Having not trained much since London and having had a bit of an issue with my big toe tendon on the right foot I was not expecting much tonight.
However, things went rather well. Richard was waiting for me at the train station in Rolle ahead of time. We left on time and in spite of the dire warning on traffic we were through Lausanne and up to Chavornay in less than 25 minutes, where we had 50. Top parking spot and we even managed to purchase our meal vouchers before the race collect our gift (a nice drinks belt) and go for a rekkie along the last and first few km. 3 mins to go we rock up to the start line, shuffle through the super elite and settle about 5 from the back.
At 2 mins to go Garmin is still looking for satellites so I risk a reboot and it works with 20 seconds to spare. Barely time to press the start button and I'm over the line. Richard is off like a rocket, acceleration and agility displayed to the full as he drives hard pulling away from me as he goes through the crowd, while I can't get through. I relax and think it's fine I'll catch him soon enough. Then the niggle in my right foot releases and it goes away completely.
The first km is fine and fast. Soon enough the field disperses a little and I see Richard just ahead. Catch him and ease past with some words of encouragement. First km is 3:45, fine as race plan is to muller through the 1st three and see what happens on the hill. Two was fine too and then at 3 you could feel the anticipation spread through the runners as most of us knew that in a very short time the vast majority of us would be walking. As soon as the hill became steep I walked. It seemed to go on forever. Took a few more steps than most walking to make sure and finally started running again. By now my head was swimming and I numbers in French and English failing to make any sense at all. I could not produce a four times table and tried adding up but got lost so gave up on that an focus on getting back to 4 minute kms. Another mile beeped by and I tried (and failed) to calculate the distance left in miles. The hill had won. I'd lost 4 minutes walking and was stuffed.
Then I noticed the girl in front pulling away and decided to close in on the guy in front of me. He responded and closed the gap on the girl, which again pulled me closer to red line. 165 on the hrt and I decided not to look at that any more. The girl kick 1km before I planned to, ie at the top and not on the final down. I went with her and held my place. One challenge was seen of and Garmin confirmed the 6min mile pace was achieved and there was no hope of me getting anywhere near last year's time.
At around km 7 I miss-calculated the distance to the finish and had rather optimistically forgotten about the last field to go around. Anyway, I was going pretty much as fast as I could so no change - just keep going. Dug deep and tried to enjoy myself. Big finish to the line and caught the one guy just in front of me 50m out with enough in the tank to accelerate beyond him to the line.
As I handed my dossard to the dossard collecting lady, she said - hey they need you over at the control tent. Oh no I thought, what trouble have I gotten myself into now. I was told to take my dossard with me which I did and on presentation of this dossard I discovered I had won the lucky dip and was presented with a prize! Guess what, I won free entry to all five etapes for this year's main TPV. Worth 100 fancs, result!
Top meal spent with Richard and Jason. Thanks guys! Meal and shower tactics worked a treat. I was 12 in my age group and 51 over all - but the field was much reduced. 39mins is a full 3mins behind the performance last year so some speed work with Pierro and Tenke beckons over the summer to get ready for my 5 etapes.
If Tenke has been there she would have won by miles, fastest lady was 39mins! The one in front of me was third.
Results
Garmin
Last year
Last year's scores on the doors
Max overblog - each step photographed - awesome blogging
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