Ekiden - Pontault Combault

We came, we saw, we ran hard and we kicked ass.

Well, it didn't really turn out this way and definitely not as I intended. I woke up and got ready for the race at some ungodly hour on Sunday morning, ready to meet the others at the club for 6:45am. Pontault Combault is on the other side of Paris, in the east and we needed to be there for a 9:00 am start. I picked Nico up and we drove to the site of last year's race after a little tour around Pontault Combault, taking in the sights (ok - we go a little lost but a quick call to Jean-Marc soon sorted that out. So much for a GPS if you don't know where you're supposed to be going. I'm blaming this one on my copilot).

It was a reasonable day and the weather wasn't quite sure what it was doing. When the sun came out it was glorious and warm, but when the clouds came over it was a little cool. We warmed up and I felt fine. The main contest for the day was whether the second senior team would beat the first veteran team. The secondary contest was whether our first senior team would win the race outright. Last year the race was won in 2:24 and they thought that they were in with a shout this year.

The race started and the first leg were off for 5 kilometres around the flat course. The start is from a shopping centre, just outside the Decathlon shop - the main sponsor, and then you follow the road around the forest before turning right onto a cinder track down a long, long straight (and even longer if you're running the last leg) before doubling back on yourself and down the other side until a left turn back inot the forest down another track which loops back around to the start. Our first runner was Fabrice who's been out with injury for a few months and this was his chance to shine in a comeback race against Gérald. Gérald was favourite to win this leg with most estimates giving him 90 seconds over Fabrice. In fact, there was only 52 seconds between them and Fabrice handed over to Vincent.

Vincent was racing Robin and it was a close challenge but Vincent gained the upper hand by making 27 seconds over him and closing the gap to 25 seconds between the seniors and the vets. Bruno went off now, fully recovered from his marathon  with me in London where I'd run with him over the first half of the course. He was chasing Simon and I was over the moon when I saw Bruno coming around the final corner ahead of Simon by 2 seconds. To say that this race was close was an understatement. I didn't have a clue what the other teams were doing, apart from our first senior team who were around 4th or 5th position and not as high up as expected, the field being distinctly faster this year compared to last.

With a whole 2 second advantage, I was confident now as Thierry was running the next leg for the vets against Frédéric. As I'd seen for myself in Tuesday's training, Frédéric had a good level and had kept up with us for the 3:30 1km repeats, but Thierry is capable of 36 minutes for a 10 km race and I was sure that we would extend our lead. After 5 km I was even more convinced as Thierry went through the 4 kilometre mark well ahead of Fréd. However, Thierry was tiring and when we next saw them both at 7 km, Fréd had made a good 70 m on Thierry and was going away from him. Fréd was most impressive, never having run a 10km race before and finishing this leg in 36:45 almost a minute faster than Thierry. I've rarely seen a guy finish his leg or a race so completely wasted. To say that he'd given everything was an understatement.

Disaster struck the senior team at this point when their 5km relay man, Nick, had been too busy following the race and wasn't in position to take the relay. Thierry came into sight and it was only then that Nick took off, not even 15 seconds ahead of Charles. We were still in the running! Charles ran an excellent leg and handed over to me.

I took the baton, or rather hair elastic which had snapped by now, wrapped it around my finger and set off. I didn't know where Romain was, the anchor leg for the seniors, just that he'd be chasing me seriously around the course. I set off cautiously, worried that I'd burn myself out too quickly and wouldn't be able to respond if Romain caught me. I caught a few runners and passed them but nobody was running at my pace and I didn't have any more runners to chase after the first 2 kilometres. My first kilometre was in 3:41 which I considered reasonable and even sensible on my part, but the second was in 3:46 so I thought I should speed up a little or at least not slow any further. My legs didn't respond and it was as if I couldn't be bothered to race harder. My mind wasn't completely in this event and I just wasn't feeling competitive enough. I'd been prepared to cheer on the others and push them, but I wasn't prepared to push myself.

3:51 then 3:50. I heard footsteps and knew instinctively that it was Romain. Damn 3.2km to go and he was with me already. He looked at me and said 'Let's run together' but after a couple of hundred metres, he began to pull away and I just couldn't stay with him. I ran like this until the end, surfing the race and not immerged in it. I was too hot, not comfortable and straining. I managed a sprint finish to try and catch a final runner who looked like a vet before the finish line, but even he crossed the line a couple of seconds ahead.

I finished in 27:29 by my watch, averaging 3:49 over the distance. The official split was 27:33 as it takes it from just before the handover. Anyway the team finished in 2:39:38 picking up the 3rd vets team prize in the process (1st and 2nd finishing in 2:36:18 and 2:37:14 respectively so no regrets). Hats off to the seniors 2 for beating us as it was a good, close race. Senior 1 ran 2:23:57 and ended up in 6th position and would have won with that time last year. Shame.

I found a photo of me at the finish, just to prove I was trying !

 

Will have to do better against Nico at Les Clayes sous Bois now for the next 10k race in 10 days time.