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I feel like my running year has been book-ended by this race and the Paris marathon back in April. This morning I ran in the
Boulogne-Billancourt Half-Marathon, my first official Half-Marathon. It was great to race in Boulogne, as I had lived there for 3 years before moving to Montigny in 2013.
I wanted to finish the year on a positive note. In 2016 and 2017 I did the
Corrida de Noel in in Issy-les-Moulineaux, but this year I wanted to stretch my legs a little, particularly after the disappointment of the marathon.
I was relatively well prepared, with a number of 7k and 14k training runs, and a couple of full halves under my belt. I prepared my usual kit the night before.
The race itself was pretty classic, a loop along the quays of Boulogne and a few km in the Bois. It was freezing in first thing in the morning, though. Jogging across from Issy to Boulogne from the RER station was an experience, but one with some impressive views.
The organisation was efficient and smooth, a world away from Paris-Versailles.
As we had to double back on the course, the lanes were very tight, which led to a steady pace overall. I finished in 01:43:29, despite going for the 01:50:00 SAS.
It's a race I'll definitely do again.
The biggest challenge was the warm-down jog up the hills of St Cloud to catch the train home afterwards, though the views did somewhat make up for things (maybe some of the best views from an urban train station in Europe).
For now, it's a few weeks of regular training before the excesses of Christmas, followed by preparation for a New Year of running.
