Argentan half-marathon

Today is the day of the Argentan half-marathon which I will not run this year as I have not yet fully recovered from my Achilles tendinitis. (If running too many days in a row, as I indulged in while in Salzburg, inflammation is back!) Frustrating, as this is my “race of the year” in the Norman countryside. But another break also occurred ten years ago, when I missed the 2009 and 2010 episodes. And somehow this is the “best year” to miss as I am switching to the next age group, V3 or grand-master!, in less than a month, and will thus end up as one of the youngsters in the next race I run! As an indicator, in the 5km trail I ran last Sunday in the Parc, I ended 4th (by one position and 6 seconds!) in my category and 2nd (by three positions and 16 seconds, plus a month!) in the following one.

running after my plane

A bit of a hectic trip to Abidjan last Sunday, starting from Caen in the early morning where I was supporting my daughter, wife, mother, and mother-in-law for the annual Rochambelle women-only 5k race on the previous evening! With my daughter managing a fantastic 52nd position and ending up first of her category! As I was driven to the local train station to get back to my 63kg of Annals and my plane, the on-going 10k race kept preventing us from reaching it and I eventually decided 8 minutes before the deadline to leave the car and race to the station, actually running along the 10k racers for one kilometer and managing to enter the train just before it was leaving (too bad I could not finish the race, this start would have made for a great time despite my current injury!). And then when I eventually reached the CDG airport with my 63kg, I was told my bags were not good enough to carry them and that I had to drop some years of these Annals in the bin! So very frustrating… At least the remaining books reached their intended destination.The plane ride itself was uneventful and above a constant cover of clouds. While catching up with some unread arXivals, I also watched a great 2018 Japanese movie, Shoplifters, which sounded more like a modern tale than a realistic story, so outlying its characters were. With unexpected revelations towards the end and overall a moving and very subtle reflection on what ultimately makes a family. (Reading reviews on the movie later made me realise one scene had been censored for plane audiences…)

La Rochambelle, 15000⁺ women in pink! [38:53, 118th & 8th V2…]

As essentially every year in the past decade, I have run the 10K in Caen for Courants de la Liberté, with 5000⁺ runners, on once again a new route, still completely intra muros in the city of Caen, and mostly flat, with highlights Guillaume’s medieval castle and Men Abbey,  the gothic St. Pierre church,  and a few other churches. It went reasonably well if not great (although I ran the first 5K’s in 19:02) as I ended up at a mediocre position (8th) in my category, which is not surprising with some runners now 9 years younger than I! (The runner next to me is the first V3.) Weather was much better than last year, if still too hot. I however primarily want to congratulate my mom and my mother in-law for walking the 6⁻ km Rochambelle the previous evening  in great cheer despite the rain and the crowd. I could not spot them on the picture above…

 

La Rochambelle, 25000⁺ coureuses! [39:29, 24⁰, 164th & 7th V2…]

As almost every year in the last decade, I have run the 10K in Caen for Courants de la Liberté, with 5000⁺ runners, on a new route completely in the city of Caen, partly downhill..! It did not go well (although I started in 3:44 on the first three k’s) as I ended up at a poor position (8th) in my category, which is not surprising with some runners now 8 years younger than I! (The runner next to me is the second V3.) And a fairly hot weather, especially for a Norman early morning…. Several runners fainted on the race or upon arrival and the faces of most runners showed the strain. But I first and primarily want to congratulate my mom for walking the 6⁻ km the previous evening despite serious health issues in the previous months, as well as my mother in-law who walked with her.

Argentan half-marathon 2016 [1:23:28-23/380-V2 2/74-16⁰]

And yet another Argentan half-marathon! Which started this blog, so to speak, 8 years ago… Although I could not repeat my feat at the San Francisco half-marathon, as I had lost my high altitude benefits, I managed well enough, with a good overall time of 1:23:28 and a second place in the V2 category, once again. I gained more than one minute from last year time, despite a strong face wind and thanks to sticking to a small group of younger runners. This is one of my best times since the start of the blog in 2008, so I am clearly very happy with the result. And plan to celebrate tonight with a top Montpellier wine!