Sunday 29 July 2012

Martigues - Carro, 16.370 km, heat, and a great tempo challenge!

We set off in a really warm 31 degrees. Prior to that I had drunk pretty regularly during the day and 1.5 litres in the last 20 minutes. It felt scary to be sweating so much just in warm-ups.
Had the usual bizarre sensation of looking down at the watch after a couple of hundred metres and noting that the pull of the crowd and the euphoria of the start had me going at something crazy like 3:30/k. The goal was to average around 4:07, so I forced myself to slow down a bit. By the time we hit the hills I was definitely almost spot on on the flat sections. Then the hills, that lasted for about 10k, one of which was so brutal many of those around me had to walk. I don't know why I thought keeping a 4:07 average would be so achievable, maybe I just thought that the downhills would compensate for it - of course they do a bit, but never totally. All in all, however, I ran a good race, really focussing on the subtle interchanges between recovery and pushing again, building in slight slowing prior to hills to attack aerobically, and progressive momentum building on the long downhills that had me sweeping past those who thought they should quickly pick up the pace simply because it's a downhill. In the end, the garmin was fairly unnecessary except perhaps in the first three or four kilometres. I was genuinely excited to do it and thrilled and privileged to be able to what I did, and it was for Him.

Really nice as well to connect with a few of the local runners I used to run with from the club in le Rove. They're all a bit older than me but Albert, who is well into his sixties, still pushed home in 1:17 for the 16.37 km course.

I hope to update this blog with some snaps and altitude info... 


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