Official Time – 50.23 Watch time – 50.05
Well, that was my first International race!
Other than a couple of minor hiccups the day went well and a good time had by all. After nearly missing the race due to delays at the Channel Tunnel it was just great to be out racing and making the most of the day.
Normally, I am a stickler for preparation, and I felt nowhere near prepared arriving with 45 minutes to go before the race started. Add to this, the race itself didn’t start until 4pm local time (give me a 10.30am race start any day) this was all in all a different experience, but one that I can’t wait to do again next year. In fact, having to rush my preparation actually meant the pre-race nerves were almost non-existent by the time I had reached the start line.
Hardelot is a very nice coastal town in the North of France about an hour South of Calais. It seemed like an affluent area of France from what I saw on the 10k route that largely stayed pancake flat apart from a small hike to higher ground at around 4 miles. It was a warm day and the streets were lined with a good number of vociferous spectators, although my grade E GCSE French meant that I didn’t have a clue what they were shouting.
Others who had taken part before in the race had warned me that the race wasn’t chip timed. Most organised races these days have some sort of method to accurately time each runner so I did find this kind of strange. However, when I collected my race number I was surprised and pleased to see a small chip included for my trainers.
Maybe this was new for 2016, but the point of chip timing is to get an accurate start and finish time to work out your overall time. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem as if the starting mat (the mat to read your start time) was in place. These mats are always a trip hazard at the beginning of races and there is always a bottle neck at the start of a race as we all look down to our feet to makes sure we walk over the mat and not trip over it. The same thing happened in Hardelot except no one could see it which meant runners looked longer at the floor in the hope that they may find a mat.
The race start was a little chaotic, the street where the start line was seemed relatively wide and it had ample space for 500 + runners to squeeze into, but some reason the start was infuriatingly slow. Whether racing culture in France is different, I’ve not run enough in the country to tell but in the UK, us runners kind of know our place. We seem to have a great perception as to where we belong in a holding pen. Whether it is years of our polite queuing etiquette or simply good judgement, I don’t know, but most of the time we get in the right order from fastest to slowest. This didn’t happen in France, it was a free for all. Slower runners mixed in at the front with the faster runners which meant that after half a mile or so I was still ducking and diving trying to find my natural position. It would have been interesting to see a graph of my pace over the first mile, I reckon it would have looked like an undulating mountain range.
Once I got into a rhythm the run was a joy, even though I could have done with the temperature being a few degrees cooler. Miles 1-3 went by well enough and I was on course for going sub 50 minutes for the first time this year. Mile 4 saw me fade somewhat though, with the heat and the slight increase in elevation, but I soon bounced back in mile 5 putting in a decent mile again, before running my 2nd quickest mile at 6 with a sprint finish to round the run off.
I did feel frustrated at the end knowing that the 4th mile ruined any chances of going sub 50, other than that mile I had run consistently throughout.
After the race, I found out that I was far better at drinking than running so finished a great day sinking some drinks with the rest of the A&D lads and lasses. I had plenty of spare change from the entry fee which was an incredible 5 Euros, the cheapest race I’ve ever entered. Not only did I get to run a wonderful course I also came away with a nice souvenir hoodie all for less than a pint.