Area cross-country championship

Last year this race was held in Franconville and I suffered defeat at the hands (or rather feet) of my closest rival in cross-country racing, Régis. Today the same scenario looked to repeat itself as Régis beat me again 2 weeks ago at St Quentin and is in good form, especially over cross-country routes.

I arrived with plenty of time to spare, having missed the others at the meeting point in St Germain, I drove by myself to the mecca of cross-country running, Antony. Actually, Antony is a Parisien suburb just south of Paris and is well known for its local specialities of ... high-rise blocks of flats. There was nothing exciting about this course as when I looked at the aerial photo of the course its course was basically designed around the 3 playing fields in the centre of Antony. In fact, if I hadn't been part of the St Germain team, I don't think I would have bothered turning up in the first place.

Too late, I had arrived now and the first good news was that the course wasn't half as bad as I had expected. It was full of twists and turns, plenty of mud and some nice little short hills and technical areas. The ladies race was first for the off. Mireille ran well finishing in the top ten, followed by Gaëlle, Françoise, Catherine and Aude. I warmed up with the other veterans: Thierry, Régis, Bruno, José, Eric, Olivier and Bruno W. My plan for the race was simple: since I wasn't worried about my time or qualifying for the next round, the only aim was to beat Régis. I decided I would stay on his shoulder and pick up the pace in the latter half of the race.

The gun went off and I set off slower than usual, just tagging alongside Régis. Actually, I discovered afterwards that it wasn't as slow as I thought: 3:46 for the first kilometre, then 3:45 for the second. I pushed on past Régis between the first and second kilometre as I felt good in my legs and I thought that I could keep it up. With all the twists and turns in the course, I was able to see my progress over him and I quickly built up a lead of 20 metres or so.

The race was over 9.65 km and when I got to 5km, I could feel I was beginning to tire slightly and Régis began to close the gap between us. He had said beforehand that he would accelerate at this point and I feared the worst. I maintained the pace and was running at around 4:00 per km now. The gap stayed constant at around 10 metres and I watched closely around every corner just to see how he was fairing. We got to the final lap and I was determined that he wasn't going to overtake me now. I pushed a little harder and began overtaking some runners in front of me. I must have gained at least 10 places over this final lap and Régis was still there.

At 600 metres to go, I looked at the watch and decided that it was now or never. I lengthened my stride again and headed for the finish. I gave everything and was bent over double at the end. Régis finished about 5 metres behind me, 2 seconds afterwards. I was delighted to have held him off and feel that I'm getting back some form, thanks to the interval training with the club.

The bad news ... both Régis and I qualified for the next round. We've got to go through this all again and the only motivation will be not to finish last.

9.65k in 38:08 or an average of 3:57 per km. Pretty chuffed.