After a family trip to Morocco and before work trips to Oxford and New Hampshire, I had slotted in the Annecy 5k on April 19th, a race that—for reasons I’ll cover in a subsequent post—may end up being my best performance of 2026. This is part of the Brooks Marathon du Lac d’Annecy, which also offers a marathon, half marathon, and 10k. We had excellent conditions (partly sunny, light wind, and 14C). The field proved much faster than 2025; I came in optimistically hoping to win my age group (the M40 winner had run 16:38 in 2025), not knowing who might show up. Nearly 1,700 runners raced the 2026 5k, which takes place on the Sunday morning shortly after the Marathon departs and before the Marathoners return from their trip down the lake. During my cool down, I enjoyed cheering on the elite marathoners in their final km’s.

Course

The course is fast and pancake flat, running alongside the lake with great views throughout. After a long (and fortunately wide) first straight, runners get a boost of support as they come past the old town then briefly head north along the lake before making a very tight u-turn and coming back toward Le Pâquier (the big park on the water). There is a bit of gravel around 3k, but otherwise the terrain is smooth. Big crowds cheer on the runners over the last 500m leading to the final turn and finishing straight in Le Pâquier. My watch GPS clocked the course at 5.05km.

This year, the race started 2k up the lake from the finish at Le Petit Port, creating some extra logistics for race morning. I dropped my bag in the marathon village and finished my warmup jog on the way out to the start line. Toilets were plentiful in the village but few and far between near the start, something that could be improved next year.

My race

Though my incoming PB of 16:38 would have placed me 22nd in the 2025 race, I conservatively lined up about 5 rows deep, knowing I’m susceptible to getting pulled out too fast in a 5k. Nevertheless, with all the gong-ho young runners, I did get dragged out very fast in the first km (3:10) and slowed over km’s 3 and 4, but I dug deep to come through in 16:32: a 6-second PB. I finished third in the M40 age group (the winner clocked an absurd 15:02) and 43rd overall.

This race was a blast – really well organized, really fast, very fun. Definitely one worth doing again as a mini-tune-up for those racing the Geneva HM. Kind of a shame they don’t do age group podiums considering it’s a 5,000-person race, but what can you do?

[This is quite belated post: Been a spring packed with travel, races, and injuries]