Last Sunday, I “competed” in the Semi-Marathon du Grand Nancy (The Greater Nancy Half-Marathon). I had never run such a long distance (13 miles, 21.1 km) before so I didn’t really have high hopes. My three goals were to a) finish b) not seriously risk my health and c) not be the last person across the finish line. From this point of view, it was a big success.
The departure and arrival had lots of crowds, but otherwise the race wasn’t too dramatic. As I expected, my normal 5 mile runs hadn’t quite prepared me for this, so I just jogged as fast as I could at the time. The nice thing with large races is that if you get tired, you will eventually find a new pace group to motivate you. I thought that 17 km would be the turning point, and in a way it was. However, instead of motivating me to run to the end, I decided that I would be satisfied to walk across the finish line if only I could stop jogging. I actually only walked for about 10 minutes of the race and finished in 2 hours, 10 minutes and change.
Overall, it was a really good experience. My hallmate E and I went into town the day before to pick up our registration forms and stock up on rice and cookies. He knew a teacher whose sister was running and she picked us up at the top of our hill and took us back after the race. One interesting difference between US and French racing is that EVERYONE must get a brief physical before they compete. The doctor that we went to didn’t charge us because we don’t have Social Security yet (more on that later), but it still seemed a strange requirement. Then again, in the US, we’re just happy that people are moving!
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