Ekiden de Pontault Combault

I love ekidens.

Running is a lonely sport. Most of the time when you train - you're by yourself; when you race - you are in your own world with your own objectives; when you're injured - it's even worse. It's an individual sport and even when you train in a group, you set your own objectives. You may exchange with your running partners but you fix your own limits and when you fail to achieve, you only have yourself to blame.

So when you get to combine an individual sport in a team environment and run and encourage each other, it's a refreshing change. I was down for the vets team in the Pontalut Combault ekiden, my third particpation in this event as many as the event itself. We had 2 other teams entered: our senior team (who'd also "borrowed" our 2 best veterans) and the female team.

I drove Nico and Dad to the ekiden as it meant that we could get a few extra minutes of sleep before the race began and besides, I was running the 4th leg and Nico the last for the seniors, so there was no real hurry. We arrived in time to get changed and to see the start with Jean-Marc setting off for the seniors, Nicoletta for the women and Daniel for the vets. Jean-Marc ran a good leg coming in 4th and setting the tone for the seniors from then on. Daniel and Nicoletta were a little behind and the vets team set off on the second leg with Bruno and Gaëlle for the women.

Dad and I were stood in the middle of the forest for most of this time since this was the point from which you could see most of the action. It was a beautiful sunny day, but extremely cold. Dad was beginning to regret wearing his shorts at this point and would have been happy with another layer on. The teams were still running well with Olivier ( our vet running for the seniors) putting in a good leg and bringing the senior team into 3rd place in the race. The women were also doing well in second place in their category with a real tussle between the first 3 teams exchanging places regularly.

I ran a quick loop of the circuit as a warm-up and then ran over to the transition zone ready for my relay.  Fabrice came in and handed the relay bracelet over to me and I set off at what I thought was an easy pace. A quick tap on the back of Bruno and Nico as I went by and I settled into a steady pace and looked ahead at the runners I was chasing.

The problem with running the 4th leg is that the field is well spaced out and the competitors are either being lapped or are too far to catch. I concentrated on a couple of runners ahead one of whom I caught between the 2nd and 3rd kilometre and the other who I gradually closed down but who still managed to finish 20 metres ahead of me.

My plan from the beginning had been to run the first loop easily and then speed up on the second. However, the reality was that my natural fast start and hold on in tactic overcame me and my splits were as follows:

3:34, 3:36, 3:41, 3:44, 3:45, 3:49, 3:43, 3:45, 3:42, 3:40.

The 3:49 split was a problem with the Garmin and I think that I was running a very steady 3:45 rhythm by then which I only managed to speed up slightly towards the end as I desperately tried to chase down my hare. I felt good overall, not going into the red and still managing to keep some energy in reserve. I think that a classic race would have motivated me more and I could probably have pulled off a few seconds faster but I was still pleased to bits with a 37:07 time despite being the only runner in the race for whom the electronic tag system failed to work.

Nico ran a great final leg finishing his 7.2km in 25:21 and bringing in the senior team in 3rd place overall.


A great video of the race with my exploits can be seen here. Thanks to Gérald for the camerawork.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyLHNRmKZ0Y

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.

Pontault Combault Ekiden

Since taking part in the marathon relay last year at La Queue lez Yvelines, I'd been wanting to redo a marathon relay with a team so when I heard that some seniors from the club were taking part at Pontault Comabault I jumped at the chance to participate.

Another short night as Nico picked me up at 6:35 to get to our meeting point for 6:45. Just over an hour later and we were at the race startline, slightly cold and fairly tired. We picked up our numbers and we set off for different warming up sessions.

So what does an Ekiden involve ?

i) 6 runners - Jean-Marc, myself, Nico, Adrien, Patrick and Gérald (in this order)

ii) 6 legs - 5km, 10km, 5km, 10km, 5km then 7.2km

iii) A good team spririt and plenty of encouragement

So I was running 2nd leg and the first 10k section. I wondered from the start whether this was a good choice as Jean-Marc is by far the strongest runner and Nico has proved himself to be faster than me too in recent races. Anyway, I wasn't in charge and I was happy to have another shot at the distance after pulling out of my last 10k race two weeks ago in Fontenay le Fleury.

Jean-Marc set off and he was at the front of the pack. I prayed that he wouldn't stay there as the pressure on me was going to be tremendous. I lined up ready for the change-over and there he was heading in in first place. I picked up the baton (well a hair band actually) and set off at a reasonable pace.

I didn't want to set off too fast as that's been my problem lately so I concentrated on setting a steady pace. I passed through the 1 kilometre marker in 3:30 and a few metres later I was overtaken by a runner clearly in a class above (he went on to run 32:50 for the leg). I turned off the tarmac now and onto the forest track and a long straight that went on for what seemed like miles. A second runner overtook me, also at a good pace and I let him go too. I ran back down the straight into the final side of the square course and I felt pleased with my pace. There was still 6k to do but I was running fairly steadily.

This feeling disappeared on the second loop where my motivation waned and my speed with it. A third runner came past and I was just holding on now. The second time I hit the long straight, I could feel the slight breeze in my face and the very slight uphill (the course was as flat as possible and it was proabbaly just the 6 - 8 km blues setting in). I concentrated on not letting the team down and not giving up again even if I relaxed the pace slightly. This was fatal as I ran the 9th km in 4:00 dead, well below the 3:46 I'd been averaging on the first lap.

Splits went as follows: 3:30, 3:38, 3:48, 3:46, 3:52, 3:54, 3:48, 3:57, 4:00, 3:57

Handed over to Nico at 10k and glad to have finished in 38:17. Disappointed with the time but I lack race practise over 10k and my training has eased considerably since Paris marathon. Need to get back into it again now. I handed over in 4th place and that was the way it was to end for us. 4th position from 65 teams participating was a good result and I was proud to be part of the team.

We finished in an overall time of 2:36:50 so a good steady average speed. Would look forward to running this type of race again especially with the team there today.

Ambazac next weekend and a 32 km trail. Need to work on the motivation if I'm to finish this one ...

Further race report (in French this time) on Nico's blog. He ran a cracker in 18:04 and would have gone under the 18 minutes if he hadn't got confused with his watch and thought that he'd run the first km in 3:14 ...! So much for technology.