Marathon de Mézanc
Woo, that was fun! Drove from Clermont early in the morning over to Mont Mézanc. Marathon was very low-key. We showed up, registered, and sauntered up to the start line. Frédéric grabbed a spot up front and then told me I should come up too. What me? With all the guys? Uhhh....
But it really was low-key, not so many guys that were faster than me, and after a the start I was ~12th, but still behind guys that were slower. Passed ~5 up to the 10k mark, was happy to note that my skis were gliding nice and fast, faster than others, woo flouros. I wouldn't have put them on, but Frédéric was, and I can't let him beat me just because he has faster skis...!
Anyways, at 10k, fumbled grabbing my ravitaillement of hot tea (vin chaud also on offer (!)) and was kind of alone for the next bit. Then came a bit of the course where you double backed on yourself. There was a lead pack of 5 (but turns out two of those were doing the 1 lap ~20k) then one guy, then me, then the guys I had passed. After that point, there was a long gradually up of maybe 2.5k of V2. Lovely. I caught the guy in front of me on that, then we skied around each other the rest of the race.
But it was pretty clear he was actually faster than me, each uphill he pulled away, and I gained it back on the downs/flats. With the course ending uphill, I knew he'd get me, so just used the fact that we could ski together to be faster overall. I made a point of passing the second lap on the gradual up, since he'd mostly been pulling me, and I knew I didn't have a hope on the V1-ups anyways.
Ended up in 5th dans la classe "scratch" which apparently means overall, for some unknown reason. Everyone was pretty curious who I was and happy to see a woman finish so far up. So did lots of explaining, or attempting to explain in French. Everyone was really friendly, and when they asked if I skied for the US, I explained that I was on the US ski-o team, and they actually understood what that was! =) Actually, one woman thought that was particularly cool and said I had to meet her daughter, who turns out to be none other than Fanny, of laBaguette's log fame. She's planning on doing ski-o next winter, despite there not really being a French team, because 2 races of the ski-o tour are in France, as are the military games, if I understood correctly!
So, great times. And more yummy food afterwards. Oh, and at the award ceremony 1) they made me speak, in French, in to a microphone to explain where I came from/what I was doing there 2) the women's award (gendered much?) was a little cookbook of french cheese recipes. I'm psyched actually though... must find replacements for cantal et comté aux Etats-Unis!
Results and photos (at bottom)