Julien's fuzzy blog

That's it ! After 3 months of training, we finally run the Belfast Marathon yesterday !

The weather was rather nice, even a bit too warm at the end - I got a bit tanned. I got serious problems with my stomac. I don't know if it's the power gels (*) or the water served in cups instead of bottles (very difficult to avoid swallowing air), but I threw up twice (miles 8 and 20). It was rather embarassing, even though I didn't feel so bad: I kept running at the same time . But it's a huge loss of water and sugar. The last 6 miles were a bit difficult, laking water, starting to have cramps (fortunately not as much as last year) and a nice wind in the face, but I achieved to finish in approx. 3h34.
At the same time was organized a marathon in relay, run by teams of 5. Lots of people were running this relay, so the start was really crowded, massively dominated by these teams. Unfortunately, most of them started probably too fast, and through the end I sometimes felt a bit lonely...
I'm quite ok today, I won't run but at least I don't walk like a penguin

Regarding to the Belfast city itself ... well there's nothing really amazing there, apart from the city hall and the clock.

(*) kind of food full of carbohydrates, to be eaten during the race

I just got a wonderful collection of pictures taken by Rachel. I cannot put all of them here, even though I really would like to show our "tent face" in the morning . Maybe Rachel could create an online photo album I could link ...

         

Thank you Rachel !

This week-end, Andy, Rachel and me went hiking to Lake District. Was more than great ! We just can't believe that everything went perfect ! None of the 2 trains and 4 coaches we needed for the journeys ran late ! The weather was sunny all the time ! We found 2 amazing soft and dry spots to pitch the tent ! Andy forgot the pasta ! (herr... yeah, ok)

We walked from Keswick (Friday 11pm) to Grasemere (Sunday 12 noon). First tent pich by night was fun and comfortable. Second tent pitch spot was amazing, at the end of a deep valley, nearby a small stream in a stone ring. Most of the time we walked through bogs (they're everywhere, even on top of the ridges), but we also changed a bit our route to have fun scrambling. Scenery from the ridge to Crag Helme on Sunday was great. We all got a bit tanned, especially our noses. Nights were not really cold (well, that's my opinion).

This was the first 'long' trip with my new bag (Karrimor Jaguar 55/75) quite fully loaded. It was really comfortable, even while scrambling in sloppy rocks, nothing moved left and right. My back didn't really get wet and my shoulders were not destroyed like happened a couple of times.

When is the next one ?

Belfast marathon starts next Monday at 9am. One week left ! We'll all have a 'rest' week with just a couple of short slow runs.

Idea was growing in my mind to try to run the Ultra-trail Tour du Mont-Blanc. But once again I've been too slow, as it's already full with 2000 runners ! (it is held at the end of August)
I may have a chance to get (legaly) the bib of a runner that can't eventually run it, but nothing sure.

For your information this is a 155km "race" around the Mont-Blanc in the French Alps, including 8500m of positive ascent. Takes 40h to complete for most of the runners that achieve to finish.

Anybody would be interested ?

And I think we all feel quite fit now . I'm quite optimistic !

I've run a total of nearly 80km last week. I think this training made me faster at least on short distances (up to half-marathon). Yesterday I dealed with a 27km (almost 2/3 marathon) in 2h05 to complete the first stage of my training. I'm now going to (try to) take a week rest for my ankle.

I'm now properly registered for the Belfast City Marathon 2005. My race number is 270. This is quite a small number compared to my 23298 last year at the Paris Marathon ...

Andy gave me a couple of pictures from the hiking week-end in the Dartmoor National Park.

  

Thank you Andy !

This week I've started to intensify my running schedule. I've decided to run the Belfast marathon (*) which will be held on 2nd May. That's a 8-week period that is starting. I hope I will be fit enough to finish, and hopefully to run in around 3h30, admitted objective !

A web page summarizing the plans for this trip is available.

(*) I initially planned to run the London Marathon, but was far too late !

This week-end Rachel, Andy, Mike and me went to the Dartmoor National Park for hiking. That was great !

This is a desertic hilly moor, with virtually no trees, only pastures and heather fields but also ... peatlands and marshes. As there were no proper footpaths, we had to cross many times small streams and muddy terrain, more or less successfully I didn't imagine it was possible to find that kind of landscape in the south of England. The weather was quite nice, sometimes sunny, sometimes not, with a steady fresh wind.

On the way back, we saw a couple of roe-deers in a small wood. They may have escaped from a hound hunting by about 30 riders and 15 dogs we've previously seen in the moor.

We slept two nights in a 12e century stone-built listed loft-barn. It was lost in the middle of the country-side, accessible only by three-meter-width roads surrounded by stone walls and hedges (GPS is our friend). Despite a wood fire (that took more than one hour to catch...), it was a bit cold inside. Hopefully, the place was not dodgy at all.

I Hope to get pictures soon.

It's quite amazing to run in Hyde Park on a beautiful Sunday morning. The place is over-crowed by people walking with dogs and runners. And when yesterday at 11.30pm we saw a guy running near the park, I though that Hyde Park was a kind of runners' heaven. However, this morning my enthusiasm got down a little bit: at 7am it was a bit foggy, a bit rainy, a bit cold and there were not that much runners in the park ...

These days, I've seen lots of people running/cycling in the streets with short or tight specific clothes (and even a girl running in mini-skirt...). This was sometimes a little too much, as if they just wanted to belong to a class of people with their clothing. As we say in French: the habit does not make the monk.
Anyway, this is totally different from Hull (Yorkshire) where I got stupid remarks/laughs virtually anytime I went for a run ! I don't know where to run yet, I'm more familiar with cross-country running... Along the Thames Rivers ? In Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens ?

A couple of days ago I noticed that both Paris and London marathons entries were closed . This means that I won't run a big marathon this spring.
I may then run another one in UK, for example the Halstead Marathon. If you now a good spring marathon in UK, feel free to send me an e-mail.

Today, I went with Arnaud to the "La Bresse-Hohneck" ski resort, in the south of the Vosges mountains (north-east of France). We went for downhill skiing. A deep layer of fresh powder snow waited for us ! But the weather was ... crap ! Low clouds, falling snow and -11°C with an awful wind. It was really freezing.

Anyway, we enjoyed this day that stood for a kind of "good bye" to my favorite mountains.