Sunday slog

Well what a difference a day makes. Having written about how good I felt yesterday running with Nick, today was a different kettle of fish altogether.

The plan was to meet up with the usual Le Mesnil crowd at 9:15 and do the standard 10k loop before runing along to the terrasse at St Germain to see the end of the 18km Paris - St Germain race. I wanted to cheer on the guys taking part in the race and to see who would be the fastest from the club.

At 9:15, only Philippe had turned up so we set off together. The temperature was already a lot higher than yesterday due to the later start time and the humidity in the forest was high. My legs felt like jelly and I had to temper Philippe's enthusiasm by slowing the pace down as I found the going so hard. A combination of climate and the after-effects of yesterday's training took their toll. Philippe was eager to push the speed despite my condition, so we ran at around 4:30 pace for 4 or 5 kilometres. By then end, I had to ease up and was running at about 4:40 - 4:50 pace.

I was melting when we stopped at the end of the loop and I thought to myself that I was glad to be able to run to the terrasse at a more sedate pace by myself. I ran back past Chateau du Val and into St Germain forest parallel to the terrasse. I got to 16 km and had had enough so I walked from then on to the end of the race. I was dripping with sweat and lacking energy, having left the house this morning without breakfast.

I saw the finish line for the race and jogged on to see the runners come up the 1km hill from Le Pecq to St Germain. I didn't have to wait long as the first runner took just over 55 minutes to get to the 17km point where I was. He looked easy and must have finished inside the hour for the total distance. The second runner was a good 2 minutes behind and then a similar gap before the third. The runners started getting closer and then I saw José, sweating buckets as he made it to the top of the hill. I ran with him over the last kilometre and he was happy just to tuck in behind me as we accelerated away from the top of the hill towards the finish line. He ran a good race, beating Thierry, Jean-Marc, Miguel and Bruno in that order.

I was glad I didn't race as the heat and humidity would have been unbearable. Even training was bad enough. 16 km all up in 1:16.