Rambouillet half-marathon

This was to be the second encounter in the Nico - James challenge for 2012 and I had some hopes for the occasion. Admittedly, most of these hopes hinged on Nico running into some trouble during his race and me running a blinder, but as with any race these things can happen. So how did it all pan out ?

French - English rivalry is centuries old and our own racing rivaly is very deep-seated. Following our training together, we are fully aware of each others weaknesses and although Nico is almost sure to beat me over any distance up to and including 10km, beyond this the gap narrows and my endurance compensates for my lack of pace over the shorter distances. Admittedly, I was not confident going into the half-marathon having seen some of the sessions that Nico has been churning out in training these past few weeks but one never knows and sometimes miracles happen.

The taunting began early with an invite from Nico to drive me to the race as he estimated that this would be the most time we'd spend together this morning. I reminded him of the famous English saying of 'pride comes before a fall', wishing that someone out on the forest route would be holding the branch to assist him in the process. We arrived with plenty of time to spare and ran a warm-up over the end of the course. It was immediately obvious that he was full of energy and in fine shape, a week's rest having done him the world of good. In comparison, I felt a little hampered by the humidity and the relative warmth (10°C) and wondered what I would feel like during the race.

There was pressure from all sides too as Nico was best placed to finish in front of me but Benj, his brother ran a 36:47 10 km race in Etampes and was running Rambouillet too, leaving me with no choice but to go out and run my socks off. My main objective for the day, aside from beating my biggest foe, was to beat my PB and go under 1:20 for the first time ever. I'd programmed 3:45 on the virtual partner on the garmin which would lead to a 1:19 finish so I knew I had a minutes leeway.

We set off fast and for the first 3km I sat on Nico's shoulder feeling relatively relaxed and unconcerned about the advance on the designated pace. As soon as we hit the hill on the 4th kilometre though, Nico gapped me and put in a 10 second lead by the top of the hill. We then entered the forest and the gap remained fairly consistent until 10 km which I passed in 37:06 and Nico in 36:53.

I now began to feel the pace though. I'd already begun to tire slightly at 7 and 8 km wondering if I'd be able to keep this up over the half-marathon but by 12 km and a slight uphill section again, I was seriously beginnning to doubt my capability of completing the course. I ran this in 3:50 and although it doesn't sound like much of a slow-down compared to the 3:45 pace set, it felt like the beginning of the end to me. All thoughts of catching Nico disappeared now and I was determined to beat the 1:20 time objective, calculating every kilometre how much extra time I had over the objective, with still being able to complete the goal.

At 14km, Mr Mustache from Houilles caught me and overtook me. I tucked in behind him and overtook him back, passing the 15km marker in 56:02 and a metre ahead of him. He overtook me again in the 16th km and this time I let him go preferring to concentrate on the time objective instead and also since I was worried about red-lining whilst chasing him. There was another runner with him and I followed them both to 18km when the road headed uphill again. I caught them both here and this time I could smell the finish and concentrated on lengthening my stride and reminding myself of my distance training for the marathon which would carry me through.

I passed the last bend and 400m to go and I was cooked. I wondered if I would have the strength to follow if Mr Mustache overtook now. Luckily I never had to try and finished in 1:19:25 - thrilled to bits to make it under the 1:20 barrier. Nico finished in 1:17:47 some 90 seconds ahead and had run the second half of the race a lot better than me. He was chuffed too and already notching up the 2-0 counter in his head.

A good run today and my best race performance of all time, according to McMillan. A good base for the rest of the year but I'm going to need some longer races if I'm going to get close to my French friend. Thank God for an english victory in the rugby - that should keep him subdued on at least one subject.