After a long break (since 2018), I ran my “traditional” half-marathon in Argentan, Normandy. As the new organisation of the race had not contacted former participants and had changed their webpage, I only heard about it a week before the race and hence had not trained at all for the distance, plus had a fairly busy September with morning classes and the like, hence was not in such a great shape compared with the end of the Summer. As a result I did not do great, with my second worst time ever (the worst being my first half in 1995, with only two weeks of preparation) and not even a first place in my Master category. Despite the number of participants having dwindled from the earlier 600 runners. Which meant a very solitary race as well, with just one runner passing me in the last 12km. And only the Norman field edges to try to escape the headwind…
Archive for Grand Masters
semi d’Argentan [1:36:54, 29/180, M5M 2/14, 19⁰]
Posted in pictures, Running with tags Argentan, Argentan half-marathon, Grand Masters, half-marathon, lockdown, M5M, Normandie Course à Pied, Normandy, pandemic, running injury on October 9, 2022 by xi'anno bull: corrida de thiais [5km, 19:36, 44/432, 1/18 M4H]
Posted in Running with tags France, Grand Masters, Malakoff, Paris, race, Thiais on December 15, 2019 by xi'anArgentan half-marathon
Posted in Running with tags Argentan half-marathon, Grand Masters, half-marathon, Normandie fort et vert, Normandy, Parc de Sceaux, road races, road running, tendinitis, trail running on October 5, 2019 by xi'anToday 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.
X de Sceaux 2018 [20:25, 14/185, 2/21]
Posted in Kids, Running with tags Cross de Sceaux, Grand Masters, Parc de Sceaux, Sceaux, trail running, winter running on February 15, 2018 by xi'anWithout any preparation [apart from my daily jog], I signed for the 5k in my local park, two days before the race, the 43rd trail of Sceaux. As it had snowed a lot in the past week, the race was mostly on (in?) slush, if not overly slippery, the remaining part being enjoyably muddy! I did a fairly poor time but still managed to squeeze in between the first and the third runners in my V2 (Grand Masters) category. With a 4 seconds differential each time!