Fin d'Oisienne - Conflans 10km

I picked Nick up and we drove to the start of the race together. Normal pre-race nerves, heightened by a lack of sleep and worries about Bruno and Nico were preying heavily on my mind. The end result was that I wasn't the best of company in the car this morning - sorry Nick. Andy had decided not to run, prefering to do some speedwork down at the track, which was a shame as there's nothing like some race practise to improve your speed.

When we arrived at Conflans, the scenario seemed to be getting worse : not only was I tired, but there was a bit of a breeze and this blew straight in your face on the trickiest part of the course, coming up a slight incline at the end of every loop. I had all the excuses already prepared for my expected 'non-performance'; I definitely was not in the best state of mind mentally.

We picked up our numbers and did 2 small loops as a warm-up. As Nick pointed out, a warm-up of 4km would have seemed enormous even a year ago, as we only used to train over 10km. Nowadays, it seems perfectly acceptable. We met up with all the other club members taking part and there was a large turnout: Bruno, Fabrice, Nico, Bruno B, Jean-Claude, Philippe, Bertrand, Dominique, Patrick not to mention the ladies: Pascale, Aude, Christelle and Madeleine. I think that we had the largest club attendance, even more than Conflans who were organising the event.

We lined up for 10:00 am and the starter gun to go off. Boom - we were off and it was a huge relief to be running finally rather than worrying about tactics and my state of fitness. I didn't feel easy to begin with, just running fast and watching Bruno in front of me. I passed all of the other St Germain runners and then heard a thump and a yell as somebody fell over (later found out that this was Philippe, tripping over a sleeping policeman). I didn't look back but concentrated on Bruno's running vest and judging the distance that separated us. He sped up a little and I let him go, thinking that I was right about my fitness and that I wasn't ready to beat him yet.

We went through 1 km and I didn't look at my watch, but as we passed 2 km I heard the times being shouted out: 7:04. I couldn't believe it - 7:04, I was supposed to be running at 7:24 to hit 37 minutes. This was too fast. Just as I thought this, the distance between Bruno and myself narrowed so I put on a little spurt and came past him. I knew instinctively that this was too much for him and that mentally he would find it hard to respond. I was pleased to think that I was the first St Germain runner in the race and that I couldn't let up now.

François-Xavier joined me on the bike at this point, shouting out encouragement. This was nice to have him there and I raised a hand in acknowledgement. I found that despite the early pace, I wasn't really tired but I settled down into a better rhythm and my breathing became more regular. I was joined by an older runner at this point who I judged to be in his early fifties. We ran together side by side, our pace matched exactly. We were on the first big loop now, and I remembered the race from last year and I applied the same tactics. Every slight slope downwards I would lengthen my stride and recover my breathing and every slight incline I would push hard.

As we passed the 5km marker, I saw the time on the clock : 18:03. This was excellent, well under the 18:30 time that I needed to beat my objective. I wondered how long I could keep this up for though, despite F-X's comments beside me that I was doing well and running regularly. The slope uphill to finish this second loop was harder this time, but I still caught a couple of runners and overtook them here, leaving my running companion a little behind. We hit the flat again and he was beside me once more as we chased down a small group of 5 runners in front. At 6.5 km, we caught these and I pushed ahead again to take the lead of this group, stretching away down the hill. Around the corner and a slight incline up and my companion went past me, taking another runner with him in the process. I couldn't follow now and I wondered how I could last until the end of the race and if I could maintain sufficient pace to beat the 37 minutes.

The 2 runners put 5 metres over me now, but then the gap stopped increasing as I used the downhill to try harder and push with my last efforts. We passed the 9km marker and F-X was encouraging me permanently now, telling me that I had plenty of time to beat my objective. He told me to give everything with 500m to go but I was already spent and the slight uphill was torture. I couldn't pull them back and another runner caught me here and overtook me at speed. We entered into the stadium for the final bend and I gave my last burst. I saw the clock now with 50 metres to go : 36:48. I pushed hard and crossed the line in 36:56, delighted to have beaten my record and the objective. Over the moon. I collapsed on the grass too tired to encourage the others at the finish. I was well and truly shattered.

Bruno finished 9 places behind in 38:13, Nico in 39:18 then Nick 3 paces after in 39:26. He told me that he was pleased with his race too as he'd beaten Fabrice, Jean-Claude and Bertrand after a close race at the start.

Official times are here: TopChrono . Official time of 36:57 for me, finishing in 20th place overall and 4th vet in my category. No regrets about the podium though as third vet finished 40 seconds before me. Love this race though and will be back next year.