LYON HALF MARATHON

Goodness, I have been so tired!The week after the Auch triathlon and the 156 mountain ride I jogged once, did a tempo run that about cracked me and in the pouring rain no less a few easy rides, a swim and a round trip to Paris that really dug into my reserves though it was good fun. the week before Lyon I seriously couldnt fathom how I d have the energy to run 21kms....I slept, rode a bit, did one tempo run with athlé632 the club I train with but really had to kick my own butt to finish the distance. on wednsday I went back up to Paris for the start of a ten day trip that would take me to paris, Lyon, Berlin and Belgium. I stayed with my parents in Paris for three days, not nearly long enough and then took the high speed train to Lyon. The girls from the running club picked me up at the train station and between eh five of us and the gps we couldnt sort out where the race head quarters were to buy our numbers. All along I kept telling myself at best i could maybe run a 1h30 but 1h32 would probably be more realistic considering how I felt....BUT! The majic of the starting line, the adrenaline of being at a race start and the ambiance with the other girls in this club got me going....

The gun sounded and we were off! I noticed as we took off that there were pace balloons so I moved up to find the 1h30 balloons. This race was particular because there were 1000 runners in front of us racing for the french semi marathon title and then there was the open category. By the time I passed the starting line the balloons were two minutes up the road. I punched it for the first 3kms to catch the balloons and at km 4 I was with them. I had passed some of the club girls on my way through and they all looked good! Everyone seemed to be smiling. The pace was good we seemed to be averaging about 14kph. I was ok and even felt better, like I could maybe put out some more effort though I wanted to wait a bit to see how I felt later. We passed the 10km mark right at 41 minutes so I started to run like a bike race...making my way from small group to small group and drafting when I could. I was with a group of guys and two girls from Nice and we hit the 15kms in 1h02. I was still feeling good and opted to catch a girl or two in front of me. Not always easy once you catch them staying with them...on a bike it is a tad different. the last 3kms seemed to take forever, we were back in the parc tete d'or but the cool thing about this race is that you could always see the front of the group so you knew where you were heading. The last kilometer is always kind of hard because youre caught between the feeling of ouf im here and pushing harder to make the time...I hit the finish in 1h28'30! My best time by 2 minutes....and now the mad rush to shower, the airport and make it to Berlin for the European conference on Epilepsy