Cross Toto Vermet

The annual club event that is organised in memory of the founder of the Fouléées de St Germain is the "Cross Toto Vermet". This event involves running 2 3km loops in the St Germain Forest, not too far from the clubhouse. Last year I finished 4th vet in 23:34. Would I do better this year ?

Since I'm still concentrating on putting in as much distance as possible, I decided to run to the clubhouse to begin with and then run the warm-up around the course for a lap with the others. Nick had decided to forego the race this year and just run a long run instead, so I ran by myself to get there.

There was a fantastic turnout this year from the club. Over 80 runners turned up which for a club with 160 members is pretty good going. Some fairly stiff competition too: Jean-Marc, Miguel, Bruno W, Bruno P, Thierry, Nick B and Gerald without mentioning Mireille. Francisco was also back running after his injury at the beginnning of the year in the cross-country season. So I lined up with others with 10 kilometres in my legs already and just a thought that I might be able to hold onto the better runners this year.

We set off and took the first part of the race fairly steadily. Jean-Marc built a bit of a lead and then a small group comprised of Thierry, Miguel, Bruno W and me followed. Mireille and Bruno P were behind us and I could hear Mireille just on my heels as she was wearing spikes that chatted over the stony surface. I felt the pace was fast but manageable and when Thierry made a burst to shorten the gap on Jean-Marc, the group let him go. The break didn't last long and on the home leg of the first lap, another set of footsteps approached from behind and overtook me. It was Francisco. Thierry came back to us at this point and I pushed a little, coming alongside the group up the hill, feeling strong.

We finished the first lap and set off on the second. Jean-Marc was ahead and then a group of the 4 of us: Miguel, Bruno W, Francisco and myself. Thierry and Mireille were just behind. It went quiet behind me at this point and the other 3 runners in the group pulled away from me. In retrospect, I should have gone with them at this point, but feeling that they were better than me, I let them go. I was on my own from here on in. I managed to glance behind at one point, but there was no-one in sight. I slowed over this second lap, having lost contention with the others. I ran the race in 23:06 for the 6.05 km which is an average of 3:49 per km. This feels about right but since I wasn't timing the event precisely (I was more interested in the total distance), I 'll have to wait for the official results. If this is correct, then I'll have run a minute faster than last year.

I picked up the first vet prize, actually by mistake as Franciso should have been awarded it. This may have been due to Laurence recording the results at the end with Christèle - thanks love: I owe you one! I ran back to the house afterwards through the forest to complete 25 km in 2:01.