Except for a very few Kenyans working extremely hard, it's impossible to make a living out of running. So better be a second job, and a passion!
Sharing a few personal notes on my journey in endurance running and ultra running. To meet you on the web if not on the road. Happy trails to all, farther and faster!
Almost 11 months have passed since my last race, the Quad Dipsea 2023 ultra. And 8 months since I broke a meniscus. This season has been a disaster. I've resumed jogging in September with the knee pain still persisting until mid October. This week felt better and I managed to run 9 miles every day, albeit still at a slow pace, around 8 min/mile.
I was in Rouen this week to close on a house in Bois Guillaume. Driving around on Friday I noticed road closure signs for the Bois Guillaume 10K and Half Marathon races this Sunday. Technically, registration was closing on Thursday at 4 pm but the city website was listing Friday instead. I managed to get one of the organizers on the phone who accepted to sign me in given the website error, super nice of her! For my first race this year, about time...
Like most of this year, the week was quite rainy again but the forecast for this Sunday had no rain but overcast skies and temperatures in the 58-60F range: great running conditions! The 10K course:
There were about 800 runners on the 10K starting at 12:30 pm, and 400 participants in the Half Marathon at 2:30 pm. That was a certified course and FFA-sanctioned event (Fédération Française d'Athlétisme, the equivalent of our USATF), there were a few big guns on the front. My main goal was to test which speed I still had in me, an aspect I didn't have the time and opportunity to gauge based on such a long and late recovery.
One of the last 10K runners had collapsed on the course at the finish so our start got delayed for almost 15 minutes, the time that the ambulance got off the course.
I didn't have much to lose so decided to start ahead of the 1:30 pace group. I clocked 6:37 for the first mile, a pace which felt rather uncomfortable, breathing wise. I slowed down to 6:53 in the second mile but was able to push a bit in miles 3 and 4, respectively at 6:44 and 6:45. But that was way too fast given my current form and I had to slow down again to a 7:08 mile, which led me to get passed by the 1h30 pace group, which had about 10 runners. I still managed to complete the first loop in 45 minutes but I was so tired, I contemplated dropping at the halfway mark. Then I remembered that I had run 12 half marathons in a row at Spartathlon, I may well do one today!
Thanks to the encouragements of spectators and volunteers spread along the 10K-loop, I kept pushing, now completely outside my comfort zone. On the second lap I clocked slower miles from 7:11 to 7:32. But I managed to finish at least, in an embarrassing time of 1:33:45. 60th overall and... 1st in my M60-64 age group. Embarrassing for someone who broke 1:15 at 49 and ran 50Ks at faster pace in his 50s.
I'm glad that my average stride got much longer than the past weeks, at 1:22m, but that's still so far from my 1.35m marathon stride. I'm stunned by how much glutes strength I lost this year, it's going to be quite an uphill effort to rebuild, literally speaking. I also lost quite some VO2max apparently, my lungs are trashed tonight, with some asthma, which hadn't happened in a while. Still, I wasn't bothered by the knee at least, an encouraging sign I can ramp-up the training. I'm also very glad that I was able to get back to same-day race reports, after barely making the same-year deadline for my Spartathlon report!
A few additional stats from my Coros watch (I also ran with my Garmin):
My sister and brother in law joined me at the finish. I jogged back to their house, a mile from the start/finish area, to shower, then we drove back right away for the award ceremony.
That was an urban run and I was impressed how the local community came together to ensure our safety along the course, special thanks to all these volunteers! Very timely and professional timing system from ChronoBoost.fr, with real-time online results. I was also very grateful to the organizers for letting me register at the last minute!
The race report, at last! The 2024 edition is going to start in less than 2 weeks, better get this post off my chest. So many bad excuses for such an insane delay: life and work getting in the way, then a major knee injury which even disgusted me from any topic touching running, an activity which I love so much and occupies a huge part of me. But the first excuse is that I have to admit this race took from me much more than I originally expected. I covered in part 2 the intense and grueling 9 months of preparation leading to the race. Let's see if that was worth it and helped for the big race.
I've written hundreds of race reports, how hard can this one be? Well, one year has passed, so this is going to be a great memory test. Also a test of what you can remember while running for more than 24 hours straight, a very first for me! The maximum I had run so far was 5 marathons during the 24-hour National Championships in 2014 (133.36 miles, 214.6 km). But it was on a flat 1-mile loop so quite a different setting. And so far, I've run all my 100-milers under 24 hours, the privilege of being able to run faster, which makes ultra so much easier.
As our team captain put it, you have to train to be prepared for the agony of the last part of the race, how nice does this look? Let's talk etymology then (I did learn Ancient Greek for 2 years in middle school, and can still read the Greek alphabet rather easily): in the title I used agonas which looks close to agony. But agony actually translates to agonia in Greek, while agonas corresponds to race, match, contest, fight, competition. And there is no real contest or fight without some... struggle, or agony. Agon (public gathering, contest), agonas, agonia, agein (lead, celebrate), all pretty close and definitely the same root, such a great connection to a Spartathlon story! Anyway, let's see how much of that potential agony there was for me between Athens and Sparta...
I made it to Athens on Wednesday, one day before we could get our hotel rooms. That led me to pick an Airbnb which, as I mentioned in my previous post, was the best decision I had made on the logistics side. Indeed, I did keep that appartement until Saturday morning and could leave just an hour before the start, being less than half a mile from the Acropolis. That also allowed more quiet time and better nights leading to the event, rather than having to share a double bed with a teammate, in a 3-people room. The flip side is that I had to commute to the hotel to check-in on Thursday, drop my bags on Friday and have a few meals with the team down there. Still a good tradeoff overall.
Sharing a bed with a stranger? Nope, I don't think so!
Thursday was the checkin, drop bags were due on Friday and race started on a Saturday this year. September 30th and you had to get to the finish by the next day, that is in October!
Staying up way too late on Thursday evening to work on my drop bags...
And final tune-ups of my road sheets...
Race headquarters:
Great vibe and team spirit on Friday!
With the movie star of this Spartathlon edition, Jancker Hans-Dieter from Germany, going for his 25 finish, at 71!
Teammate Meghan Canfield
It was still dark when we were gathering again for the start for a team picture. We were super lucky with the weather as the temperature was supposed to remain much lower than usual on day 1.
The start was at 7 am, just in time to get some day light to navigate the streets though Athens. In such an international and diverse field, one thing which surprised me was the variety of corpulence among the runners. Quickly, and without really aiming for it, I was running alongside Bob, whose pacing I admire and who was running his 5th Spartathlon. That was the perfect companion to start at an optimal pace, meaning not too fast, around 9 min/mile. You could think that it would be wise to start faster when you are not tired and the temperature is low, but ultra doesn't work this way.
It was also great to have company because, frankly speaking, the first miles include a few boring ones, when we go through industrial neighborhoods and running on the right side of very busy roads. As usual, I was carrying my own bottles with water and GU2O so didn't need to stop at aid stations.
By mile 8 we had reached the sea but still running through and along the industrial harbor area. Looking at the map I see that at mile 12, we actually passed by the end of a military airport, I didn't notice.
A year has passed but I remember seeing an open pharmacy and thinking that I was already chaffing along my waist and could stop to buy some more tape. I was so obsessed and traumatized by one bad chaffing story from Bob on that course, I didn't want to experience the same. The fact of the matter is that I was wearing two belts and way too much stuff as I didn't want to rely on the aid stations: the mandatory GPS transponder of course, my iPhone, gels, S!Caps, vaseline. Later at night, adding spare batteries for the headlamps. And I was already carrying tape in case of chaffing, so why did I want to stop and get more... Anyway, I kept shuffling along.
Shortly after the pharmacy, I was running behind these two whom I imagine being legends with such special bibs. For my Team USA colleagues, I present you Dr Seuss' Thing One and Thing Two! ;-) (Bib 1, Dietmar Goebel, ended up finishing in 29:23 while Thomas Kornexl dropped at CP 18.)
Moving at 9 min/mile seemed really easy, especially in the morning and on a day which was sunny but wasn't going to be blazing hot. We were in luck, end of September in Greece is usually much hotter. Like chaffing, I was a little obsessed with the risk of over-heating. My mid morning, and despite carrying two bottles so enough fluid for 10 to 15 miles, I started stopping at every aid station to take advantage of the ice and get some in my bottles as well as my cap. Precious minutes lost if I was here to compete but, really, my only thought was to finish, no matter what. Since I was running with my phone, I took quite a few pictures, with some competitors wondering if I was taking that race seriously.
Americans and Brits tagging along:
Impressive minimalist style (bib 13, Lin Shoo-Shou from Taipei, M50, would finish in 33:14; bib 16, Huang Wan Fu, will drop half way at CP35):
Two Brazilians running a super steady pace and whom I'll keep seeing on and off for 4 hours, super cool company!
And other international encounters here and there.
Miles passed, I vividly remember the aid station at the marathon mark. After all, the marathon is a Greek concept by definition and history, and we were going to run 6 of them in one go, makes sense to display a clock for the first one. With all my efforts to pace myself down, I got to that special mark slower than 4 hours, yeah! 9:26 min/mile, reasonable pace in line with plan. The nerds might translate this into a 24 hour 42 minutes potential finish but, no, ultra racing isn't linear at all, especially with fatigue, a mountain to pass in the middle, night running, etc.
That was Megara and we were now entering ultra marathon territory. I hadn't really decompose the race into marathons but it happens that the first prize of the day was to get to Corinth and it's really cool and picturesque canal at mile 48, 4 miles short of the second marathon.
That section along the sea was gorgeous. With the numerous aid stations, about 1 every 2 miles or so, we kept running along different people, depending on theirs stops. Again, I fell into the trap of over stopping as I couldn't resist leveraging the available ice. Not the best strategy time wise, but made the morning and mid day much more pleasant.
Here is an open water fishery, then a big vessel which DNFed way too soon on the course! ;-)
Excited to get closer to the Corinth canal, I was in great spirit when passing another of the race photographers.
Since the canal is so deep and we have to cross over, there was a good steady climb to get to the bridge. But it was so worth it, one of the highlights of this race for me!
Shortly after that was a major checkpoint before we left the main road, at mile 50. From the movies I had watched, I was eager to get to that point as it showed a crowd cheering for you. Well, maybe I was too much in the middle of the pack, the memory I kept from that station is hectic busyness with so many crews helping their runners. Carrying way too much anyway, I just looked through all the many food options available and I believe I may have taken a few pieces of fruits. The fluid table wasn't easy to access but I also remember getting my bottles refilled.
There were people running in all directions, plus cars parked everywhere, with other cars trying to go through, I was completely confused on the way to go and had to ask a few people. Half a mile and we were now on the quietest part of the course, phew!
That section was by far my favorite. Mostly flat, crossing miles of olive tree fields, almost no car. It's in this section I first met Yann Verdier, from the French team. Yann had finished the 2022 edition in 35:55, with less than 4 minutes to spare! Yet, that was impressive to me because a finish at Spartathlon is really something. We chatted a bit and I think he was quite impressed with elements of my resume as he is himself still progressing in his early fifties.
I'm not used to run along someone and Yann felt the pace was a bit too fast for him so I went ahead after running a few miles together. After the crowd at mile 50, it was like many runners had stopped or taken a long break because I saw very few runners in that section. Or maybe we all had found our steady pace.
Crossing Ancient Corinth was a great experience. Not as much people but spectators cheering. I stopped before exiting the small city, to take pictures of the ruins. Mile 58.
From Zevogliato and its checkpoint 29 at mile 62 (100K mark) we started a 22-mile uphill section to 1,500 feet. I have to admit that I only have spotty memories coming back after a year. Time wise, this covers 17:30 to midnight, therefore a key moment of getting into night running. From my roadbook I must have grabbed my spare headlamp at Zevogliato. A bit early but that's where it was anyway as I wanted to be on the safe side and not wait for Ancient Nemea where I had my better Petzel one. Zevogliato is also the checkpoint I took my first bowl of mashed potato I had in my drop bag. A few minutes spent on this but very worth it!
Hours were passing and, with the fatigue, my average pace hit 10 min/mile as I was approaching the 100K mark:
There was this nice musical local experience in in one of the small villages, with this choir.
I also kept found memory of a stop to pick wild blackberries on the side of the road, just after sunset.
And this very cool encounter with kids who asked for autographs in their school study books. I was back to running with Yann again at that point, for another very enjoyable moment.
It was dark when I arrived in Nemea at 20:20. Mile 76, almost 3 marathons... Before Nemea, something strange happened: you remember I was scared of getting lost so I had uploaded the course onto my new Coros (I've used Garmin devices for more than 20 years but needed a much longer battery for Spartathlon). Well, before Nemea, the watch kept telling me I was off course and I should turn right. It was dark and we were running against car traffic on the left side, I stopped several times to scan the fields to see if I could spot headlamps moving. Nothing. I even asked a few runners who passed me, they must have thought I was hallucinating as the course was rather obvious. Turned out that the course I had uploaded, I think from one of Bob's previous runs, was on the other side of the road! GPS are so precise nowadays, the watch was just trying to get me to run on the wrong side of the road.
Nemea was busy and I must have spent 20 minutes there. I was feeling ok but that was a major checkpoint, better take advantage of it. I had a large drop bag to go through, got more mashed potato I think but more importantly, a bowl of amazing home made soup. At that time I thought that the night would be great with such soup available along the way. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a one-time occurence, I'm really glad I didn't miss it!
With this long stop, came a new set of unknown runners to tag along. It was pitch-dark anyway so not the best time to engage. A good time to check on these mandatory reflective gear and stripes, and I'll just say that the quality was very unequal and I was proud of mine. I even had glued reflective stripes on the heel of my Brooks shoes!
After 2 miles of descent during which we lost 1,000 feet, it was time to start the climb to the big mountain. From mile 88 to 100. For me from 11 pm to 2:30 am, nice way to spend a night! The mountain culminates at 3,500 feet so that was 3,000 feet up from mile 88. Mostly on asphalt road again, sometimes gravel road. The sky was clear and we could see headlamps many miles away, and up.
I'm not going to hide it, I did walk quite a lot on the way up, but jogged whenever I could. 12 miles in 3.5 hours, the clock never lies...
I was really happy to finally reach Mountain Base as mile 99. Base is a bit misleading, this is just the end of the road and beginning of a treacherous trail to the top. That aid station at the base was very welcoming. I got some hot water for another bowl of mashed potatoes, and also got my lower back checked and taped by one of the medical staff.
I was still wet from all the sweat of the day but decided not to pick a change or wind breaker from my drop bag. The weather was still really nice on that side of the mountain...
The climb was epic. Steep, short switchbacks, lose rocks, and thin plastic tape to mark the course. Better not watch on the side and miss a step. A mile of that looked long and I heard some people had even dropped in the middle of it. Was really cool to get photographers up there, that leaves more memories.
At the top was the aid station I would vote the best for 2023! I was so excited to get to the top that I even took a cup of coffee something I never do. It was windy and the whole crew seemed chilly even in their winter gear, hmm. I had a good sweat on the way up and was getting cold myself, I realized I'd better get down asap.
I had heard bad stories about the lose rocks on the way down but it ended up being very runnable. A steep downhill fire road and you had to quickly navigate from side to side to avoid some patches of lose rocks indeed. I closed on two runners in 1.5 miles down to Sagkas.
Checkpoint 49, mile 101.6, 2:50 am. I spotted hard boiled eggs, I did grab one and went on to take advantage of the downhill road. So fun to get quite some speed all of a sudden. The field was so sparse at that point, I ran a few miles without seeing anyone except for the aid station volunteers. But there was another reason I wasn't seeing anyone...
From the bottom of the mountain on the other side we had 20 miles, slightly uphill but mostly flat (+200 feet gain). Should have been all good except that the weather was completely different. It was super humid and foggy. Probably not cold but, not having changed after the hot day and the effort of the mountain climb, I did get cold. That's one of my issues, I can better handle heat than chill or cold...
The fog made it for an interesting experience with the headlamp. And the shades looking like hallucinations!
If you haven't experience this, running while being or feeling cold is really challenging. Your whole body tightens and fight to keep any energy left for temperature control. That was by far my low point. To make matter worse, that was quite a remote area so the aid stations had hot water for instant soups but no more of this delicious home made soup we had at Nemea. That didn't inspire me but I should have.
Moving forward, albeit rather slowly, I managed to reach Alea where I had a large drop bag with dry clothes. Mile 120, 7:15 am, daylight starting. Just one problem, the very nice volunteers put me on a table in a survival blanket, before I changed. 30 minutes later, I was still shivering. Thankfully, two twins who had run Sparathlon before showed up and started massaging and shaking my back, arms and legs to get the blood moving. 20 minutes of this did it, plus a change in dry top and shorts but the whole stop did cost me an hour and 15 minutes. Good thing I wasn't running for an age group spot, and that I was 4 hours ahead of the cut-off when I got in that station. Less than 3 hours margin at the exit though.
Ironically, the sun made its appearance as I painfully resumed my running so I quickly started to sweat again. And day 2 was supposed to be much hotter than day 1. I had lost Yann before the mountain, and there he was, catching up with me as I left Alea, what a cool surprise!
At that point, we had run almost 5 marathons and only had one last 50K to run to reach Sparta, how hard that could be? Well, while you may think that the 1h15-stop would have provided some rest, it actually works the other way. The more you stop, the harder it is to get back to running. Especially after your body temperature loses a few tenths of a degree, typically after stopping for 30 or 40 minutes.
We caught up with Meghan Canfield a few miles later, just after CP 61 and ran together until CP66, mile 133. Meghan then went ahead, feeling great. Then, after CP 70 (mile 143) I urged Yann to leave me as I could feel I was holding him down. A series of pictures from this section in great company, it did help to jog, walk, chat together!
I did hit a rough patch at that point. Lost my motivation although I was still convinced I could finish before the cut-off, but I was feeling too hot to run well. I got passed by our team captain, Andrei Nana around CP66, then Bob after CP 72.
I was alternating jogging and walking until I reached the Tripoli-Sparta road at Kladas, CP 73, mile 149. 3 miles or 5 kilometers from the finish, almost done, right? Well, I made a huge mistake of telling the volunteers that I my bottles were empty and I was happy to see them because in dear need of water. They offered me to sit down, then took my pulse and blood pressure with an equipment which didn't seem to work then... called an ambulance! In an odd circumstance, it started raining, that was quite unexpected and that at least quickly took care of my overheating. When I realized that they wanted to pull me out I assured them I was completely fine and rushed out as quickly as I could. They still insisted that a medical staff follows me. It was pouring rain, thankfully I had a light jack in my running vest, we were getting a lot of water from both the rain and the car splashing the water on the road to us. Nice! The volunteer was wearing boots, I think he was happy I walked rather than run. After a mile of this, he saw I was fine and offered to leave me along which I gladly accepted. Phew, I escaped what would have been a devastating decision from that aid station!
I grabbed an American and French flag from my last drop bag at the last checkpoint, CP 74, with 1.5 miles to go. I did walk through Sparta along another French runner who had badly twisted his ankle on the mountain. I stopped by the hotel out team was assigned to, half a mile from the finish, to drop my running vest, bottles and jacket and finish with both flags. (Stitched 3 live pictures from Vince.)
So... YES, I did finish the thing, tamed the beast! In 33:56:05 so not a fabulous time but under the allotted 36 hours. The way to the finish was quite emotional, with crowd cheering on, on each side of the avenue. But after crossing the line, nothing like what I had dreamed of after watching the movies over and over. Because a few other runners had rushed to break 34 hours, it was pure chaos and confusion. Too many people in the same area with all the crews joining. It was super disappointing and left a bad taste. Yet, the satisfaction of getting there on foot is what prevailed by far!
And then came the post-race medical check. I had found the idea of getting your feet washed by volunteers to be pretty cool, in the spirit of these early Greek running pioneers running barefoot. I very rarely get blisters but could feel I had a big one. I asked for someone to at least poke it and the first volunteers didn't like the idea at all. After insisting, I got what I believe was a doctor, to take a syringe and pierce the blister straight perpendicular instead of laterally. Oh my, I yelled once the tip of the needle touched the sane skin underneath, this really hurt!
Remember it had rain in the afternoon and we were in a place under construction with raw concrete floor, and asked to move around, now barefoot after the feet washing. To take care of the blister, I was asked to move to one of the beds. And because I shared the incident at CP 73, they offered to take my blood pressure again. I was done this time so I accepted. I'm not sure the device worked better than at that aid station but sure enough, they offered an IV. What? I look around and, sure enough, almost everybody had an IV, what was going on? I passed on the offer and, in disposable flip-flops, took the cab they had called to drop me at the hotel.
There, I met other finishers with not only much nicer laurels that the ridiculous ones I got at the finish, but finisher caps and t-shirts too. I checked in, then rushed back to the finish to ask for one, only to be told after quite a few back and forth, that they hadn't expected that many finishers, so they didn't have any left. Oh well, glad I bought a polo at the expo upon checking-in. Still a few memorabilia to bring home:
While I was at the finish area, I could see the very last runners coming in, albeit missing the cut-off by a few minutes, heart breaking. And tough to watch the aching bodies...
By the way, Yann finished in 32:38, Bob Hearn in 33:05, Meghan in 33:12 (first W60!), Andrei in 33:26. I was the 147th of 249 finishers and 378 starters. Oh, and my California buddy, Franco Soriano, finished last with less than 2 minutes to spare, what a stressful finish, both for him and for me to watch live, phew! The race was won by local Fotis Zisimopoulos for his third time and our own Team USA Camille Herron. Both in course record times of respectively 19:54 and 22:34. Camille was 3rd overall!
Here is Fotis, with 2022 and 2021 winner, Diana Dzaviza, from Latvia:
And 2023 winner, Camille Herron:
Here is a distribution graph of the finish times. Not quite a bell curve because the right side of the bell is cut in half by the stringent... cut-offs!
Overall, the finish wasn't as memorable and inspirational as I was hoping for but it's of course much more important I was able to finish, including avoiding or rather escaping from a pull at 3 miles from the finish. I'm still blown away that it worked on my first attempt. A lot of preparation and dedication went on as I covered in my previous post, and a race strategy solely focused on the finish goal, rather than minimizing the finish time. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here is a video retracing that mythical trip from Athens to Sparta. I could have started with it and spare you pages of details... ;-)
I had never run that far in one single race, never ran more than 24 hours at once, this finish means a lot to me. One year has passed and I suffered a meniscus tear 5 months later which killed my 2024 season, maybe that was a consequence. Not of the race itself but the training regimen. We'll never know for sure, we are an experiment of one and our bodies still have many mysteries.
That Sunday evening, I was so excited by the positive outcome and the overwhelming messages of support that, even after being up for 40 hours, I wasn't in a rush to go to bed. Dinner, emails, then fireworks by the city of Sparta to celebrate us, I went to bed around 11 pm, 43 hours after waking up on Saturday morning in Athens. Thinking of Pheidippides who had made a similar journey without all the equipment and support we had gotten this weekend, and on trails, not smooth roads! Humbling and respect, even if this is a legend.
In my next post and final installment of four to recount this 2023 Spartathlon edition, I'll cover the few days following that race weekend. Quite a few events to add to make the journey and this lifetime experience whole. No, unlike most of our local races, you don't go back home right after finishing Spartathlon!
A passionate runner, international IT executive focusing on Professional Services, French-American and living in California since 1998, married and father of three boys.
