Tough race when compared with last year despite good weather conditions (if quite warm), and bagpipes at the start, maybe due to overtraining. I barely managed to keep my first position in the M5M category, by a mere 2s, not that I was aware of the threat to my crown! The briefly leased Hoka One One shoes did not particularly help this time (or maybe they did!). This was my last half marathon in the M5M category (if my first race on invitation) and I am thus glad I could end up on a winning note, if not on a podium since only scratch winners are rewarded that way. Hopefully, I will get re-invited for next year.
My daughter, her friends and I left our rental in 
A rather satisfying race, if far from my best times, despite usual headwinds, where I set my own pace early enough, despite a fast start (19’36” at 5k!), and played ‘hare’ for a female runner from Granville—the harbour town in the Manche peninsula facing Mont Saint Michel and the Channel Islands, and mirroring the Breton Sant Maloù, hometown of my grand-mother—for essentially the entire race. (First M3F, second from left above.) I may have lost (again) some seconds in the forested part, but otherwise I kept to my intended pace and managed to keep away from the second M5M by two minutes, as well as the first M4M (next to me on the podium) by six. (No pictures from 
