Marathon de Vannes
Hard rock hallelujah
(16.10.2011)


Summary

Finish time: 3:04:29
Ranking: 81 / 1853
Pace: 4:22 min/km
Weather: 9C (10:00), 13C (11:00), 15C (12:00), 17C (13:00), sunny (source)

Splits

km   time  (pace)
 2   7.54  (3.57)
 4   7.57  (3.59)
 8  16.33  (4.16)
12  16.41  (4.10)
14   8.29  (4.15)
16   8.42  (4.21)
18   8.28  (4.14)

21.1   1:28:00 (estimate)

22  17.20  (4.20)
24   8.36  (4.18)
26   8.46  (4.23)
28   8.46  (4.23)
30   8.50  (4.25)
32   9.27  (4.44)
34   9.22  (4.41)
36   9.38  (4.49)
38   9.14  (4.37)
40   9.34  (4.47)
42   9.25  (4.43)
42.2 0.47  (3.56)

Vannes - hard rock hallelujah

Vannes is nice small town (like Joensuu) located in North West of France. The marathon was more like coincidence as it co-matched my plan to visit to the Univ. South Bretagne. It turned out to be mid size local event with only few runners abroad. Incidently I was the runner furthest away and got VIP treatment including special number (1000) with my name (Pasi) on it, some memorial and gifts plus "Welcome Passi" (with the name misspelling) plagate along the course to cheer me up. Last year the furthest one was from Alaska but this year Finland was sufficiently enough to be the furthest. :-)

Most special was the race pack pick-up, for which I was informed to be there at expo in certain time exactly. Did not understand why but it turned out to be not just to get the bib number and chip but a live interview on stage at the expo while the blood-stunning Eurovision winner Hard Rock Hallelujah song played in background while entering the stage (only the smoke and fireworks were missing). I felt like rock star. :-) The interview was all French (which I understood virtually nothing) so it was more or less monologue where I was just present. Anyway, I got the number (1000), bottle of the excellent local cider and some gifts, so that was the most memorable marathon expo I have been so far.

There were also small story about me in the local newspaper, for which many people knew and reocnizwed me during the race (also before and after as well) giving extra cheering and recognition. I learnt various pronounciation of my name Pasi during the race including several Pascals. :-)

Race report

My sincere intention was to take it easy, enjoy the run, and even take few pictures while running. Well, deep inside I knew it will not work like that and it didn't. The start was downhill giving good speed-up for the race and I started fast 3:58 min/km for the first 4 km without much efforts. This gave me false confident that I could reach some good result today. But my body did not adopt to the speed and did not provide the relaxation signals expected at this stage, so I decided to slow down to find a more relaxed pace.

The photo taking, however, I did not compromize for the result seeking. Instead I kept two goals: to get good time but also enojy and have some photos for memories. Halfway I made it about 1:28 and feeling allright. I was still running around 4:20 min/km, which is fairly good but not quite enough to keep 3:00 hour target. Steady pace would require 4:17 but expected to slow down towards the end, the pace should be about 4:10 at this stage. After 28 km my pace dropped to 4:25 min/km and even further to 4:40-4:50 after 30 km. At this point, the 3 hours pace maker (I did not even know there was such) catched me with a group of runners but I knew I could not follow them.

Thereafter I lost inspiration for photo taking and started to save the saved battery of both the runner and the phone, and focus just for the running (crawling) towards the finish line. Yeah, maraton really starts after 30 km and it remains always quite a challenge no matter how many there are behind.

Eventually I dropped 4:30 mins behind the 3h pace group ending up to 3:04:29 - yet best of the season 2011 - so I am satisfied with the result. Based on my 40-42km time (4:43 min/km) which I was supposed to push, there was nothing much although it never prevents the "what-if" speculations. Biggest problem I had was cramping feelings in the muscles of the right leg. After the race I just tried to sit or lay down on a position that nothing would cramp, so the energy level and proper speed optimization were not the only problems in this race.

At latter stage there were motorcycle cameraman following me couple of times leaving me with the impression that some recognition awaiting in the finish line in case I made sub 3:00 but since I did not this is just my speculation. Anyway, have not experienced such special recognition from organizers and probably won't happen again. In fact, I'd better not run Vannes again so that this excellent memory of the Vannes marathon will remain forver. :-)

Pictures and results

More pictures
Results