Cross Toto

Well, what to say when Nico has said it all already ?

Back home in time to take part in the annual cross-country event organised by the club for the club members. 2 laps of a 3 km loop for the men with one loop for the women. I looked at the potential  competition when I arrived and I fancied my chances for the top veteran position since Bruno W and Eric weren't around and I remembered how comfortable my advance was on José at the start of the year in the cross-country races. Things were looking up.

We warmed up by jogging to the start of the race in the forest close to Poissy and Nico was there waiting. He'd just run 3 x 20' at marathon speed but apparently he'd overdone it and had been running at around 3'45 - 3'50 pace. He said he was tired and I just smiled and thought that I would be able to pull back a race in the Nico v. James challenge. I'll rephrase that: I thought I'd be able to win my first race in the challenge this year as at 8 races down, things were not looking good.

We ran another loop of the course so that the new-comers could see the route and the difficulties. These are few in that there is a slight rise towards the end of the first kilometre and then a couple of long drags for the last 800m of the course. The rest is flat or downhill.

I lined up next to Yoan, Jean-Marc and Sébastien as these were the favourites and after the gun went I settled in just behind them. I let them pull away slightly after 1 km and then for the second kilometre I was running by myself. I felt relaxed and wasn't pushing too hard as I couldn't hear anyone behind me and I knew that I had no chance against the 3 in front. 4th place and 1st vet was fine by me.

As we hit the rise towards the end of the first lap, I heard footsteps behind me and knew that it was Nico. Having run kilometres and kilometres with him in training, I recognised the footfall and didn't need to turn around to see who it was. He caught my foot as we pushed up the hill and I stumbled slightly. He then proceded to pull alongside me and mentioned something about not letting me get away so easily. I thought that I'd hang on to him as he must be tired and try and pull away again if he flagged. We finished the first loop and I heard shouts of encouragement for us and José too so I knew he wasn't far behind. This was bad news as I knew that I couldn't let up now and  had to maintain my speed if I was to keep pole position for that vet spot.

Photo of Nico and I neck and neck at the end of the first lap with José 10 metres behind.











Nico pulled ahead slightly now and I had to accelerate to keep with him. The slight hump in the track appeared for the second time and as Nico put on a burst, I dropped back and he gained the 5 metres that he needed to pull away from me gradually now. I couldn't fin the willpower to go any faster and I just listened out for José's footsteps behind me now as they got closer and closer with 1 km left to go.


Nico had a good 40 metre lead now and José overtook me on the first slope before the finsihing line. The track flattens out for 50 metres and then slopes up another 350 metres to the finish. I pulled back past him on the flat section and accelerated hard towards the finish. A young lad (Jérôme) came past me here but I was sprinting now ensuring that José stayed behind and was discouraged from pulling off a sprint finish of his own. And it worked! He finished 4 seconds behind me while Nico ended 7 seconds ahead. I ran 22:27 which is my best time ever by 37 seconds for this course so I was still well chuffed. Shame that Nico is still better as it would have done him the world of good to learn a little humiliation. Still, his head is so big now that it'll weigh him down for his next marathon attempt... let's wait and see. Good to see José back in shape too. We can look forward to some good cross-country races in the new year.

Nico's version of the story is here if you have the guts to stomach the self-glory. 20 km all up for the morning.