of elite runners (and over 10,000 participants), the 10k is also particularly competitive, attracting top athletes from around France and some from neighboring countries.

Why I use the 10k as a tune-up for a marathon

Planning my fall marathon training, I picked out the Run in Lyon 10k as a perfectly timed tune-up race, exactly eight weeks before the Valencia Marathon. I prefer running 10k tune-up races because racing a 10k full-on requires much less tapering and yields a much smaller post-race recovery tax than racing a half marathon full-on. If you’ve got a big marathon goal (in my case, targeting sub 2:45 for the first time), you don’t want to jeopardize your training by overcooking your legs in a half marathon.

The Run in Lyon expo

The outdoor expo takes place in Place Bellecour, which also welcomes runners at the finish of all the races. The biggest downside of this expo is that you cannot collect a big on the day of the race – this is a bummer for 10k runners, since the race only starts at 12pm and those traveling from outside Lyon would otherwise not need to come to Lyon on the Saturday. On the upside, the expo had great stalls from the many race sponsors (Hoka, Harmonie, HiPro, Hari&Co, Hyundai…a disproportionate number of H-companies now that I think of it…), with some free giveaways worth grabbing.

Note regarding starting corals for fast runners

A note for fast runners: To get into the Elite/Preferential start coral, you need to speak to someone at Information in the expo and bring evidence of a previous fast time. I queued for this but gave up after a few minutes and seeing the guy’s clipboard which appeared to say 33 minutes was the 10k cutoff (my PB is 34:23). I didn’t think much of it at the time (the Elite and Red groups had the same start time in the program), but not getting into the elite coral ultimately had a big impact on my race, as I’ll explain shortly.

The Run in Lyon 10k course and crowds

The 10.1km course is mostly flat (38m D+), with two notable hills that bring you up to bridge river crossings at 6km and 8km. It starts in front of the Palais de Justice and winds up, across, and back down the Sâone for the first 5km before jutting through the Presqu’île and across the Rhone, down the east bank of the Rhone (going straight south) for 2km, coming back across and into the final kilometer, which involves screaming crowds, a marble road (slippery wet from the rain this year), and six 90-degree turns (two in rapid succession, sort of like a U-turn), all while merging with the half marathon runners still finishing. Quite a chaotic way to finish a 10k. While the crowd of spectators was impressive over the last kilometer, earlier parts of the race (particularly before 8km) have very little crowd. A common observation from other runners who have reviewed this race is that the race itself is very crowded. I did not find this to be the case, but there were 11,250 runners so if you run 10km between 40 and 50 minutes, you’ll likely find the roads quite crowded.

My experience in the Run in Lyon 10k

I came to this race aiming for a 10k PB, finished initially disappointed to have missed it by 34 seconds (34:58), and upon further reflection felt really satisfied with my performance. I finished 32^nd out of 11,250 and 5^th out of runners over 35. In hindsight, I don’t know if I could have gotten to start in the Elite/Preferential coral (maybe based on my age?), but in the end, I believe having to start in the ‘Red’ coral (<43 min) cost me at least 20 seconds. Having done a full warmup with dynamic stretching and strides, I came into the coral about eight minutes before the start of the race, winding my way as far up as I reasonably could in the Red group (about seven rows back). The other runners started quick so I had plenty of people to run with for the first 2km but once we crossed the first bridge and lost the tailwind, they all slowed down massively. I found myself passing group after group after group until there was no one to run with and I was stuck in No Man’s Land with no one to draft or work with for 3km of headwind, including the exposed southbound 2km along the Rhone from 6-8km. I ended up finishing first out of all the runners not in the Elite starting group (none of whom ran under 35 minutes) and ahead of many of those in the Elite group, which left me wondering how I might have performed if I had been able to race alongside 33- and 34-minute runners. The other thing I didn’t love about this race was the chaotic last kilometer, slipping on the marble road, having to make turn after turn on dead legs and wet roads, and Frogger-style dodging 3-hour half marathon runners.

Nevertheless, there’s plenty to love about this race. Getting to Lyon from Geneva is super easy on a 2-hour, €33 train, and for those coming from the UK or other parts of Europe, Lyon has loads of cheap flights and it’s not an expensive time of year to travel. The city itself is wonderful—amazing food, beautiful architecture, rich history, very pedestrian friendly—and this is a nice time of year to enjoy it.

Final thoughts on Run in Lyon

If you’re looking for a fun, competitive, and energizing tune-up race, check this one out! With a 10.1km course, a couple notable climbs and lots of late turns, I would not call it a very PB-friendly course (for that, Geneva and Haute Savoie runners should check out the 10 kil’ de Cluses), especially if you get unlucky with rain and/or a strong wind from the south.

Overall:  4 – definitely a race worth doing

Vibe: 5 – music, food, beautiful city, good organization

Competition: 5 – many competitive amateur runners come to this race

Swag: 4.5 – great Hoka shirt, many freebies at the expo, food and HiPro drink at the finish

Course: 3 – nice tour of the city, longer than 10km, chaotic last km

Crowd: 4 – sparse for most of the race, loud and crowded at the end

Value: 3 – much more expensive than similar 10ks (eg the Grands Crus race in Dijon is €16 and you get a bottle of Burgundy wine)