Hell starts here - Marvejols Mende 22.4km

The half marathon of Marvejols Mende is a classic in the French running calendar. About 5000 people take part in this 'half-marathon' as they like to call it while the official distance is 1.3 km longer than the description would lead you to believe. This race has been the favourite of Dominique Chauvelier for many years, he having won it on 5 occaisions and having finished 2nd another 4 times. It was a race that had to be run and I can't remember now if it was Nico or Jean-Marc who suggested that we all took part, but whoever, we were all now in Marvejols picking up our numbers on the eve of the race.

We had run a warm-up on the Saturday morning along the start of the route and had seen the beginning of the the first hill. When I was young, we used to live on a hill overlooking Hexham and for me Causey hill was the worst hill that existed. Living half-way up meant that every run either started with a nasty uphill or finished with one. There was no escaping it. Well, next to this hill Causey hill was a piece of cake. 400 metres of uphill over 4km so an average slope of 10%, with sections over 16% in gradient. This was no joke and had to be taken seriously. We were warned from the start and the writing was on the wall (well the road actually)

So having done a recce of the route both by foot and then later by car, we lined up for the race some 45 minutes before the start in order to get a good position behind the elite. Laurence, Nico, Jean-Marc, Greg and myself waited patiently for the start wand we were joined by Stéphane from the club who was on holiday in the region. The gun went and with it some joker had set off a tear gas or pepper gas bomb. I spent the next 500 metres coughing and spluttering to get rid of the awful taste in my mouth and throat. Not a good start to the race.

Profile of the race with the 2 hills to be managed.









Nico had pushed his way through the crowds in an agressive fashion to get a better start and I only caught him after 500m telling him that he would have to do better than this if he wanted to lose me so quickly. The first 5 kilometres before the hill were relatively flat and I was trying to make the most of this section to run at marathon pace before the hard work began. The kilometres went as follows:

4:11, 3:53, 3:58, 3:56, 4:03

I hit the hill and just grinned and bore it! Knowing that uphills are not my strong point, I shortened my stride and concentrated on running at a pace where my heart rate didn't race too hard and that I knew I could maintain for a while. I was just waiting to see Nico who'd I'd left behind me at the start come past me. I was actually surprised that most of the runners around me were not overtaking me and that I was maintaining my place and actually gaining a couple of places, passing runners who had obviously set off too hard. Ireached Goudard where the road flattens for about 500m before continuing uphill again for the final section of the first hill. I began to believe that I would get to the top of the hill before Nico and that I wasn't beaten in this race just yet. Someone on the side of the road shouted out that there was 800m of uphill to the top and I pushed again eager to begin the downhill where I knew I was stronger. The last few bends were completed and I passed the feeding station on the top of the col, gulping down some water before the downhill.

I'd got to the top in the following times:

5:44, 5:30, 5:32, 5:27

And now it was downhill and I let blast. I just let myself go and stretched as far as I could down the slope, letting gravity do the work for me. I was easy on my lungs but my legs were hitting the orad hard and I tried to improve my stride to reduce the road slap as my feet and legs turned over. I couldn't believe it when I caught up with another St Germain top and passed Mustapha on the downhill. I had a couple of words and told him that Nico was behind and he dropped back to run with him.

3:20, 3:17, 3:22, 3:38

The downhill was over too soon and we turned left onto the main road which roase steadily before the second hill a few kilometres beyond. This transition was hard and I now realised how much energy I'd lost in the downhill and the going became very tough, very quickly.

4:00, 4:21, 4:43, 5:44, 5:43

and I walked. I just couldn't take any more :too hot and too tired, I stopped running for 15 seconds and walked before jogging again. I figured that if I could reach the top of the second hill before Nico then I had a very good chance of beating him. Unfortunately, the walk was just enough to lose the ground I had over him and he appeared on my should towards the top of the second hill. I was running again but I didn't have his pace uphill and he managed to put another 20 seconds on me before the top of the second hill and the last downhill section.

3:56, 3:41, 3:24, 3:46

and I was catching him down the hill. He had about 20 metres on me as we truned into town to run the last 500m up the hill to the finish line. I'd lost in my head though by here as I knew that I couldn't stay with him uphill. Sure enough he gapped me again and passed the line 25 seconds in front of me. It had been our closest race in a while and I was thrilled to have gotten so close to pulling it off but a little disappointed with myself not to have run to the top of the second hill and to have grit my teeth when it counted.

I finished in 1:37:30 in 168th position, 9 places behind Nico in 1:37:08. Jean-Marc finished in 1:41:00 in 232th place, Mustapha in 1:42:42 in 269th position, Greg in 1:57:33 in 863rd place and Laurence in 2:01:58 in 1176th place and 32nd in her category.

A great run by all and the hardest road race I've ever run. My muscles are still aching 2 days afterwards and I'm wonderinng how on earth I'm going to complete the CCC with all of the uphill (5600m +).

Thanks to Caro for the photos and for finding the short cut through the cemetary to take us home. It really was one hell of a race.