10k race almost

We had all registered for the 10km race in Vincennes this morning. I'd picked up a spare bib from Régis who was injured and the intention was to run with François, taking him under 39 minutes for the first time. Laurence, Sandra and Katia were all aiming to beat their records over the distance and with their recent training, this was looking very feasible.

We woke up to a layer of white. It was still snowing and at -8°C the snow was showing no intention of disappearing immediately. We decided we'd meet up at the carpark at St Germain before making a decision, but by the time that Laurence and I arrived there having slipped our way through the forest in the car, it was clear that we wouldn't be able to make it as conditions were just too dangerous. We transformed our race into a session in the snow and at this point Nico rang to say that his race in the Yvelines had been cancelled and that he'd join us for a training run too.

We headed from the club to the Croix de Noailles through the forest on the Poissy side of the road before heading down to Pavillon de la Muette and then on to Corra in the snow. The conditions were lovely with the fresh snow crunching beneath our feet and the sky gradually brightening as the snow stopped falling. There was a good layer of between 5 and 10 cm of snow and although we were running easily, it wasn't too long before we could feel the extra effort necessary with each stride in our calves.

The garmin ran out of battery on me just before the end but I'd covered 18.5 km at this point and the whole run was probably just under 20km. So with the total time for the run at 1:45 this implied an average pace of 5:15 over the distance. Laurence and Sandra finished a little behind with Sandra running on empty for the last 10km.

Shame for the race as François had been looking forward to it aswell as the girls, but a nice run in the snow for the start of the season.