Guest speaker - Nice to Cannes Marathon

Paul's account of the Nice to Cannes Marathon deserved a lot more space than just a comment on the back of one of my daily entries, so I've introduced the concept of a "guest speaker" message and this one is dedicated to Paul.

"Marathon Alpes Maritimes

Nice to Cannes – 42.195 KM

Since the day after Prague Marathon in May i decided i would do another marathon this year with the objective to crack 3 hours 30. The Nice Cannes marathon was in its first year and was attractive given the route following the Cote D’azur and of course being reasonably accessible to Paris.

Training seemed to go quite well – a long run every weekend during September and most of October, 2 or 3 other weekly runs combining pace and intervals. I also competed in Paris Versailles and Saint Denis half marathon posting times of just under 1 hour 10 (13.99 kmh) and 1.29.58 (14.07 kmh) respectively. Surely i was prepared!

Allie and the kids provided my support team and we arrived in Nice on Saturday for the Sunday run and spent a nice afternoon and evening in sunny weather and temperatures around 16 degrees. I slept a little restlessly and had the normal dreams of missing the start and forgetting my shoes.

The morning brought clear skies and whilst a little cold first thing the temperature was rising steadily as the start approached – my plan was a first half in about 1h 38 and then 1h 50 for the second.

I settled after the first couple of KM into a steady rhythm (13 kmh ) running about 50 metres behind the 3h 15 flag man – this would take me through the half in the pace i wanted – the 5, 10, 15 km marks were all well on target and i felt pretty comfortable. Just before half way Allie and the kids were road side and handed me my hat (which was now quite necessary) and extra rations. I went through the half in 1 :38:57 and was pleased. The course at this point got a little more difficult – it was marketed as flat but around the CAP D’Antibes it reared up with a number of short but seemingly stiff hills – although it did also provide the view of the day looking back over the bay towards Nice with the snow capped mountains sitting behind – absolutely stunning.

The 25 k feed station was at the start of a hill and perhaps this was the point at which i felt my legs for the first time. However my pace remained good and upto 30 km i was solid and clocked 2:24:30

Then i crumbled!!

It was a fairly rapid tightening starting at the hips and the back of the thighs and i struggled to keep a good pace i was still calculating for 3:30 and was hoping to give myself an hour for the last 10 k – at 32 km i had 54minutes! In my head i knew that was now a tall ask and a short rise to go over the railway lines at about 34 km felt like a mountain. From the 35 km feed station i was under no illusions that i would miss my target but i was hanging in at 10-10.5 kmh and grimacing a lot. The final sections before hitting the Croisette in Cannes seemed to take forever, i went through 3:30:00 exactly at the 41 km line, but the crowds on the croisette were brilliant it was like a mountain top stage in the tour de France. A wave to Allie and the kids in the last 500 metres , a red carpet finish and 3:37:23 – really disappointed with a new PB !

I would say that the course was great, really enjoyable and scenic, and the crowds were numerous and very supportive. The centre of each town provided a real spring to my step with the encouragement. And as a first effort the organisers got pretty much everything right.

Anyway back to the drawing board on how to maintain my pace for longer."

Thanks for the detail Paul. Great run and a very similar experience to mine. We need to work on the longer runs still prior to the next marathon attempt if we're to break our objectives.