La Sarraz had been carefully map my runed by Richard so the talk was of fast first km, the steady uphill work to the 4th km followed by the fast downhill to the finish. Then the bottom km which rises slightly and has a false finish before the real one.
We got properly warmed up with Tenke, who's warm up pace was pretty much the boy's race pace.
At the start I pushed a bit further forward, but it was not enough. I was boxed and the first km felt slow and was we narrowed for the first time I joined the ankle killers on the field edge to move through.
Lovely surprise as the kids and my wife had showed up and were cheering like made as I went past.
The first hill sorted some more and I clocked stompy a stocky guy powering up the hills in the oddest of steps. We traded places several times.
I was dropping more and more seconds and tried not to think about that. Snuck a few more places in the woods and held for the descent.
Came through the drinks station and went for the last cup which I rejected as it was full of some red stuff that was definitely not water. My disappointment was clear as I uttered something bad in french. Ten paces later the guy next to me offered me his cup of water. What a top bloke and thank you so much. That lifted me massively and we both hammered down the hill making more and more places. But not enough seconds. At 6km I knew I was too far behind last year's time to beat it.
Saw the family again which was a boost and focused for the finish.
Was gutted to turn the first tree corner for the third year in a row thinking it was the finish only to find there was another field to run past. I was having dark thoughts about never running again, but somehow dragged myself to the real last corner and cheekily skipped into the woods stealing two places before the single file kicked in. Steady through the patch of woods and then out for the big finish and three of us were racing for the finish. I stayed level with them and kicked just before the step up and overtook them both in mid air, neither of them had anything left and so James and Tenke got to see me nail two more for the finish.
The guy on the tanoy made a hash of announcing my name "Nee-ha-el mick en tree ehhhherrr, un des Tenke's Boyeeze - qui sont les premieres place pour les equipes mixtes" Yes. We won again. Well Tenke won and James and I did enough to keep us in first place.
Another victory for Tenke too. If I can talk Tenke into coming to St. Prex we're all set for me to get the first podium of my adult running career!
Stefan came in strong, James did well and Victoria forgot her lip gloss and late pass again. But she did bring a friend. Richard took ages in the shower, there is a lot of him to wash this year. All the better to hug him.
Patrick and I were on a bit of a downer, both being slower than previous years. I was 35:35 which was a minute away from last year and about 10 seconds away from 2010. Disappointing.
I think the lack of interval training is proving to be a performance reducing factor.
Garmin
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