The French Play to Win: Lessons from Today's 10k

Success! I've finally finished my first race in France with a PR of 1:15:04 (according to Mr. Garmin) with a distance of 6.5 miles exactly. Apparently it was a 10.5km race, not 10. Oops!

That said, it was a really weird experience. I had no problems getting registered (apparently the scan of my medical form emailed to me by my doctor stateside is 100% a-ok) and getting my tee-shirt etc. But, starting with the kids race and looking around, I noticed that absolutely everyone looked like a racer. Not a runner. A racer. As in wearing their specific club "uniforms" and such and just overall looking like very serious runners. I know I'm not a race veteran or anything, but at all of my US races these people obviously exist, but there's also a healthy mix of walkers, casual runners/joggers, and generally less "olympic" looking participants. So, starting early I began to get a little nervous... I mean, I didn't look like a complete outfit neophyte—I had my hydration belt, my garmin, and my underarmour—but looking around I was already getting a little uneasy. Thankfully, Sylvain and his wife were very positive (and even took this lovely photo of me pre-race... The set up was intended for the kids, but whatever):


And eventually the time came to get started. Their son, Pierre, placed 1st or 2nd in his age group's race before the adult race, so he left, but Sylvain and his wife (who's name I am SO embarrassed to think I never really learned....?) whole-heartedly adopted the role of official Nicky photographers and moved around the course and watched me pass by. That was new and fun because I always race with Jon or my friends so are either too busy recovering themselves after the race to watch me finish or are running themselves, so this was the first time I've ever had "race photos" taken.




It didn't take long to realize that I was right about the whole "racing" thing. Apparently the only French people that participate in races in France are those who race to win (or not far off). I quickly found myself nearing last place... where I would stay for the rest of the race. This was really difficult for me, actually, because I wasn't at all prepared for that to happen... Especially since I was doing so well (in my own opinion), since this was such a hilly and difficult course. I'd looked at the elevation map on the site before running the race, but wow, in person it was really hard... I'm not going to lie, I definitely stopped and walked a few steps/drank some water on these hills!


See? Check out that those two intense hills! Despite being last, the people along side (though not numerous) were really supportive, so that's nice.



Climbing up another hill
The second half of the race was better because it was mostly downhill, but from there on out, I was 100% alone... I couldn't see people ahead or the last last people behind me. Here are a few post race shots. One thing to be said about the olympians is that they did cheer me on as I came in at the end (you know, as they were all leaving).


Showing off my celebratory flower and bottle of wine
All in all, it was really weird (and difficult mentally) knowing I was 4th to last in the race. They even started opening up the roads as we were still running by, so occasionally on the big hills, we got passed by cars. I actually had to move once to let one go by on a narrow street. (Very discouraging, actually). As such, I fought with myself the whole way and even though I'm really pleased with how I did (you know, setting a PR and all on a difficult course), it's a bit bittersweet. It's also making me reconsider sending in my registration for the half on Nov. 13th... I can't stop thinking that if I finished 4th kicking my butt on a 10k and they were already closing the course, what's going to happen during a half marathon where my A-goal is 2:30:00? I already looked and the half seems pretty flat, but there were also (based on the 2009 results only 10 runners (out of the 961 listed) who finished the race with a 2:30:00 time or above... Yeah. It's not looking good folks. What do you guys suggest?

PS- To make matters worse, I saw that Sylvain and his wife had an electric scale, so I decided to get a more exact reading to confirm my 73kg weigh-in (and my 160 -30lbs goal conversion as a result)... and I weighed in at 75.5. Just to add insult to injury. Ulgh. Not a good day, despite PRing. At least Auburn beat LSU last night! #1 in the SEC!

23 miles = One French Meal?

And here it is... my first French school vacation. After a mere two weeks of teaching (plus a few of training), I have a week and a half for the "Toussaint" or All Saint's Day holiday. Originally, I wasn't going to go anywhere, but I found a cheap 33€ round trip train ticket, so I'll be visiting some family friends for a few relaxing days near Carcassonne.

Vacation started a bit earlier than anticipated, since I sidelined myself Thursday after teaching two classes due to a stomach bug. I thought I'd be able to pull through after being up all night sick (since I didn't really want to flake out on them on my second day in that school—I only see each school 1x/week), but, in the end, I had to come home and put myself to bed. Well, that is, after missing the bus by 10 minutes and thus being forced to wait 2 hours for the next one... Yeah, so I fell asleep on a bench like a hobo, whatcha gonna do about it? ;)

Anyway, after eating only 8 points yesterday, today was looking a bit iffy for my long run (I moved it to Friday so I could do the 10k Sunday pain-free). Thankfully, I woke up feeling 100% better so I decided to venture out. I tried to keep an really slow pace (13 min/mile) so as to not push it too much and, due to time constraints more than not feeling well, I only ran 8 miles instead of the anticipated 10. But, it was worth it to me because I wanted to make sure I was home in time to skype with Jon and his parents before the 'rents left to drive back to Alabama! I won't "see" them again until I'm home for Christmas. Due to the slow pace, it was a really easy run, actually. I'm not used to thinking that I'm capable of running 8 miles without dying, so it's pretty surprising to realize. Very cool. I was talking with my dad over the internet today and he mentioned that I'm probably in the best shape I've been in my entire life... and, you know, he's right. So odd to think about really. I'm also finally getting used to where I run so I can better plot out my routes distance wise. That was another problem with today's run--I overestimated the distance and got home with 2 miles left to go!

Saw this when I was out for my easy 8-miler. Bonus: in English!
Other than that, I experienced both ends of the food spectrum this weekend. Classy, traditional French dining with my friend Christèle and then tonight's homesick McDonald's with Claire:

Classy dinner. Main dish: Duck with potatoes au gratin and green beans
Moelleux au chocolate... as in a brownie that's melty in the center
McDo outing. I'm the tiny diet coke, the pineapples, and the mini mcflurry (well, that's regular size for France)
I opted for a Happy Meal...which is, much to my dismay, DEFINITELY not worth how many points it ends up being...

The top meal was worth more than all the APs I'd earned running this week (I think I also may have over-estimated) and the bottom was worth at least half... Verdict: McDonald's is SO not worth it... but that first meal SO was! I don't eat like that often at all, but it was really nice catching up with an old friend over a good meal, and I had the APs to do it!

And now, I leave you to go run the 10k! I also leave you with another interesting article on these French strikes... Oh and WAR CAM EAGLE! What a game last night!!!!

Oh, you know just some striking.

Surprise 10k!

Today began my second week actually teaching classes and I think it went really well. This week's theme: Halloween! For the older kids, I based the lesson off of a clip from Charlie Brown and even though they didn't understand a lot of the words, they still thought it was really funny!


On another note from today, at recess (or "récré[ation]") it came up that I'm a runner. Apparently, there's a local 10k going on this Sunday in the nearby town (village) of Saint Saturnin Lès Avignon, which is a hillier course that goes through a few tiny towns and gives a good view of local scenery. Sylvain, the director of one of my schools, suggested that I run it and then he'd pick me up (his son is running it too) and then invited me to come after the race to his house for Sunday lunch. 6.1 miles seems like a good training run (and it'd provide me with the hills I need to cross train) AND I was flattered by the invitation so I quickly said yes to the plan.

But wait, it gets better. Sunday's run is sponsored by St. Sat's local running club (every town in France has a running club)... and they're called "Les Baskets fumantes" (literally "The Smoking Sneakers")... How could any club have a better name that that? Oh, and the 10€ registration fee covers a tech shirt AND a bottle of wine at the finish... How French is that?! I'm so psyched!


Other than that, the rest of my weekend was made up of run recovery (thankfully my knee is feeling better now!), a trip to the market (and for the weekly pain-au-chocolat indulgence with a few of the other assistants), and a "hot skype date" with Jon and Auburn Foodball:


All of this (fresh lettuce, radishes, grapes, red pepper, green pepper, mushrooms AND broccoli) for only 5€ from the produce stand in Les Halles (an indoor independent market in Avignon)!
The best produce stall ever. (I'm now biased)
Looking very "French" with out baguettes under our arms and our bags of fresh produce!
See? I REALLY wanted to see the Auburn v. Arkansas game, so Jon and I got to hang out "at home" and watch it! Best boyfriend ever pointed the computer at the TV! Best, blurry football game ever! War Eagle!
Most of the aforementioned veggies went (in part) into making tonight's delicious dinner creation: Homemade pasta sauce with organic mini cheese raviolis! (Did I mention my roommate works for an organic pasta company in France and brings yummy things home from work?):

I actually will admit... I called Jon via skype to ask about his normal sauce recipe. Since we started dating, I haven't made my own spaghetti sauce. His are really good, so he gets spaghetti and pancakes as his "signature" dishes.
Voilà! Really delicious, if I say so myself!
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the 10k on Sunday. I might move my long run to Friday instead to give me Saturday to recuperate and get over any possible knee pain again, but other than that, it looks great... Well, minus the 30% chance of "scattered showers" for Sunday... Here's hoping the ridiculous, shutter-shaking Mistral wind will blow those rain clouds away!

Hocking Hills Indian Run 10k

Sorry it's taken me so long to update, things have been pretty hectic over here Chez Nicky since I'm leaving to go to France in ONE week!!! (Insert panicked scream here). I haven't even started packing and I still have so much to gather, copy, do etc that it's mind blowing. That said, this past weekend was a HUGE success.

Saturday, Jon and I did our first ever trail run race in the Hocking Hills. It was ALSO the longest race I've ever run, clocking in at 10k. I finished 197/242 with a time of 1:18:09 (12:37/mi pace) and 8/12 in my age group. Jon finished 68th overall with a time of 58:31/9:27 pace.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with my results. I walked up the 3 steep, root-covered hills and enjoyed the rest of my run. I didn't feel like I was pushing TOO hard (I was afraid of pushing too hard and getting tired), so I'm pleased that I maintained my normal, slow road pace while running through the woods. My ideal goal, knowing it was in the woods was under 1:15:00 and my "acceptable" goal was under 1:30:00, so I think I did pretty well. It was MUCH faster than last week's trail run around Dow Lake—that one really had me worried. All in all, I really just wanted to enjoy running through the Hocking Hills. I've wanted to come to this park for years and have never made it, so I really enjoyed seeing how beautiful it is. Jon and I will have to come back.

Anyway here are a few photos of all of us at the race. I'm sure you can tell the difference from "Before" and "After"!






Here's also the Garmin breakdown for the run. He did pretty well considering the fact that it was a forest, but in the end he was off by .2miles!



After the race, we made our way back to Cincinnati... and my car broke down on the way home! Oh no! Thankfully, Jon was driving ahead of me, so we just had to wait for AAA to tow Nigel to the mechanic, then we were home free! Here are a few photos of my mom's Lobster Bake birthday dinner and Jon and I celebrating the Auburn "victory" over Clemson at B-Dubs!







All in all, it was a great weekend! Extra bonus: Jon and I went to the Gap outlet on Sunday to get me some new jeans for France. Not only did Jon get a whole new wardrobe (that I LOVE), but I got everything I got in a size 10! My favorite: a black Banana Republic dress that it all tailored and fits beautifully... Even better... I got it for $10! Great day for shopping!

On that note, check back later for a second post... I'm off to today's weigh in!

Athens Weekend

So, this weekend was also fabulous, since I'm trying to schedule seeing everyone in while I'm still in the proper country/vicinity to see them.

Friday was dinner in Columbus with my two favorite law school students Emily and Jesse. :) No photos, since Jes hasn't posted them, but we had a lovely night eating Italian food, drinking white wine sangria, and catching up on each other's lives since graduation.

Saturday, I took off for Nelsonville to spend the rest of the weekend with Jon and friends. The two highlights of the day were Jay's birthday party (sorry! no photos!) and Jon's and my run around Dow Lake at my favorite Stroud's Run State Park. I left Mr. Garmin in Athens (it's going to be a long few days without him), so no map/details, but we did a 7-mile loop, pictured on the map below:

Lakeview Trail
I was really surprised by how hard the run was for me—I probably drove Jon nuts because I ran really slow and even stopped to walk for around a mile. He's a trooper. He even ran ahead (mostly bc he's faster) and thus was responsible for being the one to find out if there were any muddy spots or spider webs in our way. Here are a few cell phone photos from the run:






The trail wasn't stellar, and that night I started seeing red bumps on my legs and was convinced that I had somehow contracted poison ivy/oak/sumac from the run. But, to my surprise, it kept spreading the whole weekend all over my whole body (with Jon TOTALLY unaffected) so that Monday morning I looked like I had the plague and went to see my doctor. Nope, no poison anything, just a super allergic reaction to the antibiotics I'd been put on last week. Apparently I'm now allergic to Bactrim and other sulfa-based drugs. Now that I know this, I'm learning that it's a pretty common allergy. Now I'm on weight gain-inducing steroids and a different antibiotic.

Sunday, we met Judith, the professor from the France trip, for brunch at the local favorite Jana's—a tiny restaurant in The Plains that serves organic/sustainable/local food. I had the "veggie mash" with homefries:

YUM.
Afterward, Ike came over to the house and the three of us went out to shoot at paper targets in the woods. This was my first time shooting at an actual target so I was inordinately excited that I hit the paper at all... and accidentally hit and broke the top wire line one time as well. Didn't know that could happen!


I don't really smoke pipes, but the photo does have a nice effect, does it not
See! This is one clip (9 bullets). Go me!
That night, Jon and I went on a hot date to see The Switch, which turned out to be a better version of J-Lo's The Back-Up Plan (which we hated). We even stayed around after and played some video games: air hockey, skee ball, basketball, "bowling," zombie-killing... I always enjoy when we get to do "first-date"-y type stuff since we really never did at the beginning of our relationship/getting to know each other phase since we were in separate towns.
Look! From real guns, to fake guns!
All in all, it was a perfect weekend. Got to see a lot of my friends and spend plenty of quality time with the boy. We even got to cook dinner together on Sunday before the movie. I hadn't really realized how much I'd missed doing that together! :) Finally, Monday (after the doctor's appointment), I had the chance to run a few errands in Athens and to send my transcripts to my potential grad schools. Emory's application goes live tomorrow... I can't wait! Then, I got home just in time to take my mama out for dinner for her birthday... and learn, after the fact, that there are 14.5pts (?!?!?!) in a 12oz. frozen margarita. Sad fact of the day.

Happy Birthday, Mama!
Now the week feels like it's really started and I'm off to Shred tonight and potentially Zumba. I'm not too optimistic about tomorrow's weigh-in with my dip in activity this past week and the addition of the steroids, but we'll see!


Oh and in other news, I've started reading Eat, Pray, Love. I (occasionally) am one of the "must-read-book-before-movie" -type people, and in this case, I definitely am. I was really resistant to reading this book for a long time, since I'm apparently a snob and shun huge bestsellers (Remember The DaVinci Code? Never read it.) But, the movie trailer looks really good (I LOVE Julia Roberts) and I've heard that only people who've read the book like the movie... So, here I am, loving every anecdote of this book. Can't wait to get to the other countries!
It's TOTALLY different from the last book I read, The Outlander. Another really good read. One of my student's in Paris was reading a book in this series and I spotted it in Chicago while Jared and I were looking for books for our bus ride home. This one's a mix of time-travel (non-hokey) and historical romance. Almost a fantasy book, only no magic and witches and such. It's about an English woman from 1945 who goes back to Scotland in 1743. I really enjoyed it. I'm a bit behind on my 52 books/year goal, but hopefully that'll pick up once i start taking the bus everyday in France!

On that note, what are you all up to? Reading anything good? Do anything fun this weekend?