Conflans - 15km

I set out to do this race easily. It's not even been a week since I ran the marathon in Florence and I told Gérald that I would run with him to ensure his podium in the departmental challenge. He only needed to achieve 90 points to secure 3rd place which amounted to around 1:05 for the 15km, so the task was not arduous. I have to admit that I also had the objective set by Nick in the back of my mind: 58:13 for the 15km but this seemed well out of reach on the relatively tough course around Conflans, especially with 42km of racing in the legs and an improvement on last year's time of some 40 seconds.

The image above gives you the profile of the course with a steep downhill at the 3km mark and then 2 sharp uphills at 5km and then at 12km. The rest of the route follows the Seine up until the confluence with the Oise, where the course doubles back on itself and heads back to the start. I've run this race twice before and love the route through town, despite the hill, and the long straights by the river where you can set a rhythm and race properly. Last year was an epic ordeal though with a fresh layer of snow that fell in the morning prior to the race, making every corner a nightmare and the last lap of the stadium was reduced to one lane.

Photo from last year's race, heading back along the Seine around the 9km mark.












I lined up at the start this year with Gérald and it was a different kettle of fish altogether. The sun was out, the temperature was not too cold and there was only a strong breeze to spoil the conditions. We decided to take it easy and not to sprint off initially. This was indeed the case; for the first 200 metres at least. We then began passing runner after runner and when the Garmin beeped to indicate the first kilometre in 3:36 I shouted out to Gérald to ease up. We slowed slightly and I found a nice rhythm that I was happy with at about 3:45 pace. This was too much for Gérald though as he lacks a little race practice and training at the moment and dropped behind me. I felt bad for a milli-second before deciding that I was enjoying the run and the pace and that Gérald should use me to pull him along.

I was watching another runner Fred at this point who beat me last year by 5 metres (wearing red in the photo above). He was running well and we'd spoken before the race and I could see that he was in great shape and that the chances of staying with him this year were slight. I was encouraged by the fact that nobody was overtaking me and that, on the contrary, going uphill through Conflans, I was actually keeping up and overtaking others while reducing my stride and increasing the rhythm.

When we went around the turning point at 8km it was bliss. The strong breeze was now coming from behind, helping to push the pace and I stretched to make the most of this. I thought about the marathon and the necessity to maintain the pace no matter the different thoughts in my head about easing off as nothing was at stake. A quick look at the Garmin and a rapid calculation and I realised that I could actually beat the 58:13 target now, if I could maintain 4:00 pace average over the last few kilometres. Admittedly, there was the steep hill, la Sente des Laveuses, to manage but if I could speed up again after this, the record was on the cards.

Amazingly, everythhing went according to plan. I used a flagging runner to accelerate before the hill, overtaking him just at the foot and then leaving him rapidly before focusing my attention on another 2 runners just ahead. I never caught them but they pulled me unconsciously as we neared the stadium and the night of free beers was a feasible proposal.

A last sprint around the track and I crossed the finish line in 57:54 almost a minute faster than last year. What's more, I'd beaten the 58:13 target time set by Nick earlier this year. I'd achieved 4 out of the 5 targets, failing only in the half-marathon which I haven't run competively in 2011. Gérald finished 3 minutes behind, a broken man, in 1:00:48. He was so upset with his race that I wondered whether I should call suicide watch or not. The fact that he could have beaten his course record if he hadn't eased off completely over the last kilometre, letting another runner from our club come past, Charles, was beyond me. He felt that he'd hadn't run well enough to deserve to beat his own time, so he slowed. Gérald has a logic from another world so please don't try to understand. The fact is now that the counter shows a 7-0 victory in my favour and he'll have to pull his act together if he wants to get closer next year.

A great way to end my racing year for me. Really pleased with this final result.