Race Blog

Lyon Half Marathon

Submitted by Marion on September 28, 2008 - 5:59pm

Goodness, I have been so tired!The week after the Auch triathlon and the 156 mountain ride I jogged once, did a tempo run that about cracked me and in the pouring rain no less a few easy rides, a swim and a round trip to Paris that really dug into my reserves though it was good fun. the week before Lyon I seriously couldnt fathom how I d have the energy to run 21kms....I slept, rode a bit, did one tempo run with athlé632 the club I train with but really had to kick my own butt to finish the distance. on wednsday I went back up to Paris for the start of a ten day trip that would take me to paris, Lyon, Berlin and Belgium. I stayed with my parents in Paris for three days, not nearly long enough and then took the high speed train to Lyon.

Auch Triathon

Submitted by Marion on September 28, 2008 - 6:00am

Location:
Auch and the Pyrenees
Date:
09/28/2008
The Auch Triathlon was a bit short for my liking but the prize money was truly worth trying! I had opted for the previous month to test drive ovalish shaped chainrings to see what the fuss was about.
These are probably not bad for specific type of riders but for someone who has spent a lot of time on a fixed gear I really felt like I lost time on them on certain courses....
Auch started with a river swim and the water was quite cold! we had to swim up river 250m around a bouey and back and then up again 500m and back. As you can imagine the river is narrow and i swam right up on some poor guy's shoulders befre long....Philippe (my partner) and I have been practicing in the local lake so I have improved some but I stll cant swim very fast...yet

Lyon Half Marathon

Submitted by Marion on September 28, 2008 - 6:00am

Goodness, I have been so tired!The week after the Auch triathlon and the 156 mountain ride I jogged once, did a tempo run that about cracked me and in the pouring rain no less a few easy rides, a swim and a round trip to Paris that really dug into my reserves though it was good fun. the week before Lyon I seriously couldnt fathom how I d have the energy to run 21kms....I slept, rode a bit, did one tempo run with athlé632 the club I train with but really had to kick my own butt to finish the distance. on wednsday I went back up to Paris for the start of a ten day trip that would take me to paris, Lyon, Berlin and Belgium. I stayed with my parents in Paris for three days, not nearly long enough and then took the high speed train to Lyon. The girls from the running club picked me up at the train station and between eh five of us and the gps we couldnt sort out where the race head quarters were to buy our numbers.

Triathlon Championnats d'Aquitaine

Submitted by Marion on September 22, 2008 - 6:00am

Samedi 3 MAI CHAMPIONNATS d'AQUITAINE
This is a team triathlon-I joined a triathlon team last year in Bordeaux because some of the club members were always there for me during my career and I needed a license to race in duathlons....little did I know that they would get me in the water, I who has never swum, to swim across a lake! 750 meters in a wet suit!!! The hardest part is perhaps keeping your sight on the bullseye and swimming in a straight line. The idea was that i would stay as close as possible to my team mates feet so i wouldnt have to look up but after 200 m i couldnt see her feet anymore!after 400m she swam behind me and started to push me so all of the sudden I was swimming like i was on a jet ski! how cool is that!

Triathlon de Auch

Submitted by Marion on September 22, 2008 - 6:00am

This weekend willl be up and coming very fast! the Auch triathlon is late saturday afternoon-1500 swim in a very green river, 40kms ride and 10kms run....
the next morning ill be riding 143 kms over 4 mountain passes in the pyrenees and then ill be doing a bit more running until the end of october
sept 21-Lyon half marathon
october 5-31kms trail run near toulouse
october 26-Toulouse marathon

Triathlon de Revel

Submitted by Marion on September 22, 2008 - 6:00am

Woo Hoo! Just won my first triathlon, in the rain, water temp 16 degrees.....
3kms swim ( i finished very very last), 90 kms great ride over hill and dale around lac st ferreol ( i caught all of the women and a good part of the men by lap 2) and 20kms trail run that was a blast!
For the next few weeks Ill settle for biking and running to get ready for a few more events...photos below

French Long Distance Duathon Championships!

Submitted by Marion on July 21, 2008 - 6:00am

WOOHOO!!! My 3rd year of trying to win the toughest race Ive ever done-the Val d'aran long distance duathlon and this year's bonus was that it was also THE FRENCH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS.
It all started a few years back, I was bored, needed something to do and or get ready for to give me motivation and somehow I heard about this race in the pyrenees. It's in a Spanish border town called FOS at the foot of the col de menté and the courses have little if any portions of flat. My first year I was 2nd, getting caught on the last lap of the run with 5kms to go and totally falling apart there after, Last year the winner was untouchable and I was caught with 2kms to go by another athlete to take 3rd.
This year, knowing what I was up against my focus was and has been on winning the Val d'Aran...the welcome you get from the organisers is worth the detour and they ahve the same prize list for women as for men.

Etape du Tour

Submitted by Marion on July 9, 2008 - 6:00am

The Etape du tour.....Sunday july 6th with a 7am start. Not my cup of tea these early starts as my brain hasnt woken up yet, I cant bring myself to eat that early, and .....rain and cold are not my pals! Lucky for me I was dossard 12 but Philippe was 8932 meaning we wouldnt see eachother for the day and i suspected if he started it would be about an hour after my start....so off we went quite early, a few interviews on the start line, 9000 plu speople were actually ready to ride with rain gear, winter clothing was out.....we took off at 7 promptly and it was sprinkling. we managed to become quite rapidly a group of 150 or so riders pushing over the first efforts of the day at km 48 and 70, two small but never the lestt climbs. From there through Lourdes and then off towards the tourmalet. In Lourdes some guys decided to go bowling and I was one of their pins so down I went in a big pileup.

The Tourmalet Duathlon!!!!!!!

Submitted by Marion on July 1, 2008 - 6:00am

WOOHOOO! THE TOURMALET DUATHLON...the last test before the French long distance Duathlon Championships in the Pyrenees on July 20th.

La Pyreneene-4 vallées

Submitted by Marion on June 24, 2008 - 6:00am

A 7am start is, for me anyway, quite brutal....I drove to St Lary in the heart of the Pyrenees on friday night under buckets of rain and hail convicning myself as I drove that the weather would clear up in the morning. 180kms with the col d'orquette 11kms after the start, col de tourmalet into the col d'aspin....I was basically frozen until the descent of the tourmalet where suddenly my neurons reconnected! The col d'orquette was a bit brutal without coffee in the morning but it was too early to swallow anything. i was in long gloves, leg warmers, and was still cold. In the valley after the Tourmalet I managed to take off my leg warmers while riding as well as my gloves and jacket....I had settled into a nice group of ten by then and we were still a tad off from the front group. I heard the guys discussing chainring sizes as we climbed the tourmalet-they all had 36 chain rings and i had a 39.

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