The first three year run of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) ended in the spring of 2013. During this period, the collider was operated mainly at beam energies of 3.5 and 4 TeV. The performances that have been achieved during that first run and the challenges for commissioning and operating the LHC are presented. A brief outlook into the upcoming run at an energy of 6.5 TeV will be given.