On 19 September I ran the 62k Imperial Trail at Fontainebleau with an objective of finishing in under 8 hours. Objective met with a finish in 7 hours 53 minutes. That was good enough to be 100th overall out of about 300 and to be 9th in veteran’s 2 category where there were about 45 runners.
I almost didn’t make it through the starting gate. When I arrived to pick up my race number I was required to show my medical certificate showing that I was clearded to run by the doc. In France all competitions require this. I didn’t have a copy with me. I had sent the certificate in by email so I thought that that would be sufficient. Using my smartphone I showed the officials my certificate and emailed them another copy and they gave me the race number finally.
I met Thomas in the starting area and we had a cup of coffee together. His back was acting up so he was unable to run this year.
The weather was real nice, not too cool, not to warm and the track was dry. Here is a link to a photo of Kevin, feeling fresh
The terrain is hilly with many, many short small hills with lots of twist and turns between, over, around, and under boulders. There is about 1,500m of positive vertical.
I was able to keep up a slow running pace except for the uphill sections with only the threat of an occasional cramp in the last 20km.
Running in the Fontainebleau forest is really nice. This is a race to do again and again.