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.