Another cold day and despite the late starting time for the race, the sun hadn't had time to warm up the countryside around Allendale before the race began.
Dad and Laurence came to watch the start of the race, Laurence having decided that it was too much to take part after all of the recent races we have done. We arrived at 10:15 and found James already prepared with his race number attached to his running vest. I queued up inside the fire station to be handed my race number and became a mini-sensation as they found I was registered with a French club. "Oh, it'll be another international race this year" as last year some unwitting Spaniard had turned up to take part on his way through the region.
I went back outside and found Nigel too was already kitted up and that Will had just arrived. There were about 140 participants in the race and at 11:00 am sharp the word was given and we set off down to the road to the village centre. Unfortunately, the downhill only lasted about 300m before we took a sharp left-hand turn across the grass and back on to a road heading East out of town. This road was a killer right from the word go: an arrow on the OS maps meaning that it was steep and this slowed the pace down immediately. I was running with James at this point and managed to keep ahead to the top of the first hill, only to be really disappointed as I saw that another steep hill lay in wait just behind. As we reached the left turn off this road and onto the track that would take us over the moors, James had gained a couple of metres over me and was treading confidently over the ice covering the track heading slightly uphill.
It was from here on that things began to go wrong for me: the ice to begin with meaning that my strides had to be shortened; the heather lining the track if you tried to avoid the ice; and then the snow, the ruts and the mud to complete the picture. I never really managed to get back into my stride from this point on. The hills were steep, the paths were difficult to negociate and the going was tough. I watched as James built a lead over me and then was helpless to latch on to another half a dozen other runners as they came past. It wasn't as though I gave up: a number of times I pushed the pace as a runner came past and I would hold on to get past them again only to lose them completely as the path went steeply uphill once more and the strength in my legs faded.
Rachel, the first lady overtook me after 13km following the last really steep uphill across the final stretch of moorland before the road. I thought that the final stretch of road was longer and that I would have a chance to get back to her but it wasn't to be. She finished about 5 seconds and 20m in front of me after 16.8 km of race.
Total time: 1:22:20 or 4:53 per km and 23rd place. James finished 2 minutes ahead of me exactly in 1:20:20 and Nigel almost 4 minutes behind me in 1:26:08. Will finished in 1:35 and was disappointed with his time as it was exactly the same time as his practise run over the same route a couple of months ago. The conditions were hard today and the times for the course were slower than in previous years.
I'll be sticking to the road in future and challenging the others to a race on my home ground !!
Lovely scenery, great weather: cold but bright and a good course - but it's not my scene. Impossible to get into a rhythm and just too damn hard. It's a bit like the comparison between road cycling and mountain biking - I'm just the road cyclist of the running scene.
Great to see everyone, including Antony who was also out supporting us all.
Dad and Laurence came to watch the start of the race, Laurence having decided that it was too much to take part after all of the recent races we have done. We arrived at 10:15 and found James already prepared with his race number attached to his running vest. I queued up inside the fire station to be handed my race number and became a mini-sensation as they found I was registered with a French club. "Oh, it'll be another international race this year" as last year some unwitting Spaniard had turned up to take part on his way through the region.
I went back outside and found Nigel too was already kitted up and that Will had just arrived. There were about 140 participants in the race and at 11:00 am sharp the word was given and we set off down to the road to the village centre. Unfortunately, the downhill only lasted about 300m before we took a sharp left-hand turn across the grass and back on to a road heading East out of town. This road was a killer right from the word go: an arrow on the OS maps meaning that it was steep and this slowed the pace down immediately. I was running with James at this point and managed to keep ahead to the top of the first hill, only to be really disappointed as I saw that another steep hill lay in wait just behind. As we reached the left turn off this road and onto the track that would take us over the moors, James had gained a couple of metres over me and was treading confidently over the ice covering the track heading slightly uphill.
It was from here on that things began to go wrong for me: the ice to begin with meaning that my strides had to be shortened; the heather lining the track if you tried to avoid the ice; and then the snow, the ruts and the mud to complete the picture. I never really managed to get back into my stride from this point on. The hills were steep, the paths were difficult to negociate and the going was tough. I watched as James built a lead over me and then was helpless to latch on to another half a dozen other runners as they came past. It wasn't as though I gave up: a number of times I pushed the pace as a runner came past and I would hold on to get past them again only to lose them completely as the path went steeply uphill once more and the strength in my legs faded.
Rachel, the first lady overtook me after 13km following the last really steep uphill across the final stretch of moorland before the road. I thought that the final stretch of road was longer and that I would have a chance to get back to her but it wasn't to be. She finished about 5 seconds and 20m in front of me after 16.8 km of race.
Total time: 1:22:20 or 4:53 per km and 23rd place. James finished 2 minutes ahead of me exactly in 1:20:20 and Nigel almost 4 minutes behind me in 1:26:08. Will finished in 1:35 and was disappointed with his time as it was exactly the same time as his practise run over the same route a couple of months ago. The conditions were hard today and the times for the course were slower than in previous years.
I'll be sticking to the road in future and challenging the others to a race on my home ground !!
Lovely scenery, great weather: cold but bright and a good course - but it's not my scene. Impossible to get into a rhythm and just too damn hard. It's a bit like the comparison between road cycling and mountain biking - I'm just the road cyclist of the running scene.
Great to see everyone, including Antony who was also out supporting us all.
1 comment:
Hi James.Sounds like good fun, if a little bit like hard work. I'm sure you could get used to it if we had iced up hills here in Mesnil to train on.
At Andy's request, I've done a résumé of the Triathlon on Saturday which as ever, was great fun, especially as it was even sunny at the end. See you on Tuesday perhaps
Nick
Only 10 Mensilois this year which was a bit disappointing but good to see a few of the usual suspects with Andy, Didier K and Ralph all there. A good start from Didier L dropped half the team in the first 5 minutes but unfortunately for him the ride to the swimming pool doesn’t count in the final time. After a quick check that the swimming pool had water in it this year, we engaged in the traditional pre competition routine of comparing how much training hadn’t been done and swapping anecdotes about anti cramp remedies.
As we were in the third and final departure, we watched the 2nd wave before us complete their stage in the pool and took great heart to see how many of them were doing breast stroke. When our turn came, it was the usual all in American wrestling for the first 50 meters before some sort of natural order took place. My tactic this year was to take it easy in the pool which resulted in me exiting behind Andy and Ralph, as usual, and with a time of close to 11 minutes as usual!!
After a rapid change into my cycling gear, I stormed out of the changing rooms up the stairs to arrive back at the pool. After descending and going up the correct staircase somewhat less enthusiastically, I reached my bike at the same time as Fabien from the FSGL and gently made my way to the entrance of the forest. Here, there is perhaps the longest, flattest and fastest part of the course so it was into a high gear and time to ramp up the speed follow by a rapid deceleration after the first mouthful and eyeful of mud. The marshal on the first corner warned us to take it easy as it was very slippy, something confirmed by the site of an ambulance crew attending to a fallen rider. I had a quick glance to check it wasn’t Andy. It wasn’t so I’d have to pedal faster if I wanted to beat him this year.
The pace of the first couple of laps were governed very much by the traffic on the course but things got better as the stragglers from the first two waves finally started to finish. As I completed the cycling stage I saw Andy beginning the run and I shouted out words of friendly encouragement. Note that this could also be interpreted as trying to intimidate him by letting him know I wasn’t far behind, but I wouldn’t do that. Probably.
As I began my own run, competitors from the first wave were cleaning their bikes, making the tiles outside the pool resemble a skating rink. Thanks lads. I got into a good pace fairly quickly going past a lot of people, probably from the 2nd wave. I knew I would need to see Andy at the top of the steep hill at the half way point if I wanted to catch him up but as there was no sign of him, I kept up a steady but non suicidal pace to finish in 1.26.12. Andy had finished about a minute and a half earlier. Next in was Fabien, then Ralph followed by the two Didier’s, Philippe and Henri with Martial and Axel rounding things off. Despite a difficult course, I’d improved my time nearly three minutes on last year and Andy by nearly 7 minutes. All in all a good way to spend a Saturday morning. I’ll be back.
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