Imperial Trail - Fontainebleau

Waiting for my partner ! Just setting off for my leg
Partner obviously gave it all he had ! Laurence finishing her leg. Still looking fresh !

(PS. Thanks to Jérôme, Claire's hubby, for the fantastic photos)

Trail runners are a sub-species of the human race with completely different qualities to the rest of us. They think nothing of entering races that are longer than marathon distance and abandoning family and friends to spend a weekend running across some mountains in the middle of nowhere. What on earth was I doing with them on a Saturday afternoon ?

It all happened during a moment of weakness a couple of Sunday's ago when I agreed, foolishly, to take part in a trail race in Fontainebleau over a distance of 65km. Luckily I wasn't going to be running all of it, just half as we were down for the duo category with Natanael my teammate for the race. Laurence had also signed up in an all women's team as a trio. So 23km for Laurence and 35km for me. I was treating it as a long run in preparation for the marathoon.

We arrived at the start an hour before the departure time, announced as 1:00 pm. We met up with Laurence's other halves, Pascale and Claire and I called my teammate to find out where he was - on the outskirts of Paris as they'd left late. Brilliant - here I was for an easy afternoon run and now I was stressed because my partner was probably going to miss the start!

We had 4 teams from the club for the duos: Laurent B and José (favourites to win), Natanel and myself, Patrick and Laurent K, Laurent Bénacérraf and Thierry; together with the women's team for the trio: Claire, Laurence and Pascale. After the intial panic about not arriving on time, the start was announced in waves with 5 minutes interval between each wave. The duos and trios started at the end, so 15 minutes after the first runners.

We saw off the first leg runners and then went in search of lunch. A quick stop in Fontainebleau for a sandwich before we headed off in the car to the first handover point at 19.5km which was also the handover point for the duo as there was a further 10km loop from here. We watched the first runners come through the checkpoint and Laurent arrived in second place for the duos, looking very comfortable and easy. Natanauel arrived about 5 minutes later, looking less comfortable and finding it harder to speak. The strain could definitely be seen on his face. They'd done the first section in around 1:40 for 19.5km so the going was faster than we had initially imagined. Half an hour later, Claire arrived and handed over to Laurence who set off for her section. Claire was delighted with her run and the scenery that the trail had provided. The path passed between boulders and runners had to scramble between rocks. I was just waiting now for the first runners to come back.

Laurent came in and handed over to José, unclipping the timing chip and fixing it around his ankle. The last 10k had been far harder than the start, with the leaders taking just uner an hour to complete 10k. And they call this a running race...! Natanael didn't show up for another 15 minutes and a good 9 or 10 duo teams had already made the changeover. I set off slowly, getting used to my new trail shoes (Asics Gel Lahar 2), which I found heavy and cumbersome after running and training exclusively in lightweight trackshoes for the last 6 weeks. I had forgotten to set the Garmin to training mode before I set off and it now took me over a kilometre before I could finally pick up the satellites and start the watch.

The scenery was fantastic with the path winding its way through the forest and up and over the ridges around Fontainebleau. I felt good and quickly caught plenty of runners doing the race solo (65km all by themselves) and then I caught some of the duo runners that I'd spotted while waiting for my partner. The speed was not fast as I was running up the hills at about 10km/h and then reaching just under 14km/h along the flat. I must have passed a good 10-15 runners when I passed a marshal who announced that I was in 26th place. I told myself that it would be good to get into the top 20, so I set off again, motivated to catch as many as I could.

I passed the first feeding station after 13km (where Laurence would have over to the final leg of the trio) and I began to feel a bit tired. I told myself that there was still over 20k to do and I had to keep going steadily. The kilometres passed regulalry now and I paid no attention to the Garmin, just concentrating on the trail and the bits of race tape attached to the trees to show the path. There were fewer and fewer runners but I managed to overtake another 6 or 7 and was into the top 20. The path between the boulders was very complicated with it winding in directions that I didn't expect or anticipate. Several times I had to run back uphills as I set off downhill too quickly missing the tape in the process. I passed another marshall who told me that I was only a couple of minutes behind a couple of runners and so I set off in pursuit of them.

3 km later I spotted a runner ahead and chased him down. He was also the second leg of a duo and I smiled inside as I'd made another place in the ranking. The last feeding station was ahead at 54km and when I arrived I was the only one there. When I left I was still alone not having glimpsed another runner. The 2 cups of coke were a godsend and I felt that I was able to continue but running on my energy reserves only. The pace that I'd been achieving earlier along the flat was unthinkable now and I was running at about 12km/h on the flat and 8-9km/h up the hills. The legs were definitely tired. I was caught by another runner at this point (the only one during the whole race) and he left me easily, skipping down the hill with a freshness that I could only just admire. I just concentrated on keeping the legs turning over and not losing too much time.

I looked at the Garmin regularly now to comfort myself with every extra kilometre that I achieved. I had 31km on the watch and I estimated that I had another kilometre unrecorded from the start to add to that. I turned a corner at this point and saw what looked like 2 runners ahead. I was cautious since I'd already seen other walkers along the path but as I got closer I could see that they were competitiors and furthermore one of them was José. I was thrilled now as I was catching them rapidly and I thought of the pleasure in being the first runner from St Germain to finish. I had managed something that initially was unthinkable. Another problem quickly arose as when I caught the 2 runners, we saw a wild boar cross our path, then another and then 2 more. We slowed to a walk and watched the group of boar as they watched aside just to the right of the path. We got closer still and then about 4 or 5 baby boar crossed the path 10 metres in front of us too. I wasn't going to argue with these animals and was glad when we finally cleared this area and was able to start running again.

I was on a high from now on until the finish and even the onset of minor cramps in my legs didn't dispirit me. I could see another runner in front who was suffering from cramps as he pushed against a wall 500m ahead and I chased him to the finsih only to end 5 metres behind him at the line. It was almost dark now and we'd been running as a team for 6:34 and I'd personally run for 3:30 of those: my longest run ever in time.

Pleased to have taken part. Laurence was happy too. Scenery was fantastic, path could have been better marked, but organisation overall was very good.

Good marathon training.

35.6 k on the Garmin (plus 1.5 to add) in 3:22 (plus 8 minutes).