Corrida de Houilles

I woke up this morning disappointed. The sore throat that had been niggling me last night had not disappeared but had gotten worse during the night and I was feeling down. This couldn't be classed as a real "man cold" but it was serious enough to depress me and to put me off the race today. Even a great curry at lunch time from Jamie Oliver's new book wasn't enough to cure the problem. Only one solution, if I wasn't fit enough to attempt a PB over 10km for me then I'd ensure that Laurence did everything in her power to achieve hers.

And that was it; the decision was taken; my attempts at a new PB for 10km before the year ended were over but a new attempt for Laurence was on. Laurence's record over the distance stood at 49:50 in Vincennes in June and I was sure that she was capable of doing better. The main problem is a lack of belief in her ability and then having structured training to achieve her goals. The training has improved markedly with the interval sessions at the club which has built up her resistance and her pace over the shorter distances. This was the first race to see the progress that had been made.

The race was at 4:30 pm and the conditions were dry, bright but very cold with the thermometer hanging around the 0°C point. Just under 500 runners were tkaing part in the main race which was only open to club runners who could run 10km in under 50:00 for men and 60:00 for women. There were some high class runners taking part too: Micah Kogo, Edwin Cheruiyot Soi, Jaouad Gharib amongst the men and Sylvia Kibet and Christelle Daunay amongst the women. The gun went and we were hard pushed to find a rhythm with the narrow streets to begin with. Laurence was running agressively, pushing her way through the runners and so I followed anxious that she was going to burn out too quickly if she started too fast. We had 3 loops to manage through the streets of Houilles and in the first kilometre was the 350m uphill that would take us to the highest point of the route.

Laurence managed the hill easily and we were cheered by Miguel at the top, who was out to encourage the St Germain runners. We were already up on the schedule as I had fixed a time of 4:52 per km into the Garmin and after 1km we were 12 seconds up. This continued for the rest of the first loop where Laurence ran 4:49, 4:27, 4:32 for the first 3km respectively. The second loop also began well and we could hear the tannoys announcing the progress of the first group of runners who were now chasing us down. They went past at 8km for them or almost 5 km for us. They were beautiful to watch. It just looked so easy as they ran past at over 21 km/h. This seemed to encourage Laurence and she picked the pace up again chasing 2 female runners in front with matching yellow T shirts and another female vet just ahead. We went past them but as we began the 3rd and final loop, they came past us up the hill.

This was probably the low point of the race for Laurence as I could see that she had given almost everything. She was red from the exertion and I remember only too well the feeling around 6 - 7k when you wonder if it's worth bothering. I tried to encourage her through this section and then to stretch out afterwards on the downhills. The 2 yellow T's were out of reach by now but Laurence caught the third female in red and then stuck with her over the final sections.

She lost her in the last 400m as Laurence maintained her pace and the other lady accelerated towards the finishing line but that wasn't important now: all that counted was the time. She crossed the line and stoppped the watch: 47:58. A new PB and a great time considering the hill in the course. I'm convinced that she can improve by another 30 seconds easily over a flat course.

Full race stats are as follows:

4:49, 4:27, 4:32, 4:37, 4:51, 4:44, 4:54, 5:01, 4:47, 4:44

Anyway, I was very proud and enjoyed running the course with her, possibly more than when I'm busting a gut by myself ! Will try and do this more often next year.

Well done love - I hope this encourages you to run more races next year.

P.S. I almost forgot: winner (Micah Kogo) finished in 28:04 and first woman (Sylvia Kibet) in 31:50. First time that I've been lapped by a woman over a 3 lap course !