A little somewhere else

En 2010, la course change de sens: on relie Lens à Lille. Ma participation n'est pas du tout prévue mais je voulais surtout relayer le très beau geste des organisateurs: la course est offerte aux participants des quatre premières éditions. C'est une occasion à saisir surtout quand on connaît le prix !
Attention cette offre est valable jusqu'au 31 décembre 2009 !

The race was harder for me, compared to my last marathon, but I was quite surprised to be in a good shape the next day. In fact, race after race you always learn.

After a marathon, when you are exhausted and didn't manage to keep a little bit of energy, it is difficult to stretch by yourself. So it is good when someone who didn't run, can help you to do the classical exercises. If this person is very kind, it could be useful to do some massages on your muscles; mainly your legs, and your feet. Indeed, your limbs have been doing the same moves so long, that they need to be reactivated. It's more and more common at races to see some physical therapy schools coming to do some massages on finishers. At this Berlin marathon there were indeed so nice students from such schools waiting for you... The surprising thing is that you could find such stands along the way... I must say that I asked myself several times, but choose to keep the good things for the end; anyway I now do understand why people are finishing the race in more than six hours!

One other good advice is to go to a swimming pool. It's good to move your muscles without any impact with the ground. Some days after, it always surprising how fast you can run during some kilometers even if your muscles didn't yet recovered after the marathon.

I found the temperature quite hot at the end. And it has been confirmed by Haile Gebrselassie, the 2009's winner and the current world record marathon holder. Indeed the temperature was around 16°C degrees at the beginning and around 20°C at the end. Compared to last year (12-16°C), it was warmer. He added that, according to him, it was impossible to break the world record above 16-17 degrees Celsius. I think a lot of people ignore this fact and don't realize how the weather is important. We often think about weather for sports which need special weather to be practiced, but we sometimes forgot that the weather has a direct impact on our body.

After such a race, I'm thinking about the next one. But I really don't know when it will be.

So it will be nice weather; perhaps too hot at the end (the race is beginning at nine). Anyway the track has a lot of refreshing points. We will see how it goes with all the runners, I have never run with so much people.