Dead Runners society race report
3éme Marathon International de Monaco -
Dimanche le 21éme novembre 1999.
My big race before I left France
involved "leaving the country" to run the Monaco marathon just for the
experience of visiting the place. Problems with my old leg injury hindered my
marathon training so I just went for a "training run" race.
For the last couple of years in late November I have watched the Monaco marathon on "eurosport", a reasonable second division autumn marathon, not in the league of Berlin or New York but with some decent runners taking part. This year I find myself working in the south of France so, just for the experience, I decided to run the Monaco marathon before my return home next month. Monaco is the second smallest country in the world with an area of about 1 square mile in a narrow strip of land between the mountains and the Mediterranean sea. They fit such a long race as a marathon into such a tiny place by having most of the race outside the country. Monaco is a tiny enclave in France but it is also quite close to the Italian border so by an accident of geography it is possible to have a marathon course which passes through three countries, Monaco, France and Italy. The plan when I entered the marathon in september was to have a decent run of about 3h25-3h30 but my leg injury from last year flared up again in October and I wasn't able to get in the long runs I needed for a good marathon. I decided to do the race just as a long training run to see a different part of the world and as preparation for my upcoming 50km in California. So on saturday I "left the country" by travelling by French railways to Monaco arriving in the early evening. I picked up my race number, timer chip, race t-shirt and headband (:-)) at the expo, went to the pasta party for some food and had an early night. Sunday morning, race day. 1st problem, no-one came to serve breakfast in the hotel, off to the race hungry :-( Oh well it's only going to be training run, I always do my long runs on sunday morning before breakfast, this was going to be a longer run than usual. Down to the Monaco national stadium to leave my rucksack at the finish then off on a 5 minute bus ride "halfway across the country" to the start area. I had an hour to kill before the start, I met an american gentleman wearing a very impressive 2 x 50 states singlet, he was over in Europe to run some more marathons, today Monaco and next sunday Lisbon. Then it was time to line up in the "peleton" start area for runners planning to run over 3 hours, I was feeling a bit cold and nervous just before the start, with a couple of minutes to go I threw away the old t-shirt I was using to keep warm and then it started to rain! (but not for long). We had a minutes silence just before the start for Primo Nebiolo then Prince Albert of Monaco appeared on the balcony of IAAF HQ with new IAAF president Lamine Diack to send us on our way at 9.30am. Fairly crowded at the start, there were about 1900 entrants, over the start line in 16s and I was running straight away, glad to get running at last. A fairly cold and cloudy day but I was comfortable running in singlet and shorts (and headband of course) but lots of runners were IMHO very overdressed in long sleeved shirts, hats, gloves, tights etc. Mind you, even though runners came from over 30 countries to run the race most of them were locals who probably found the conditions to be rather cold. For me who is used to racing in the winter in northern england it wasn't too bad. The first 5km or so were gradually downhill on the twisty streets of Monaco to the sea, felt quite easy and as pack gradually thinned out I was going along at 5 minutes per km, the pace for my target time of 3h30. 5km in 25.40, after criss-crossing the France-Monaco border in the last couple of km we crossed into France again, we wouldn't get back to Monaco for another 32km. Into the French town of Roquebrune, and started to climb, gradually uphill to just before 10km (50.09, last 5km 24.39) then fairly steep downhill to the nice flat seafront at Menton by 12km, felt quite easy but I knew there was a long way to go. Running along the seafront into the wind now, I was gradually closing on the pack around the "official marathon pacer" for 3h30 so I decided to tag along when I caught them and eased off to run with the pack. 15km (1h14.41, 24.31), running in a big pack made it crowded at the drinks station and I missed a drink at 15km. Ran along with the bunch feeling good, over the border into Italy at 19km, I was having to hold back not to get ahead of the pack by now. 20km (1h39.40, 24.59) and another drinks station, it took a long time to get my drink here and by the time I got going again the pack had got ahead. Felt a bit tired by now, I didn't set off to chase the pack immediately, I decided to wait to see if they would come back. At this part of the course, in the Italian town of Ventimiglia, the mountains come right down to the sea so the course went through a couple of tunnels. Halfway reached in 1h45.11, right on schedule. The turnaround was around 22km so back along the road and through the tunnels again towards France. Crossed the border at 25km (2h04.22, 24.42) and my left leg started to cramp up on a gentle downhill. Oh no, not again, I had problems like this on some of my long training runs in October and November :-( pushed on the best I could but it was pretty uncomfortable, I had visions of me having to drop out, I eased off and reminded myself it was only a training run. Slowed a bit running along the seafront at Menton, runners were starting to come past and the 3h30 pack started to move out of sight. Fortunately on the flat my leg eased off a bit although at 28km when I saw the "broom wagon" at the back of the race on the other side of the road the thought of a ride back crossed my mind. Nice and easy now, after over 2 hours of running I was feeling tired and I knew there was a long uphill coming soon after the 30km mark (2h30.24, 26.02). At 30km we re-entered Roquebrune and started climbing the "Heartbreak Hill" of this race at 31km. Climbing up to just before 33km and this was great fun, just slogged away up the hill and passed loads of runners who were walking or stopped by the side of the road stretching, once I got to the top I knew I would finish. Felt OK up to 35km (3h00.15, 29.51) but then we headed back downhill towards Monaco, 2km of steep twisty descending which felt pretty uncomfortable for my left leg. Glad to get back into Monaco and along the seafront again just after 37km. Jogged in from here, feeling pretty tired, the lack of recent long runs was showing. I had three tunnels to get through before the finish line, the first was the one you see every year on TV in the Monaco Grand Prix, the thought of cars racing along here at 150 miles an hour seemed rather strange compared to the speed at which I was racing. I was only passing walkers by now, I was playing leapfrog with a man in a Polti cycling cap who would run a bit and walk a bit. By 40km (3h31.05, 30.50) I reached the "beam me up Scotty, I have had enough" point that occurs in most marathons. Into another tunnel and I knew after this one I would be almost at the stadium. Slogged away and there was the very impressive "Stade Louis II", venue of the Monaco GP athletics meeting. The track is on the upper level of the stadium above the car park and sports hall, into the last tunnel and uphill to the track at last. Jogged a lap of the track to the finish, didn't try and run in harder and crossed the line in exactly 3h45.00. "That's number 18" I said after they gave me my finishers medal, very tired on finishing but I felt a lot better than my last marathon in Sheffield, in Sheffield I wanted Scotty to beam me up at 25km. 73s faster than Sheffield but over 35 minutes slower than my 15th and 16th marathons in Berlin and Boston. They removed the timer chip from my shoe and gave me my rucksack back. I joined the stiff legged queue of runners to the post race "goomies" area under the main stand for some welcome food and drink. I chatted in my dreadful French to a runner from Grenoble, a city I have visited several times to do experiments at the international "Big Science" lab there. Then I joined another queue for a massage, it was a bit uncomfortable standing in line for 15 minutes or so but the massage was well worth the wait (ouch!). Finally a nice hot shower and some clean clothes before I emerged into the world again. I joined a couple from Chicago in walking down the stairs backwards on the endless descent out of the stadium. I hung around for the presentation in the stadium sports hall, race won by Kenneth Cheruiyot of Kenya in a new course record of 2h11.26, very impressive run on such a tough course. Ladies race was won by Alla Zhilyayeva of Russia in 2h34.47. Back to the railway station after the presentation, I chatted with the second placed lady veteran en route, more chance for me to mangle a few French words. Back into France on the train to Nice where I had half an hour to wait before my train to Montpellier. Well that's what I thought but after I phoned Shelley I found out my train was cancelled :-( There were no trains running to SW France at all that evening! There had been some really bad storms around the Pyrenees the weekend before and all the rain and flooding had damaged the railway line, they must have had some more repairs to make this weekend so instead of 30 minutes in Nice I had 11 hours to wait before I got the train back to Montpellier at 5.30 the next morning :-( Eventually got back mid-morning and as soon as I got back home I went out for a run, for some reason it wasn't very fast but I managed about 20 minutes of stiff legged jogging. Provided my legs recover I still intend to run the 50km in Sacramento on New Year's Eve/Day but that is enough marathons for a while. I know there are lots of you out there in dead land who would be thrilled with a 3h45 marathon but I don't want to run another marathon until I can prepare properly, I want to qualify for Boston again some time in the near future so I have got to try and get myself fit again.
bye tony.....
Dr Tony Bell, LAMMI, Université
Montpellier II,
Place Eugène
Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France.
email bell@crit.univ-montp2.fr,
phone (33)
4 67 14 33 30, fax (33) 4 67 14 33 04
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