It has been weeks… What am I saying? It has been months since my last update. This only should suffice to hint at my level of fitness, but there is more, actually much more. Since my 2h44 marathon in Paris in April it all went south. My work kept me very busy. With ever expanding responsibilities, my traveling to Europe more often than I care to remember and my finally starting to work seriously with Jojo on our future endeavor, I had not much left in the tank for training. To top it all, I also managed to get injured. Bahhh!!! With all that, I did what I could to stay in shape with no serious ambitions to remain competitive. I kept my running and my swimming alive but I simply stopped biking.

So guess what? Since Paris I have not one single interesting performance to report. The only good surprise was the Monaco Half Ironman.

I had signed up at the last minute and it was more for spending the weekend with Olivier and the gang than for racing. I had decided to take it easy and enjoy the day. I avoided the brutal fight in the water by swimming way outside. This was real cool. I felt great. I did not stress a bit. I enjoyed the swim like never before. If it wasn’t for my new one piece suit that tore through my right shoulder skin, it would have been perfect. Well, perfect until I saw the time. It was my worst performance ever. By the time I had gone through T1 and finally mounted my bike, 45 minutes had passed since the gun shot. It was so bad that it took all the remaining pressure off. I began the bike smiling with the attitude of a Californian surfer on reefer. The result was actually much better than expected. For a guy with basically no mileage on the bike and not a care in the world, I rode the course in 2h57. It was off my best but still a very descent time for Monaco. Then came the run. With a 4 inch cut on my shoulder there was no way I could wear a top. I rolled down my one piece and started the run topless. To my great surprise, I felt stronger than ever before in a triathlon run. Except for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd guys and Benoit Z (who was doing the run leg of a relay) nobody passed me. That was awesome. I eventually got stopped by a referee for running topless. After negotiation and after he saw my injury the guy accepted to let me resume the run but wearing one arm of my one piece. It was not comfortable but it was better than being pulled out of the race. Despite all that I still managed a 1h23 half marathon, nice…. The final time was just under 5h10 and earned me an honorable 152nd overall position.

It was a few weeks after Monaco that my left Achilles started to bother me. It has not stopped since then. This painful injury took my running mileage down to 30 to 40 miles a week. This is not the sort of mileage needed to prepare for a Marathon. I ran the Grete’s Great Gallop half Marathon again this year but contrary to last year there was no miracle. I finished in 1h20 limping across the finish line. Since then, I only kept some key training sessions but mainly focused on resting my left Achilles. It has not paid off yet and with 10 days left before the NY marathon, all hope to compete against Stephane and Peter are gone.

So what now? Frankly, I don’t know. I am going to race the NY Marathon for sure but I don’t know if I should even have a time ambition. Eric just did a 2h48 in Chicago. Alex will run the Marine Corps Marathon this coming week end and I will keep an eye on his time too. My best time in NY is 2h49 and of course I did 2h44 in Paris earlier this year. For the Warren Street team, Fabio will go for 2h45 and Stephane and Peter will go even faster. Olivier, my ever present partner in crime, will probably run a 3h10. Hopefully I will finish somewhere in the mix. Let’s hope my Achilles will let me finish.

It is time for me to find the purpose that will fueled my race.

Pascal,