Need to know your enemy

Organisation better than in Dublin, similar amount of participants (even though it was only the 7th marathon in Nice. Nice course. Almost whole route is on the sea front. Even though route goes from Nice to Cannes supporters can go on the train and cheer because stations are just right next to the route… All positives but there is just one thing which I haven’t considered – the route. Inclines. Knowing that we will run at the waterfront I have set my mind on the flat run (according to elevation image on the web site it should be flat with just one hump of 30 metres on the whole marathon stretch. But whoever done that incline image had to be fond of the Irish ‘ish’ – from km number 23 to 28 there was a constant incline (Antibes and Cap). You would think that at some stage you will need to go down. Nothing like that. Small decline and again up (seems that sea level is higher there than in Nice). After 28 km route was flatish. Some ups some down, some flats. And again at the 36 km you had to brace yourself for another 2 km incline. Not so steep but at the end of the run it makes big difference. Route was this time my enemy, which I have ignored. Need to remember, assuming something doesn’t mean knowing. Mea culpa…

My ignorance was one thing but weather was another. Yesterday was a gorgeous day. Sunny, small breeze from the sea. Irish man would say that it was a grand summer day. But that was yesterday. Today was no sun, cloudy, temperature just right but wind in the face for 2/3 of the run and rain. Irish man would say typical day in Ireland. Anyway, weather was much worst than during Dublin City Marathon.
At this stage I don’t know my official time but my watch showed 3:13:22 exactly same as time in Charlville. I have strange feeling that it will be officially 5 seconds worse. Was aiming for new PB here but haven’t got myself familiar with route before the race, weather wasn’t great and made a rookie mistake.  It all adds up to no new PB result. Now on the bus on the way back to Nice thinking about tactic I should have used during the run – equal splits, not run as mad man when you can. You need to have plan. Mine was called – ‘none’. I started like a silly runner. First 23 km in pace about 4:20 minutes/km. With the first incline my pace got worse – about 4:30. That was decreasing unfortunately and ended up over 5:15. My only concern was to get to the finish line before 3:15 hours. Those are the thoughts about marathon when sitting in the bus returning to rainy Nice.

After taking a shower we went for the lunch/dinner. But beforehand I got my official time – 3:13:20 (position 505 from over 6800 runners), which means that I have new PB! Beat the Old one by whole 2 seconds. That’s a good one. That’s for the result. Now back to marathon atmosphere during run. I was writing in the post ‘madITrunner on tour’ that on the expo everybody was so open and friendly, but it was very different on the marathon day. Runners talked just to each other when they were running together (same club or friends). There was no chit-chat with strangers. I spoke for about 10 minutes with runner from the UK and that was it. When running in Ireland I remember that there were plenty people you can talk to during your run. What is most important, they want to talk to you. Huge difference between Irish and French runners. There is one more thing which annoyed me much – supporters. They were very quiet (not my Wife) and didn’t interact with the runners. No high-five with anybody and they completely ignored my ‘make some noise’ gesture. That wouldn’t be the case in Ireland. That’s for sure.

Wifey told me about one organization hiccup which was a huge queue for buying train tickets. As a result that she missed me on the 15 km mark. Everything was ok for the second meeting which was scheduled on the 31 km mark. At that stage I was so tired, wearing dark sunglasses which were wet from the rain that I almost missed My Wife. Next time we need to use a flag or something to make it easy for me to see Wifey from far away.

Really nice marathon. Not necessarily pleasant run because I was not entirely prepared but would like to do it again.  Not next year (have a few marathons planned for outside of Ireland to consider) but some day… Will get a better time.

Pictures as usual below. Don’t forget about videos on YouTube:
– Runners are preparing for Alpes-Maritimes Marathon 2014-11-09,
– Just before start to Alpes-Maritimes Marathon 2014-11-09,
– Runners seen from train – Alpes-Maritimes Marathon 2014-11-09.

P.S. I was running with my knee strapped in Rock Tape for the first time and must say knee was OK. No pain at all. At least till tape hasn’t been sticky anymore and had to get rid of it. Pain started again. But at least was not as bad as in Charlville. First marathon in ASICS and special laces. Everything was great. Can’t complain.

P.S.S. Forgot to mention one thing,  when I was still waiting with the rest of runners for the marathon to start I was approached by a guy from theregional TV. Haven’t asked many questions, just one actually – ‘Where are you from?’ but that could mean one thing. I could be on TV (probably local channel and just for 5 seconds but always) or just took part in the promo for the Alpes-Maritimes Marathon.