On May 1st, the day finally arrived. After training a lot, but with no idea whether or not it would be enough, we headed to Nîmes for their 20th annual half marathon. We took an early train, and arrived a few hours before the race actually started, to make sure we could get through check-in and get warmed up in time.
At first we thought there weren't a lot of people, but it turned out we were just there extra early, as people started filing in slowly but surely. The biggest shock was when a couple hundred members of some French militia/army/regiment trotted in wearing tiny shorts and tank tops. We ended up running most of the race with two of them, and it turned out a lot of them were international and they were all required to run the race.
Anne went ahead of us right away, but Ali, Trisha and I stuck together for almost the whole time. The first few miles I had some stomach cramps, but at the first water stop I realized how much a small sugar cube can do. It gave me just the kick I needed and I hit my stride for the rest of the race. Apparently I trained better than I thought I had, because the race felt really good, and I came in right around my goal of under 2:10 at 2:06! It was a little bit surreal finishing a 13 mile race. I never really thought I could run that much, let alone enjoy doing it.
To top things off, we got awesome quick-dry shirts, bottles of wine and olive oil, soap and crackers. And of course lots of free bread and cheese and oranges at the end!
After beers and croque monsieurs at a little brasserie by the train station, we headed back to Montpellier for a lazy, relaxing afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment