Les Clayes sous Bois - 10 km

I lined up at the start of the race with the usual apprehensions: what was I doing here, why had I entered and I could be at a nice restaurant with my wife rather than running a 10 km race. Still the butterflies hadn't been around for that long and it looked as though the race would be starting in a couple of moments. I looked over to the lefthand side of the road and watched the starter as he raised his hand to fire the gun and we were off.

The first 200m were downhill which helped. I always find it hard to understand why so many runners inisit on pushing their way into the front of the race, only to be overtaken in the first 200m. Following this downhill, we swung sharply right and began the climb of the course, an uphill section that lasted a good 500m before dropping down slightly and then another shorter climb to finsih the major uphill sections of the course. I felt fresh at this point and wondered how fast we were running. Nico was only just ahead of me and I was matching his pace on this first uphill section. We had 3 loops to do and it crossed my mind whether I would find it quite so easy on the subsequent loops.

After these climbs we left the residential areas and ran down some larger roads and then onto a long flat section with some fairly long straights before completing the loop and restarting. I watched Nico pull ahead and then focused on staying with a runner who he'd spoekn to before the start of the race, François. We ran together from the second kilometre to the fifth and we continued exchanging the lead around the course. At 5 kilometres, after the hilly section on the second loop, he began to pull away and I had a stitch in my right side at this point and let him go. For the 5 th and 6th kilometres, I managed to look at my garmin to see how fast I was running. I'd resisted the temptation to look at the watch until now and I saw 3:48 then 3:55 flash up on the screen. The last split disappointed me as we were on the flat section, but I'd consciously eased off the pace, just like I did in Pontault Combault. It was at this point when an older run caught me up and I hung onto his shoulder as he pulled alongside.

This final loop was just the 2 of us together. I pulled him up the hills and tried to break himw on the downhill. I could hear his breathing which was heavy and told myself that he was suffering and that I should beat him. We came onto the flat section and he pulled away and I didn't have the mental strength to stick with him. He was able to make a little gap and it was only after the ninth kilometre that I decided that I didn't feel so bad afterall and made an effort to cross the finish line.

37:34 was the final time, although the course was slightly short by the Garmin and we needed another 150m to make the full 10km. This would have added another 35 seconds to the final time, but with the hills I think that this was probably more or less compensated. I finished in 20th position in the race with Nico 9 places ahead in 11th spot in a time of 35:56 and his best time yet over the distance. 

I was pleased with the race for a few reasons:

i) A good start and I felt easy for the first 2 km at 3:32 pace.

ii) Potential is there to run under 37' over 10km with a little race practise.

iii) Can easily improve the second half of the race with stronger competition and more determination.

Highlight of the evening was watching Laurence run in with a time of 45:55 and 3rd veteran woman. Her first podium as a runner and she was well proud. Will post photos when I get them. The runners from the club managed some good performances with Katia finishing just ahead of Laurence to pick up second prise for the veteran women, managing 3rd place in the mens team prize, and Ephrem and Madeleine picking up prizes in their respective categories.