Happy Armistice Day!
My Armistice Day celebration consisted of a cross country race in Arnay-Le-Duc, near Dijon in the Bourgogne region. I woke up at 8:00 before my alarm rang and had breakfast with Meredith, who was rushing off to catch a train to Paris for the weekend. I met the other runners at the Hippodrome and at 9:30 we were off on a dizzying 3 hour ride to Arnay-le-Duc.
I wish I could spout off some facts about the town, or at least tell about the interesting buildings, but all I can really tell you is that they have hosted this 'cross' for 38 years and it is ridiculously cold there. I wore literally all of the running clothes I have with me in France (except a couple pairs of shorts) and I was still chilled.
There were several races before the seniors femmes including some really cute tiny kids who ran about a kilometer. I watched the cadet(te)s from Montlucon Athletisme; we had one girl and one boy who each finished in the top ten.
While I was waiting to warm up I learned all sorts of useful new vocabulary like points (spikes), dossard (race bib), and parcours (race course). I also learned the French term for safety pin, but only temporarily. More interestingly, I found out that this race offered prize money to the top ten so there were a lot of fast people there, especially a Russian woman who a lot of people were talking about.
I warmed up with Cecile and Stephanie and gradually started peeling off layers of clothing. We did about a million drills and then lined up at the depart. The actual starting line had a string held taut about 3 feet above it and -- after playing some techo dance music I'm sure I've danced to in a discotheque -- they fired the starter's pistol and dropped the string.
The women sprinted out of the start and I was left in the back half of the field, not a good thing since they course veered right after 100m and then took another hard right turn about 50m after that...onto loose sand! We were only on the sand for about 200m before looping around the starting area and setting off on a loop around the lake. At one point we crossed a long bridge before heading up a short steep hill. I could see the women running in front of me, and I was just outside of the top 20 at that point, so I decided my goal would be to finish better than 20th.
After the sharp uphill there was a well-placed downhill and then some gentle ups and downs. I could see Stephanie running inside the top ten and Cecile a few places ahead of me. Sometime after hurdling two logs (!) and before touring the starting area to our second loop around the lake, I found myself running in 18th place and moving up. Of course I readjusted my goal and set my sights on the woman running in 15th.
I didn't feel as energetic the second time around the lake loop, but I tried to keep a steady pace as I passed a couple women and moved into 17th, 16th, 15th and then 14th place. We came upon the logs again, cruelly placed with the first around 600m left, and the second placed where we had just 400m left in the race. I tried to stay strong as I toured the starting loop, not knowing how close my competition was, speeding up for the last 100m and finishing in 14th, three places behind Cecile, and four places (twenty seconds) out of the money. Stephanie finished 6th and won 90 euros. The Russian woman won in 19:02 and took home 400 euros.
I was pleasantly surprised, especially when I saw that I had finished in 22:17 for the 5.45k, which means that I ran about 20:27 for 5k. This is only nine seconds slower than my fastest cross country 5k, and I haven't exactly been focusing on running recently. I think I also surprised Christian (my coach) with my performance. We do a lot of speed workouts at practice and Cecile thoroughly kicks my butt, but over a cross country race, I can rely more on my endurance.
After a short cool-down -- where we decided that we made for a really strong three-woman team! -- we bundled back up, sought Stephanie's check, and piled back into the minibuses for the ride back home, Montlucon.
P.S. Did I mention how cool my roomie is? Not only has he put up with my obsessing about the race, but he sends me encouragement and congratulations messages. Plus, he thinks it's funny when I polish off a pound of chocolate in just two days.
P.P.S. I am not saying this just because he now has this web address.
I wish I could spout off some facts about the town, or at least tell about the interesting buildings, but all I can really tell you is that they have hosted this 'cross' for 38 years and it is ridiculously cold there. I wore literally all of the running clothes I have with me in France (except a couple pairs of shorts) and I was still chilled.
There were several races before the seniors femmes including some really cute tiny kids who ran about a kilometer. I watched the cadet(te)s from Montlucon Athletisme; we had one girl and one boy who each finished in the top ten.
While I was waiting to warm up I learned all sorts of useful new vocabulary like points (spikes), dossard (race bib), and parcours (race course). I also learned the French term for safety pin, but only temporarily. More interestingly, I found out that this race offered prize money to the top ten so there were a lot of fast people there, especially a Russian woman who a lot of people were talking about.
I warmed up with Cecile and Stephanie and gradually started peeling off layers of clothing. We did about a million drills and then lined up at the depart. The actual starting line had a string held taut about 3 feet above it and -- after playing some techo dance music I'm sure I've danced to in a discotheque -- they fired the starter's pistol and dropped the string.
The women sprinted out of the start and I was left in the back half of the field, not a good thing since they course veered right after 100m and then took another hard right turn about 50m after that...onto loose sand! We were only on the sand for about 200m before looping around the starting area and setting off on a loop around the lake. At one point we crossed a long bridge before heading up a short steep hill. I could see the women running in front of me, and I was just outside of the top 20 at that point, so I decided my goal would be to finish better than 20th.
After the sharp uphill there was a well-placed downhill and then some gentle ups and downs. I could see Stephanie running inside the top ten and Cecile a few places ahead of me. Sometime after hurdling two logs (!) and before touring the starting area to our second loop around the lake, I found myself running in 18th place and moving up. Of course I readjusted my goal and set my sights on the woman running in 15th.
I didn't feel as energetic the second time around the lake loop, but I tried to keep a steady pace as I passed a couple women and moved into 17th, 16th, 15th and then 14th place. We came upon the logs again, cruelly placed with the first around 600m left, and the second placed where we had just 400m left in the race. I tried to stay strong as I toured the starting loop, not knowing how close my competition was, speeding up for the last 100m and finishing in 14th, three places behind Cecile, and four places (twenty seconds) out of the money. Stephanie finished 6th and won 90 euros. The Russian woman won in 19:02 and took home 400 euros.
I was pleasantly surprised, especially when I saw that I had finished in 22:17 for the 5.45k, which means that I ran about 20:27 for 5k. This is only nine seconds slower than my fastest cross country 5k, and I haven't exactly been focusing on running recently. I think I also surprised Christian (my coach) with my performance. We do a lot of speed workouts at practice and Cecile thoroughly kicks my butt, but over a cross country race, I can rely more on my endurance.
After a short cool-down -- where we decided that we made for a really strong three-woman team! -- we bundled back up, sought Stephanie's check, and piled back into the minibuses for the ride back home, Montlucon.
P.S. Did I mention how cool my roomie is? Not only has he put up with my obsessing about the race, but he sends me encouragement and congratulations messages. Plus, he thinks it's funny when I polish off a pound of chocolate in just two days.
P.P.S. I am not saying this just because he now has this web address.
3 Comments:
At 12:12 AM, Anonymous said…
Congratulations! Great race!
At 3:53 AM, Anonymous said…
I am so happy for you. You did great! It sounds like you are off to a good start for the team. I love you tons and tons!!!
At 12:09 PM, Sandra Moon said…
Always running! That's great :)
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