This weekend was the first race in the region after Christmas (The first one for about a month) and things went wrong for me way before I turned up.

Last week I was working my  tits off. Friday I did not finish until after 3am and as the kids have snotty noses and sore throats not surprisingly I started to follow suit given the fatigue of late nights and early mornings.

Saturday we needed to view a house in Bourg-en-Bresse with the intention of buying (Nice, has a swimming pool but slow internet connection) That caused wifey to be all chatty and excited, so yet again a late night before the race after discussing possibilities of  the house.

When the morning arrived, of course the alarm clock did not wake me. Shite, I forced some half cooked porridge and bolted down some coffee  and ran out the door. Only to find horror of horrors the night had left about 2 cm of ice on the windscreen. Even more late.

The drive was uneventful until leaving the Lyon agglomeration, then it became even more uneventful as there was 10 miles of no overtaking with some guy doing 30mph.  Frustration. But Ok, I managed to get to Saint-Martin-en-Haut with some time to spare (well 10 minutes spare)

Parking could have been a nightmare, but the French love creative parking, so I dabbled and my effort was rewarded. I was only a 5 minute jog from the start/inscription. But crap... I had left the E10 entrance fee on the table at home. I had no choice but to search for a cashpoint. My parking place was still mysteriously there when I returned, so I gratefully parked up and returned to the sports center.

"Sorry, no more places available, 500 maximum" said the guy as he shut the door to the sign up. I nearly went into a rant, but reconsidered quickly thinking well, I would just run unofficially. BUT this is France. It turned out inside the sports hall, the sign up was cordoned of just using a makeshift barrier.  As there where people still in there I ducked under the barrier and registered! Ha ha - The guy who told me that subscription was full even saw me and recognized me, but like I say this is France and they like creative thinking.

The race itself was tough, with 560m height gain, but a beautiful clear sunny day with lots of mud underfoot. It was fun, and would have been more so had I not been feeling baggage. The feeding station helped a bit with some Pate a fruit, some water and a bit of a rest. Time wise, I came in 1:28:53 a bit slow, but would have got me in the top 8 or 9 V1 last year, this year who knows what happened, I was down in 27th V1 (78th overall)