La Pastourelle

It's been a busy week and I've only just got around now to writing up my running diary for the past week.

La Pastourelle was the big event of last weekend, with a 32 km race in the Cantal around a circuit comprising of over 1000m of uphill.

The profile of the course looked like this. The big challenge was between kilometres 3 and 11 with 8,5 km of climb and 850 metres height to be gained, so an average gradient of 10%.

The day turned out bright and hot. Laurence, Anne , Nick and I had all travelled down together and arrived at the start an hour before the off. Having picked up our bibs, we spent the next 10 minutes appltying the sun cream liberally to protect ourselves from the afternoon sun. It was about 22°C, so too hot for me and I promised myself that I would take it easy over the course.

The start was given and we were off. The beginning was easy enough with 3 kilometres of downhill and I coasted at around 3:46 per km. At the foot of the moutain, we left the road and starting heading up a small track. I ran for about 2 km before starting to walk for a while and then started running again. At this point I was overtaken by the first woman who ran up steadily with small paces, never pausing in her stride. Mentally, I couldn't keep this up as the effort and the heat was too intense. Only an hour and 20 minutes later was I finally at the top of Puy Violent and ready to run the 22 km back to Salers.

Unfortunately, this is where I made my second mistake. I had assumed, naively, that once on the top I would be able to pick up speed easily and run downhill at a regular sustained pace. The reality was totally different, with a narrow track, steep downhill sections with large boulders, and worst of all: more uphill ! The uphill sections proved to be too much and I ended up walking many of them, further slowing my average speed. The tiredness increased and the afternoon heat too. At least on top, the wind had cooled me down substantially whereas with the descent, the breeze dropped and I began overheating. I was very careful to avoid a repeat performance of the marathon, so I stopped at every feeding station to take on liquid and food. These were well organised and situated every 3 - 4 km along the route.

I finished by walking up the steep roads into Salers, applauded by the spectators. Even the thought of the finish line was not motivating enough to get me to run. Total time for the course was 3:14:32 in 62 position out of 556 finishers. Laurence and Anne finished in 4:40 and Nick had to be helicoptored off the mountain after his heart began racing (tachycardia).

Great scenery, lovely course but very demanding. I'll be back next year to improve on my time and will be better prepared mentally for the effort necessary.