Back from Argentan
Wow, this race was tough (or tougher than last year)! As posted before, I think the overall track is faster on objective grounds. But… the steep slope on the 7th k, just at the entrance of the forest, and the unceasing headwind on large parts of the track have changed those grounds to slow me down by a minute, compared with last year standards. I thus ended up 30th runner (11th veteran 1) in 1:22:32 (real time). I started a bit fast and lost my pace thanks to the wall on the 7th k (3:33 – 3:37 – 3:47 – 3:45 – 3:48 – 3:46 – 4:10! – 4:20!!), then recovered a lit bit due to the nice unrolling in the forest, always downhill (3:38 – 3:55), but the road outside the forest was buffered by a strong headwind that was hard to fight and lasted for most of the race (3:59 – 3:36 – 3:55 – 4:00). I could not find much protection from side hedges nor from fellow runners, even though I tried to stick to a group of two for a few k’s, only to be left by the faster about the 15th k and to pass the slower at the same time. The wind changed directions for a while (4:05 – 4:00 – 3:56 – 3:58), only to be replaced by a final steep if short slope (4:17!!!) and the two last k’s (4:00 – 4:19) were the usual ones, maybe easier than usual, and I managed to pass a runner just before the finish line.
In this race, I presumably paid for the early fast k’s, even though one never knows with this kind of uneven terrain. There were less runners than last year (706 versus 911) but the top runners were still there, with newcomers like the Moroccan winner Abdelkadder Lafsar, and three women in front of me, Elena Kozhevnikova in 1:20:30, Anita Guin in 1:21:30, and Gwenaelle Chardon in 1:22:11.
April 24, 2011 at 12:13 am
[…] problems in the meanwhile, my hope is to run the half-marathon in less than 1:24 as this is a hard race with up-hill segments and most often a terrible wind (and that I am turning v2 this year). A big if […]
May 29, 2010 at 10:05 am
[…] La Robinsonnaise [5k] Tonight, as I am flying to Birmingham for the CRiSM workshop on Model uncertainty, I will miss my local 5k, La Robinsonnaise, for the first time in a long while. Last year saw the beginning of my sciatica symptoms, while the year before that led to two broken fingers due to a fall during the recovery run… Still, I will miss it as it would have been good practice for the 10k I am running on Thursday afternoon in Vincennes. So I went for a faster run this morning, running the 3k loop in the local park in 11:46 then the second one in 11:22, which is ok given the absence of split training this year. (From what I remember, the best 3k in the 3k-1k-3k split should be around 11:05…) Another disappointment I came upon a few days ago when running with my friends of Insee Paris Club is that I have to wait another year to join the V2 category, as the rules have changed… This obviously means less chances of ending in a good position for the half-marathon in Argentan! […]
October 4, 2009 at 10:50 am
[…] at the results of the first runners. This is more than frustrating as, even with my time from last year, I would have made it in the first ten V1’s (1:24;36) and before the first V2 […]
August 19, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Rachel, tu ne dois pas te moquer ; je propose de lui donner un excellent superbe et sublissime tee-shirt de La Mutuelle Générale
May 28, 2009 at 10:04 am
[…] right knee started to scream that enough was enough… (Those tendons have been sore since the Argentan half-marathon and the reason why I did not do better in Boulogne.) I still ended up the 300m in […]
November 16, 2008 at 5:01 pm
[…] of this post, I knew beforehand this was not going to be a top race. Since my half-marathon in Argentan, I have indeed recovered very slowly, with recurrent pain in the upper right tight, repeated bouts […]
October 10, 2008 at 10:21 am
both items, dude!
October 10, 2008 at 9:17 am
tougher race or older runner???
October 6, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Hihihih !!! Toujours avec ton t-shirt !