Journalist since February 2023 within the editorial staff of The Awakening of Haute-Loire, Guillaume Chorin, 24, took part in his first race on Sunday, during the 15 km of Le Puy. He completed the event after 1h 14′ 43” of effort. Exhausted but happy!
Run the emblematic Puy-en-Velay race! A slightly crazy dream which on Sunday morning is about to become reality. After weeks of training, the big day arrived and so did the stress in the starting airlock. And a question in my head: “but what am I doing here!” » Because if I did a little running in my young years at college, everything disappeared over time, so embarking on such a race constitutes a real challenge with very uncertain success…
An audience that allows you to surpass yourself
No time to procrastinate as the starting gun is given. At that point, there was no more thinking. After the first chaotic meters to find a place in the peloton of runners, I finally launched into the event with the mission of not leaving too quickly. Missed. After three kilometers, I already feel my calves and thighs whistling. The race is going to be long…
After a first refueling, I find myself in the passage that I fear the most, the false flat of Vals… Well, false flat, we should speak more of a climb as this difficulty seemed so important to me. But as I hoped, after my time in the columns of Awakening last Saturday, several people encouraged me along the way. Support that allows me to forget, for a few moments, the pain of continuing my efforts. After just over 35 minutes, the end of the first round is in sight.
Our journalist is waiting for your support for his first race at the 15 km of Le Puy
And it is from that moment that the ordeal begins. The second climb of Breuil turns out to be terrible, but the worst is to come… Seeing the 10 kilometers sign, morale takes a hit. “I still have a third of the race to go. I’m never going to make it,” I told myself as I tried to maintain my pace. Because by looking at my watch, I see that I am within my objective time, namely 1 hour 15 minutes. If the success of this time is above all personal, my reputation and my “honor” within the editorial staff of Awakening also depend on it. So, I have no choice, I have to go below this symbolic bar.
The more kilometers advance, the less achievable this goal seems to me. My legs beg me to stop as my lucidity slips away. Pushed by the encouragement of the crowd, my brain disconnects and I manage to surpass myself to cross the line in 338th position with a time of 1 h 14′ 43”… Phew! Mission narrowly accomplished for my greatest happiness and that of my colleagues.
And if fatigue is more than present, the feeling of euphoria is also at its peak. To take stock of this experience, we can say that this race was complicated at certain moments, but I am proud to have managed to complete it despite irregular training and a lifestyle that was not always optimal, as evidenced by the pint of beer taken the day before the race…
The question that arises now is to know what follow-up to all of this… Because if suffering predominates this Sunday evening, the desire to take up a bib is already present. So this is what we call the running bug.
Guillaume Chorin
