Dead Runners society race report
5éme Rondes des Vendanges 10km, St. Privat des Vieux -
Dimanche le 19éme septembre 1999.
Later in the summer Shelley came out to France for a couple of months,
we used the warm weather to get in some fast training hoping for a fast 10km
race. Our first race in France together wasn't like that though!
Salut toute le monde.
Tony et Shelley ici a Montpellier. This morning we headed north for 80km or so from Montpellier to the little town of St. Privat des Vieux near Ales for a 10km race called Rondes des Vendanges. We thought we left for the race in plenty of time but there were some twisty roads to drive along through some pretty French villages and when we got to Ales there was torrential rain and we could hardly see anything. After a few wrong turns we finally made it to the race at 10.20, 10 mins before the race was due to start :-( We managed to get our race numbers in time and fortunately the race was delayed by a few minutes as the rain was so bad. Our warmup was rather abbreviated to say the least. We all lined up and someone said go and we were off into the rain.
Tony's race. Off we went, some twisty hilly roads in the town to negotiate before we got out into the countryside. Didn't try to run too hard at first but soon got past some slow runners. The rain gradually eased off as the race progressed although it never stopped, moving reasonably well after a mile although I had to take it easy on the downhills as it was so slippery underfoot. After about 10 minutes we were directed off-road to go up a steep rocky path complete with tree roots, needless to say this was rather tricky footing in the rain. I tried to run up it and soon slipped up, the runners behind helped me to get up, got up the rough path best I could to a rather rocky but runnable path and then got back going again. Soon back on the road and up a long hill, hard work but I passed a few runners. Another flat but rocky bit of off-road and then downhill back into town. Twisty loop round the town, past the turn off for the finish in 24.01 and round for another lap. Slogged away moving at a reasonable pace up the hills, still taking the steep descents carefully, going at about 90% effort rather than flat out most of the time. Didn't try to run up the steep path this time but passed 2 more runners at the top. Rather tired by now but I could see another runner ahead. Pushed on hard up the long hill and made up a bit of ground. Through the second bit off-road and then tried to pick up the pace for the finish. I was catching the runner ahead but I could hear a runner behind catching up. I had a lot left at the end and was able to hold off the runner behind although I didn't catch the runner ahead. In the finish funnel I found out I had just beaten 2 ladies who had been racing each other for 2nd and 3rd. Finished in 47.54 which is a pw for a 10km race when I haven't been pacing someone, the very multiterrain course and conditions were worth a good few minutes though, 28th out of 68 finishers. I got under some shelter and waited for Shelley to come in. After finishing the race I was fairly tired and disappointed to have driven all this way in the rain to find such a tough course when we could have run in a cross-country in Montpellier today. However, my opinion of our efforts changed later on that morning, I shall let Shelley mention that in her report. OK beautiful Shelley, you are on....
Shelley's race. Well, as you can tell from Tony's report, this was not exactly your standard flat fast 10k road race, so the times we did are totally meaningless. In fact I don't think there was a flat step in it, and for the most part I felt more like I was running in a cross country race with a few bits of road than in a road race. I suppose this was what one calls a multiterrain race. Anyway, fairly soon into the race I realized that this was not going to be a race to go for a fast time in. But I also suddenly noticed that there was not a woman in sight, so maybe it was a race to try to get a prize in. I even entertained delusions for a while that I might be first lady. I felt like I was having a pretty good run, but there were no distance markers, so I had very little idea of what pace I was doing. So I just tried to keep up a good pace the whole way around and stay with the various men that I was competing with. There were a couple of men that I raced with pretty much through the whole race often passing them going downhill and getting passed going uphill. There was one of them who liked to pass me going uphill for half of the hill and then walk the other half, so often he passed me at the beginning of the hill and then after he started walking I caught up again. Early on I was hoping that I might break 48 minutes, but 48 minutes came and I wasn't yet finished. Then I hoped to at least make 50, but that came and went too. In the end I finished with a time of 52:40, feeling kind of disappointed but also not entirely knowing how to interpret this. The problem with a race like this is that you can't judge yourself by the time, but since the race was so small it was difficult to gauge by place either. The first lady did 46:10, the first man did 34:06, with only 6 people breaking 40. I was 6th lady out of 11, but with such a small number of ladies, that is pretty meaningless too. But here's the really exciting news that made all the rain and hills worth it. I was first lady veteran! They were making quite a fuss about the prize winners and interviewing some of them, so I was feeling a little nervous about my bad French. But fortunately I got away with not saying more than "merci". They called all of us to the stage and we got trophies and sports bags for prizes and kisses from the prize presenters, and Tony had to watch this. But Tony didn't too badly at this race either, because they gave out spot prizes and he got a sports bag too, so in all we did pretty well for our 30 F (£3, $5) entry fees, we each got teeshirts and sports bags and got to run in a race, and I got a very strange trophy with runners who have lost their heads to decorate our Montpellier apartment with. And the scenery in the race was really nice too, it just would have been a lot nicer if the sun had been shining. And in spite of the fact that I noticed the scenery I must have run it pretty well, because my legs sure are tired right now. PS check out Shelley's photo album for some post-race presentation pictures.
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Shelley Walsh and Tony Bell
Montpellier, France
Shelley Walsh Shelley@shells.demon.co.uk
Tony Bell
Tony@shells.demon.co.uk bell@crit.univ-montp2.fr
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