It just wasn't to be. In fact, this race was pretty much a curse for me. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. It startedn on the Saturday when I turned up for registration thinking that I'd got myself a preferential bib. Despite arguing with the organiser for 15 minutes, there were no more preferential bibs and he wouldn't do anything to help. I would have to start with the masses and I mean masses as apart from the 1000 preferential bibs, the 14 000 other participants all start together.
The second upset was discovered later that evening when we undid the contents of the running packs: there were no safety pins. For once, we'd brought a running bag that had no safety pins in either. To make matters worse, the timing chips were included in the bibs and not as chips to be strapped to the laces. Despite a last minute race around Marseille at 11:00pm, we couldn't get hold of any safety pins having tried at a chemists, the firemen, and numerous corner shops. Disaster. I was tired, fed-up and hot and wondering what we doing here.
The next morning began a little better as the first runner we saw coming out of our hotel room had spare safety pins: first problem resolved. We arrived at the start 90 minutes before the race was due to begin at 8:00am. We'd had nothing to eat as we'd not come across any bakers and we were hungry and starting to get warm. Despite the early hour, the sun was rising and it was getting warm. We sat in the road with thousands of other runners and waited for time to pass by chatting with a German living in Marseille and a Marseillais, both giving us advice on the course and the expected time compared to a standard half-marathon.
We stood up about 30 minutes before the start and got as close to the front as we could. When the gun went it took us just over 30 seconds to cross the line and to begin to race and I set my virtual partner to 3:50 per km and used that as my basis. It was tough from the word go as first of all I had to slalom my way through the runners for the first kilometre and then as the road was still flat, I was disappointed when I saw my split for the second km at 3:59. I could feel the fatigue in my thighs from the sitting and waiting. I was short on energy too and I knew from the start that this wasn't the day. I had forgotten my cap and the sun beat down now so I ran as much in the shade as I could wherever I could find it.
The road began to climb after 5 kilometres and the splits began to slow too. I'd averaged 15 km/h until now but as the road rose, my splits dropped to 4:35, 4:42, 5:04, 5:11 and there was nothing I could do. At this point, Nico ran up to me from behind and asked how I felt. The truth was that my lungs were alright but my legs tired, so I told him not good and then saw him pull away slowly up the hill to the summit of the col. I pushed on over the top and caught back the 5 seconds that separated us down the slope. I lengthened my stride and began to feel better but all too soon another slight uphill arrived and I dropped off the pace immediately. Nico pulled away again at this point and I wouldn't see him again.
I started to relax at this point and just told myself to enjoy the views and the scenery which were fantastic. I was still hot and taking on water and each feeding station but now I stopped to drink some powerade before continuing, losing 10 seconds in the process. I could see the sea now and the port of Cassis could be imagined behind the outcrop of rock protecting the town. The atmosphere was great as we arrived on the outskirts with literally hundreds of supporters cheering us on. I spotted Caro (Nico's wife) up the last hill and then we dropped down into the port and a last sprint to finish in 1:23:41 just under a minute behind Nico (1:22:44).
Extract from Sportstrax showing the route and the splits on the left.
We both waited for Laurence at the end who crossed the line in 1:49:53 having suffered from lack of energy and the heat in much the same way as me. We will have to come back to improve on these times but we all agreed that the race was most enjoyable. Best part was having lunch after a shower at the house where Nico and family were staying in Cassis. A beautiful town well worth visiting.
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