Cross du Mont Blanc

The Cross turned out to be as hard as I thought it was going to be. Asked afterwards, "was it as hard as the Beaujolais Marathon" my initial response was yes. But in retrospect, maybe it is was not. The next day I had no exhaustion and stiffness that I experienced from the Marathon.

At the start it was announced that there where 1500 (2000 entrants) runners taking part, and that there was quite a tough maximum time allowed. There was only 1300 finishers. About 50 dropped out during the run (can tell from the splits) so not sure what happened to the other 150. - dropped out before the first split at 12k?

At about kilometer 15, I found myself absolutely alone, I could see nobody in front and could hear nothing from behind. Wow, what  great feeling that was. It was only for about 5 minutes, but it crossed my mind that with all those people running we must have been very well spread out.

This gives an idea what it was like at 15km

Some time later I indicated to a guy behind me that I would make room for him to pass, he replied he was not concerned about passing, he had been following me for 10km and found my pace perfect for him.... Unfortunately  this was just before the last 1km, by the time I had turned round to see who it was he had merged with the end crowd. And believe me it was a crowd at the finish. The last 1km took me about 15 minutes!

Looking back at the Marathon video, I am heartened to see even the winners had to walk some of the course. That makes me feel better as I did walk quite a large part. HOWEVER unlike in the Francheville run a few weeks earlier, I did not have to walk down hill!

Certainly this was the most beautiful backdrop to a run that I have ever done. The organization must have been a nightmare and they managed to pull it off well (They had not run out of anything including beer at the end)

And even though the French had just had a terrible time in the World Cup football I had several people wishing England well for the next day (against Germany, which we lost 4:1)

I was 308th from 1301 finishers, 85th VH1 from 312

1:13 at the half way, 3:12 by the end.... The second half was harder!