Argentan half-marathon [1:26:03, 22nd/329, 4th V2/63, 15⁰]

Despite failing to reach the podium this year in my V2 category, a predictable first as I get closer to move to the next category, V3, or “senior grandmaster”, and missing by a few seconds my 1:25 target, I was rather happy with this half-marathon, having run at my pace the whole race, with none of the low passages I had in previous races and instead feeling quite well in the last kilometers, where I left the first female runner. Weather was perfect, with no sun, no rain, and no wind in the second half. The three V2 runners in front of me were much faster (1:22, 1:24, and 1:25:21) than those of the previous years, an illustration of the law of small numbers found in these races…

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…

 

semi-marathon d’Argentan [1:27:27, 22/356, 2/65]

As a new anniversary of the beginning of this ‘og, here comes and goes my yearly half-marathon in Argentan, Normandy, which was the 33rd edition of the race and my 19th participation there…

“Ah, le fameux Robert de l’INSEE qui vient faire chier chaque année!”

This was not one of my best races, by far, and the [fake] news that this was going to be the last edition did not help. There were fewer runners than in the earlier races, meaning no protection on most of the route from what seemed like a constant headwind, as I ran by myself from the third kilometre. And I was tired from too much training (and not enough sleeping) the past week in Warwick. Or not enough training the previous week in Vienna. Anyway, this was not a great race and the local V2 [Grand Master] runner who greeted me with the above good-natured apostrophe when I passed him on the second km ended up one minute ahead of me. I could have even stopped at mid-race, were it not for a deficient watch operation, that kept me thinking I could keep with my earlier time [3:39 – 3:50 – 3:59 – 3:53 – 4:00 – 4:28 – 4:11 – 4:06 – 4:04 – 4:07 – 4:24 – 4:39 – 4:01 – 4:12 – 4:05 – 4:14 – 4:03 – 4:16 – 4:17 – 3:58 – 0:25] till the finish line when I found a 4mn difference with the official time! Despite the low participation of 356 runners, and with the support of runners from England, the town of Argentan has vowed to keep the race on for next years, calling for volunteers to man the route and the arrival hall. Till next time, then, hopefully!

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.

male masters

Yesterday, I received this wood plaque from the organisers of the San Francisco Marathon! Nice, as I had not expected them to deliver abroad. And with this surprising title of second place in the male masters. After checking on Google (and avoiding a long list of SM sites), it appears that this means the above 40 category, which I had never heard of before. (I would have preferred an above 50 category, obviously! Which appears to exist in some races as the Grand Master category, even better!) Looking further at some of the (running) links, it also appears that categories by weight have been introduced in some races… Not that I can expect to benefit from that further division!