I headed back to the Run & Fun du Giffre for its second edition after a promising kickoff last year, and though the rain again left the trails rather muddy, this year’s event did not disappoint. In 2025, they again had a 5k, 10k, nordic walks, and kids races, but scrapped the 7k this year and added numerous new races: a downhill marathon and half marathon on trails, a “100% Fun” untimed 9.6k run, and a Family Fun run.
I ran the latter with my 5-year-old daughter–her second race ever–and she had a blast! I also raced the 5k, seeking to repeat my 2024 win while also recovering quickly enough to get in a 36k quality long run for the Chicago build the following day. The races brought festive vibes throughout the valley on an off-season weekend that would have otherwise been quite quiet, as the Samoens and Morillon summer crowds and traffic have dissipated. Here’s the preview video they made to promote the event.
Family Fun Run
Starting and ending in the center of Samoens, the Family Fun Run gave participants 5 years and up the option to run one or two 1.8km loops around the medieval village. Dozens of families took part, with most dressed up in silly costumes. Claire and I donned tie dye t-shirts and bright tutu’s while others dressed in everything from Harry Potter outfits to inflatable alien and dinosaur costumes. Half fun run, half parade. A live band played traditional music at the start, not to be outdone by the DJ and plethora of post-race snacks. This was a really successful addition to the weekend of races, making the Run & Fun event accessible to little kids, for some of whom this was their first organized race. As one of the youngest in the race, Claire only had one loop in her (this was twice as long as the first race she did last year), but she did an awesome job running with me the whole time.
5k Race Recap
The organizers changed the route of the 5k race this year. Last year, it had started and ended in Samoens – downhill to Lac Aux Dames for 2.5k then back uphill to Samoens, with about 50/50 trail and road. This year, the race started at Lac Bleu in Morillon and ran on trails along the Giffre to Lac Aux Dames then through the paraglider landing field and up to Samoens. That made it about 75% trail (mostly rocky trail and gravel, though also two bridges and the aforementioned grass field) and uphill the entire way (+57m) with the biggest elevation gains in the first and last kilometer.
I successfully defended my 5k win from last year, running 17:49 on a slow course on which I didn’t expect to run sub 18 minutes. The second place finisher finished in 18:35 – I was running solo most of the race. While there was a fast, ambitious start from half a dozen runners or so, the race narrowed to two of us upfront after about 500m. The guy who was on my shoulder for the first 1k dropped after 1.5k and ended up finishing third. I had come into the race thinking I’d aim to compete while also avoiding a ‘full send’ (since, given the timing 4 weeks before Chicago, I needed to put in a 36k long run with 6k of marathon pace work the following day). Three of the top five were youngsters from local running clubs – it’ll be great to see how these guys develop. All in all, I was happy with the result on a tough 5k course and glad to see a growing community of runners coming out for this event.
En route to gearing up for the Valencia 10k in January, I’ll take on another 5k in December in London and hope to top my 16:38 PB from July.
Other Races
Though I only raced in the 5k (and ran in the Family Fun run), I got a chance to watch some of the 10k race on Sunday during my long run. It started in Samoens, ran down the river trails to Lac Bleu in Morillon, then followed the same course as the 5k race back to the center of Samoens. Perhaps due to the friendlier course or Sunday morning timing, the 10k attracted more than double the number of runners as the 5k and proved slightly more competitive as well, with the winner (Willy Molle) running 36:49 and runner up (Arthur Dulac) running 37:14. Like the other races, it was clear that the 10k had great vibes with a fun New Orleans jazz band playing tunes at Lac Bleu near the mid-race refreshments. It had rained a lot Saturday night, so the trails were full of puddles by the time runners took off on Sunday. Other races this year included a trail half marathon and marathon, an untimed 10k fun run, and a number of nordic walks. Nearly 1000 runners took part across all the races. The full results from the timed races can be found here.
Run to Lead 
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