Paris-Versailles : the 25 second story!

It's been a tough week. In fact, it's been worse than a tough week: it's been a 'kick a man when he's down' week with marathon training at 6:00am all week, working on integration at work until all hours and then trying to decorate the flat and fit a parquet floor before the new tenant arrived yesterday. The pressure has been high and my sleep deprivation has risen to all time highs.

This wasn't the ideal warm-up to the race this morning but before I get onto that race report, I'll give you all a brief summary of what has been going on during the week.

Last Sunday was the Chasseurs du Temps race in Vincennes and we lined up a solid 3 man team in the shape of Nico, Benj (Nico's brother) and myself. We set Benj off first and then me and the final leg was run by Nico. We hit our objective almost spot on with Benj and myself running 26 minutes legs for the 7.1km and then Nico running a 25 minute final leg. Well, actually we only have Nico's word that he ran under 26 minutes since he forgot to stoop and register the timing chip over the mat in his excitement to finish. The poor lad was extremely embarassed and had to go and discuss with the race officials as to our team position. We finished in 4th position in a total time of 1:18 being beaten by some very competent teams on the day who were beyond our league. Still we enjoyed the run and the atmosphere was pretty good on a lovely sunny day.

Monday - a 13km recovery run around the park in Maisons Laffitte pre-dawn in just under the hour

Tuesday - 2x 2km long interval session pre-dawn which was supposed to be run at threshold - 5 seconds per km. I ran the intervals in 7:30 then 7:29 and was chuffed to bits. Feeling good and marathon training is going better than I've managed previously.

Wednesday - a 13km recovery run around the park in Maisons Laffitte pre-dawn in just under the hour

Thursday - 2x 12x200m. I managed this session a whole lot better than in Stockholm. Intervals went as follows:

40, 40, 48 (wtf !), 40, 43, 42, 38, 42, 41, 35, 41, 39
40, 39, 41, 39, 39, 41, 39, 40, 39, 41, 39, 40

So, a good week's training but I skipped the Saturday session as I had too much work on my plate sorting out the flat at the last moment. I woke up this morning refreshed physically but stressed mentally as on top of all of the other things going on, I managed to lose the single set of car keys I possess for my car and smashed the passenger side window to see if I hadn't left them in the boot - they weren't.

I rode in with Paul B. and we left his car in his office carpark before jogging a couple of kilometres across Paris to the start at the foot of the Eiffel tower. We met Hélène and Brigitte here and then I left them to head off to the start of the race as I'd managed to get a preferential bib for the first time ever and had the pleasant sensation of being able to warm up easily without worrying about shouldering my way through the crowds to get a decent starting position. I met Nico and Benj here and we headed off for an extended warm-up picking up Greg and a friend Jérôme on the way.

We lined up behind the elite and then we were off. I felt good from the start: fresh and relaxed and I took the lead from Nico and Benj just focusing on how I felt and not worrying what they were doing behind me. I ran the first 2 km in 3:36 for each and then slowed slightly in the 3rd km to 3:42 as there was a slight rise as we ran under one of the bridges over the Seine. Another couple of kilometres along the flat by the river which I ran in 3:43 then 3:50 and at the end of the 6th kilometre we began the climb up Cote des Gardes, the 2km long landmark hill of the race.

It was a long pull up and I suddenly began to feel the tiredness. I lost a few places as people I'd been running with pulled away from slightly up the hill. I wasn't unduly worried and just concentrated on using small regular paces, without stopping but it was a hell of a relief when I reached the feeding station at the top. I'd been expecting Nico to come past me up the hill but still no sign, so he must have been further back than I thought.The uphill I managed in 4:59 then 4:54 and I remembered my last blog account as I ran when I was slightly over 5 minutes / km on this section. I may be tired but I'm running faster than before.

We hit the forest section now and it was a relief as the air was decidedly cooler than through Meudon up the hill. I tried to pick up speed quickly and push on with the pace now that the hills were behind me. I looked at the garmin as I passed the 8km barrier and saw that it showed 32:57. I quickly calculated that I only need to run the rest of the course at 15km/h to beat my record and get under 1:05. This spurred me on. However, it wasn't as straightforward as it appeared. The 9th kilometre was managed in 4:07 and then the next in 3:53.

It was just after 10km when Nico caught me. It wasn't a total surprise as I'd been losing touch with the runners around me as fatigue set in. The hill had taken it out of me and now Nico ran up to me and I gave him the thumbs up sign, too tired to talk.He pulled ahead at 11km and I couldn't give any more. I was running 3:48/km now and I was beat. I began to count down the kilometres willing the legs to hold out. This was exacerbated at the end of the 14th kilometre when we had to run up the hill past the cemetary - pace slowed to 4:16 and I felt like walking. I resisted the temptation and forced my legs to turn over. I could feel the lactic now and any thoughts of catching Nico over the last couple of kilometres were disappearing fast. He looked behind to see where I was and this encouraged me as I thought he must be hurting too.

It just wasn't to be though. I held on but the last 1.5 km were just too much: the main avenue in Versailles rising steadily towards the finish line was the last straw. 4:01 to achieve this kilometre and Nico remained stubbornly 50 metres ahead. I tried to pick up the pace but even the sight of the finish line didn't help. I gave it all I had and finished in 1:04:20 some 43 seconds faster than my PB. Nico finished 25 seconds ahead of me in 1:03:55. 25 measly seconds and another victory to him. My determination is set though and I know I can beat him now over the longer distances. Next attempt in Marseille.