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.

Rambouillet half marathon

Laurence and I accompanied Hélène and Didier to the start of the Rambouillet half marathon this year. Everyone had their own objectives : Didier to beat 1:30, Hélène to beat 1:48, Laurence to beat 1:45 and last year's time, and me to finish without screwing up my achilles completely.

We picked up the bibs and met a lot of runners from the club: Bruno, Brigitte, Jean-Michel, Christelle, Katia, Philippe amongst others. No sign of Nico though. I was beginning to think that his cold had got the better of him and that I would actually win this race by forfeit and a DNF on his behalf but Bruno told me that he'd spied Nico completely focused on the race and his 1:20 objective. Too bad but the real objective was to coach Laurence around the course and look after her at the feeding stations by getting her water and sugar if necessary.

We lined up and after a quick chat with the other runners who had sneaked into the sub 1:30 sas like us from the club we set off down into Rambouillet town centre. The first 2 kilometres are downhill and along the flat through the centre and we ran these faster than schedule to pick up on the time that we lost in crossing the start line. 4:49 then 4:38 according to my watch but since it took 13 seconds to cross the start, that equated to 4:36 then 4:38. So above schedule but we were soon ahead of schedule.

The first difficulty is in the 4th kilometre when you leave the centre of town and climb up a short hill into the forest. We ran this kilometre in 5:07 and so now cumulatively we were spot on target. We ran the next few kilometres at 4:52 and so although we lost a couple of seconds against the target speed, we were very close and I was watching Laurence closely to see whether the objective was feasible or not. This pace would ideally give us a total of just under 1:42 and a large improvement over last year, but I could see that Laurence was red in the face and I didn't want to push in case it compromised the race completely. Besides, Laurence was managing herself and if she thought I was going too fast, she would just let me run ahead. I would look behind, not see her in the crowds of other runners and ease off to be with her again.

We ran like this for the next 8 km until the 10km mat which we crossed in 48:53. We slowed up after this point as there were a series of small difficulties such as some little uphills and narrower sections. Laurence was feeling the initial pace and we let a few runners past at this point. The pace slowed to just over 5:00 per km and this would be the situation until the last 2 kilometres when we approached the finish and we were able to raise the pace slightly until the end.

The saddest part of the race was at the 15km mark, seeing Christelle on the side of the road with a survival blanket wrapped around her shoulder and some paramedic taking her pulse. She shouted out to me and I remembered being in exactly the same position myself in the Paris marathon in 2009.

We finished the course together in 1:44:46 so 10 seconds faster than last year but slightly disappointed nonetheless. Nico ran 1:22:57, Didier ran 1:32:55 and both were also disappointed.

I still really like this course and would be willing to come back next year to try again. Laurence seemed put off by her result and wants to try elsewhere now. We'll see.

Rambouillet Half Marathon - Yvelines

The gauntlet had been thrown. I'd declared that this year I would beat my 24 year old half-marathon personal best set in the Great North Run when I was 17. My running objectives for the year were public and declared: the half-marathon had to be run in 1:22:30.

I spoke to Tom about this last weekend and he asked me why I wasn't just trying to beat 1:24:30 as this is 15km/h or 4:00 per km over the distance. I decided that this wasn't sufficient and since the 20k in Paris last year, I knew that I was capable of beating this but a 1:22 target was more ambitious.

We arrived at the race with plenty of time and Nick, Laurence and I got ourselves ready before going out ofr a warm-up. A nasty accident happened before we even started as I put out my hand to shake hands with Bruno and Laurence rose at the same time catching my fingers directly in her left eye. I felt really bad before we'd even started and hoped that this wouldn't have any impact on Laurence's own objective of beating 1:45 in the race.

Plenty of runners from St Germain were present: Nico, Olivier, José, Bruno, Mireille, Gérald, etc. and the quality of the runners was high. I expected this as although the number of runners that can take part in the race is limited to 2000, the quality is very high and I epxected to arrive only in the top 10%, compared to 5% in a standard race.

We lined up in the first starting block, pretending to look like runners capable of running under 1:20 !! Unfortunately, there is no timing mat on the start line so only the gun result counts, meaning that plenty of runners try to start as close as possible. The gun went (on the second attempt) and we were off. I ran with Nico as I'd set the virtual partner to 3:53 per km and he agreed to stay with me at this pace. We could see Bruno and Mireille running together just ahead and we caught them up in the second kilometre to give ourselves a chance of beating Mireille over the distance.

The first kilometres were quick but I felt good in my race shoes and there was no pain from the ankle. Nico and I ran together and we overtook Bruno on the first hill at around 3 kilometres when he dropped off Mireille's pace. I couldn't keep up with her either now and she pushed on, racing another female for 2nd place. We finished the hill and turned off into the forest and I pushed again, making the most of the slight downhill. I was really happy with my pace and my sensations here: my legs were comfortable and fresh (was this due to the new Skins I was wearing ?), my ankle was fine and my pace was around 3:50 per km. At about 7km, Nico dropped just behind me and I pushed on, hoping that he wouldn't be able to follow. Mireille was still in front and showed no sign of coming back to me. I tried to tag on to a little group of runners and stayed at the back of this group until the 10km point. There was a timing mat at this point and I crossed the mat in 38:29, not bad for a 10k and faster than my last race in Houilles !

I felt good again at this point and between 10 and 12km I stretched and pushed the group a little. At 12km though, I began to tire and wondered if I could keep this speed up. I was hungry and despite the little water that I'd taken on at the feeding stations, I was losing energy and had a little stitch. It was the countdown from then on. The kilometres seemed longer and longer although my speed didn't reduce drastically. My 3:50 per km pace slowed to 4:02 by kilometre 17 and then kilometre 19 went by in 4:13. This was due to the fact that I stopped to take on water and had to negociate the slight uphill out of the forest back towards Rambouillet.

I could still see Mireille about 300m ahead but she was not coming back to me. I was just hanging on in now, praying for the finish to come into sight. I guy in a triathlete suit came past and encouraged me but I couldn't stay with him. I passed the 20km marker and with 1km to go I was encouraged and put in a last little effort. Even so, I only managed the kilometre in 3:58 and then the sprint at 3:39 pace. I crossed the line in 1:22:12 a new PB and beat Fabrice's time in Paris of 1:22:35 so I was pleased. Nico had been dropped but I hadn't caught Mireille who'd run a stormer and the best half-marathon time for a female vet in France by over 5 minutes this year !!

Gérald finished next in 1:23 then Bruno and Nico in 1:24. Nick ran a personal best in 1:26 and then I ran back to find Laurence. I figured it was going to be close when I got to her but she was looking good, not red in the face, so she'd obviously run steadily and intelligently. We turned the corner and into the last straight with 250m to go. I could see the clock hit 1:44 and told her to sprint. She said she couldn't but she picked up the pace towards the finishing line to finally cross in 1:44:56 - a new record by over 5 minutes. She was stonked.

Good race all round. Definitely back next year to do this one again.

Rambouillet Half Marathon

Saw Jean-François, my physio, yesterday for another check up on the injury and to see whether the race at Rambouillet was still on the cards or not. I hadn't run since Tuesday and I was beginning to feel better, if a little stiff around the top of the thigh and the right buttock. After the session with Jean-François, I was feeling a lot better and we were able to pinpoint the muscle pain and he gave me some appropriate exercises to stretch these. Basically, the problem is with the sacro iliac joint , where the back joins the pelvis. The stretching exercises ease the pain and when I left the clinic, I was feeling better than I had done for several days. Based on this, I thought that I would give the semi a go and run with Nick who was aiming to go under 1:30 for the first time.

The weather was pretty lousy when we arrived at Rambouillet with a full car load: Laurence, Nick, Anne, Christèle and Jeff. We headed as quickly as possible to the changing rooms to pick up our numbers, get ready and shelter from the drizzle that was starting to fall. We met Régis, Fabrice and other runners from St Germain who I normally train with. They had picked up my number to give to another as they thought I wouldn't be running - sorry guys. Their aim was to go under 1:25 which would have been my objectives under better circumstances. As we changed Paul arrived and so Nick, Paul and I lined up together at the start with the intention of running together and getting everyone under 1:30. The back was playing up and I'd done some stretches after a short warm-up in order to relieve the tension in the muscles. This seemed to do the trick and there was only a slight discomfort.

The gun went, I started my watch and we were off. It took us about 20 seconds to cross the start line and then we headed off downhill into Rambouillet town centre at a leisurely pace. I say leisurely but we were probably running at around 4:15 pace but compared to the usual frantic starts for 10km races, this felt so comfortable. I concentrated from the start on my posture and ensuring that my back was going to be able to hold up all of the way round. The greatest fear was that I would reach the 10km mark and have to pull out of the race. I definitely didn't fancy a 10km walk back into town.

Paul, Nick and I ran together and I was able to chat a little as we ran. The pace was steady at around 4:08 per km until the fourth kilometre when we had to pull uphill out of town. At this point, the pace slowed to 4:29 but I pushed the pace at the top of the hill to make sure that we got back onto target. So what was the target though ? Actually, I had set the virtual partner to 4:12 per km which was slightly faster (one minute over the whole course) than the 1:30 objective. We were well on schedule and running well. This carried on over the next few kilometres until the 7th kilometre when I looked behind and saw that we had dropped Paul. He had been keeping up with us to begin with, but the pace was just out of his comfort zone and he had dropped back. Actually, I have doubts about the pace and think that this may have just been an excuse to run with a nice leggy blonde that we had overtaken a kilometre earlier. Anyway, Nick and I were on our own now.

The route through the Rambouillet forest was lovely and some photos of the course can be seen on the official website. The path wound through the forest and was a single track road, closed to traffic. We hit the 10km mark in 42:16, so spot on schedule and we began picking up and overtaking a number of runners from here on to the finish. The pace was very steady at just below 4:10 per km and I was really pleased with my condition as I knew that I had plenty of energy in reserve. The pace was comfortable for me and I was feeling strong. When we left the forest after 12.5 km we were having to run head on into the wind. I pushed the pace again here, letting Nick run behind me, worried that the wind would slow us down. In fact, I forced the pace too much as we ran this kilometre in 4:05, so as soon as we turned the bend around the roundabout, I eased slightly and dropped back to 4:10 pace again.

We carried on like this for the remainder of the course, counting down the kilometres to the end. The pain in my back and thigh was present but not unbearable. Another stretch through the forest and past some fisherman at the pond before a slower section where we had to pull up another incline before hitting the outskirts of Rambouillet. We could smell the finish now and we were picking off runners regularly. A sprint at the end and we crossed the line together in 1:28:31 - a new PB for Nick. Great run and most comfortable.

Having crossed the finish line the comfort faded instantly and I began to limp. The pain was back with a vengeance ! We got out of the steady rain that was now falling and I did some stretches in the changing area to find some relief. A couple of hot drinks later, a chat with Paul who finished in 1:30:45 and we went back outside to face the elements and watch Laurence and Anne arrive.

They had run very steadily too. Their aim was to run marathon pace around the course and they crossed the line in 1:56:58 still chatting easily as they went passed. Christèle later confirmed that they hadn't stopped chatting all of the way round which confirms my belief that they will both achieve their marathon objective of under 4 hours in a month's time.

The rest of the gang (Fabrice, Régis and Mireille) all finished within spitting distance of each other around 1:25. Mireille won the first female vet prize in 1:24:30 - good performance.

Good race, great course, shame about the weather but we shall be back next year.