Painfull nipples again!

The Trail Des Passe-Montagnes was the long run this week. My aim was to get round and understand just what I have gotten into with the Cross. (I had no idea as to how hard that kind of length of run and height gain was)

Great weather, neither hot nor cold. The rain had cleared up, so the ground was soft but not muddy.

Well, now I know how hard it is to run that kind of course, and it is hard. Although I read just the other day that you should walk before you have too and so I had this in mind during the run and it paid off. I was not too exhausted at the end. I ran out of energy at about 18km, but then it was just a matter of pointing down hill.

The race. I lost 30 places in the last run down from the top of Mont Thou - If I am to believe what the kids where saying as I passed. Wow... And I did lose time against the guys I was swapping places with through the second half of the race. I have always been crap at the down hill, I just did not realize that I was that bad!

But never mind, my time was about what I wanted 2:43 for 24km with 1200m gain. The Cross has virtually no downhill, so that may help (well, maybe not, that just makes it even harder)

The course was described as "Technical" and in a few places it was. But mostly it was simply hard up and (for me at least) hard and long down. But I suppose that is why Karl did not enter - far to hard, must have gotten scared.