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