Disappointment - Corrida d'Houilles

What went wrong ?

OK let's get the bad news out straight away: 10km - 38:52 - 215/541 and 60/153 vet.

It's hard for me to sit down and to be brutally honest as to why I didn't do better in this race. I set out telling myself that I wouldn't achieve a PB over this course. I told myself that I'd be happy to finish under 38 minutes. I couldn't even achieve this.

I was racing with my sister in law, Gill. It was a nice opportunity to enter her into a 10k race in France, especially a race with such a high quality field. She is recovering from a stress fracture in her foot, and so her aim was just to finish the race without pain and if possible under 48 minutes.

We lined up at the start with others from the club: Nico, Fabrice, Patrick and I'd spotted Mireille earlier warming up. It was not warm but not too cold either. No excuses for not doing a good time from the weather. There was a little breeze but this was not too strong to be bothersome. The gun went and I set off as best I could. The initial problem was the sheer quantity of runners and the bottlenecks that were forming. I hadn't intended to set off at breakneck speed but this was still a problem as I had to weave in and out of runners and then keep to the extreme side of the road as I ran up the hill. The first kilometre went by in 3:58.

After the hill the road flattened out and wound its way gently downhill. I stretched out now and made the most of the wider roads and the fewer numbers around me. The second kilometre marker went by and a couple of runners next to me shouted out 3:36 and I checked the Garmin which confirmed the new pace. I slowed down again towards the end of the first lap as the road wound its way through the town centre. The constant bends and the accelerations each time were tiring and I lacked the motivation to push myself hard. I was happy to see Alec, Laurence, Jack and Sophie cheering me on at the end of the first lap and even if Alec said that I was looking good, I certainly didn't feel it.

The hill was harder this time and I caught up with 2 runners who I followed up the hill not having enough strength to go past until I reached the top. I went past a female runner dressed in black and was happy to be overtaking some other runners now. I thought of the end of the race already and how happy I would be to finish and relax. This was a mistake as I still had the end of the second lap to complete and a final lap to run. I overtook Batman towards the end of the second lap but I could feel that my legs were beginning to tire. I passed Alec and Laurence again to more encouragement but the desire to push hard was lacking and I just wanted to finish.

The last lap was the worst: the hill felt twice as hard as before, time was slipping by and I just thought about getting the race over with and moving on. To cap it all, Nico passed me in the last 200m and I didn't even notice. Perhaps if I had, I would have made an extra effort to speed up. Perhaps not. I'd passed caring by this point.

I finished in 38:52 to discover that Nico had beaten me by 5 seconds and Mireille by over 2 minutes. This was the final straw. 2010 will be the year when I beat her well and truly in an official race. The determination is there, I just need the opportunity. Rambouillet will probably be the first opportunity.

Gill finished in 47:02 official time, so under 47 minutes real time. She was pleased and deservedly so coming back from injury with this time. We were all thrilled for her result.

I was just depressed by the whole affair. Still, I've learnt my lesson and if I'm going to take part, I need to participate seriously and not half-heartedly.