1 hour, 51 minutes of pain

Last time I braved the Nice semi-marathon was about 8 years ago, when I managed to complete the ordeal with a respectable time of 1:59 (what bugged me at the time was the fact that the official time was 2:01). I haven't dared to give it a go since, but this year, I decide to give it another go. I was quite hopeful about beating my time from 8 years ago, since I've been training quite hard for the past year or so.

Things started off rather badly, when I realized on Saturday evening that the only people allowed to get their bibs on race day are the ones travelling from outside the Department. But, I decided try my luck and show up in the morning before the race anyway, hoping they would make an exception. Turns out it wasn't a problem at all - loads of people picked up their bibs just before the race. So no excuse not to participate then ;-).

Conditions were pretty good for the race, meaning it wasn't too hot (the sun was hiding behind a rather dense cloud cover). I started off at a pretty good pace, heading towards a time of something like 1:45. I managed to maintain the pace for about 8km down in the port of Nice, which is when I hit the first wall, I started to feel the lactic acids, so I slowed down a bit. Thankfully, I managed to keep things under control, and maintain a pretty decent pace.

By the we arrived at the Promenade des Anglais, around the 10km mark (which is when the more reasonable people ended the race, whereas some of us fools continued towards the 21km mark), I was still on pace for a sub-1:50 finish, which was about the best I figured I could do. Then, around the 12km mark, running down the Promenade, things started to get tough, fatigue was hitting me pretty badly. And in addition, the sun decided to come out from behind the clouds (something I'm normally very happy about, but this time around, I'd rather have preferred it stayed behind the clouds).

Things got progressively tougher, but somehow I managed to maintain my pace. Around the 18km mark, I got a big boost as Mathilde arrived on her bike! That boost, I'd like to think, is what allowed me to make it to the finish line! And how about the time? 1:51 - something I'm more than happy about! Definitely about as good a time as I was going to get in my current condition, and a big positive surprise to me, given the difficulties that started at the 8km mark already.

Marathon next, then ? I don't think so... This was hard enough, can't imagine doing twice the distance! But never say never...