Corrida d'Issy - podium

This event is the main race for the start of the Christmas festival. It is a corrida, or a race through the town, and the event in Issy has grown in popularity year after year to attract almost 10 000 participants in the 7 races that are organised on the day.

The first races are for the children with a short 1km to 3 km loop organised depending on the age group involved. And and I were signed up for the 4th race; a 6km race around two laps of the town. Nick had come along to support us and to take some photos that I'll post as soon as I receive them.

It was a cold day and some snowflakes were falling as we drove to the race. Issy is just to the South of Paris, and the temperature had risen by a couple of degrees by the time we arrived and the snow had stopped. There was a bit of a breeze blowing and as Andy and I warmed up (silly expression really, as leaving the relative warmth of the sports hall to go for a short run just meant that we would actually catch a death of cold!), I noticed that thewere was a stiff breeze that felt as if it was blowing straight in from the Siberian plains as you headed up the main road from the start.

With the "cool down" out of the way, we lined up for the start. I tried to get into the middle of the field near the front in order to find some human warmth but in order to push in I was a left a little exposed on the side of the race. The gun went and I took off. I think that I ran fast in order to get warm as quickly as possible, but whatever the reason that first kilometre felt very long. Normally, the first whips by and then you're into the race. I must have pushed the heartrate very high from the outset and I kep waiting for what felt like an eternity before we crossed the red line across the road as the first marker.

I settled down into a pace and concentrated on focusing on the runners around me. There was a small group of 4 runners ahead: 2 relatively young, one slightly older and a woman. I wasn't actually sure that it was a woman at first as she was a fairly strong build and running like the wind. I tried to catch up with this group and stay with them. As I caught them, the woman encourage the younger 2 to speed up as the pace had dropped slightly, she latched on to me and one of the younger runners as we finished the first loop and set off on the second. Nick shouted encouragement at this point but I was that intent on the race that I hardly had time to acknowledge him.

The female runner pulled away from me now with the other runner as we headed into the breeze. I was determined not to let them pull away though and as we rounded the bend passing the 4th kilometre she faltered slightly, came back to me and I went past. The course heads slightly downhill at this point and I was feeling better. I made the most of this to push home my advantage and stretch out. The younger runner was still with me but we were catching some others now as they tired towards the end of the race. The difficulty was also in overtaking many runners who were still on their first lap. I hadn't noticed this last year but there felt like a good hundred on the course who I went by towards the end today.

We caught another small group with 500m to go and they pushed on as they heard us coming. I wasn't able to put in any more effort at this point and let them go so they went on to finish 20 yards ahead of me. I sopped my watch and it showed 22:22. This was a full 40 seconds faster than last year and I was thrilled with this. I stood there panting at the finsih, my lungs burning waiting for Andy who came past the line a few minutes later in 26:36.

Nick told me then that I'd finished in the first 25 or so and that he hadn't seen many older guys in front of me. We hung around, waiting for the results, and my official time was 22:27 (really don't know how they added 5 seconds to my time!) but I was third vet with the second vet the runner just ahead of me. I was really delighted now: my first ever podium in a large race. Shame that there were no prizes by category for the 6km race, but still chuffed to bits.

Garmin says that the course distance is 6.2km and average speed for 22:22 is 3:35 per km. Splits were as follows: 3:29, 3:33, 3:35, 3:44, 3:35, 3:38, then 45 seconds to the line. 4th km was slower as into the wind and very slightly uphill. Very excited by this result and feel that I can bring down my 10k time in the New Year. Good end to the year.