An Aussie running across France

Having played tourist for a couple of days, i suppose sooner or later my next run would soon appear (and hence almost the end of my trip).

Firstly i'd been to the Dune De Pyla, which i'd best describe as the French equivalent of Ayers Rock, a 117 metre sand dune sticking out of a forest which

basically everyone has to climb (you'll see at the bottom of the picture a bridge like thing that is actually stairs to the top), very impressive and certainly a popular tourist spot nearest to a town called Archaron. After working up an appetite going up it was off to this historic town and then a beachfront lunch, and then boat trip amongst the oyster farms (no eating of local oysters on this trip as apparently 2 people had died from them in the past week).

The next day was a guided tour of the many historic sites of the town of Bordeaux, most of which were older than European settlement of Australia.

That night was the Pre Marathon Pasta Party, as far as i can work out this was only the one for tour groups as we were all from overseas, strangely when the Australian contingent was introduced (10 of us) they played Midnight Oil's 'Beds are Burning' not quite the national anthem ??? (At least for the US they got Springsteen's 'Born in the USA' however i was mystified by some of the other selections). Very classy as Pasta Parties go with Salmon Ravioli, 4 Cheeses Ravioli and Tortelliini i certainly made sure i got my share.

Saturday morning and we were up for breakfast at 5:30 and left for Paulliac at 6:30, however unfortunately this was not because of an early race start but because there was to be a 90 minute parade of costumed runners before race start at 9:30 - Hardly ideal with a weather forecast of 20 to 31.

We were there bright and early, complete with our one costumed runner, Phil dressed as a Kangaroo, and it was a 1K walk to the start (Paulliac is the best part of an hour drive from Bordeaux). Some incredible costumes (hopefully i can get hold of some pictures later), but i had no idea how people would do 42K's in them in that heat.

I certainly had no expectations runwise, the knee was still sore, but fellow runner (and doctor) John from our group was confident it was structurally sound but there were muscular problems (and had given me a panadeine to deaden the pain). Certainly it was a long wait till race start at 9:40 and even then it was warmish.

I'd be honest and say that it was probably one run too many for me this trip, as i'd found a pace that was not too painful (but not particularly fast) but frankly the combination of heat (according to the local paper it hit 36 !) and what was actually a hard course made this more of a task than the fun wander between wine stops i'd envisaged.

Basically the course wound it's way between vineyards and to the chateaus where the drink stations were, however this meant we were on many different surfaces, sometimes roads, sometimes sand, sometimes gravel, sometimes grass and worse sometimes gravel with damned big white stones.

Certainly all the locals got into the spirit of it with bands and all the kids wanting high fives, only red wine at the drink stations (as well as water, fruit cake and dried fruit), really felt like i would have loved a nice crisp white so only 2 wine drinks for me, and heaps of water including one usually tossed over the head.

Have to admit i was very relieved the get to the finish line in one piece, knee was no better but no worse but frankly doubted it wanted to be out there.

Strangely enough it wasn't a personal worst though i was within a minute, officially i was 251st in 3:50:47 with the winning time being 2:28:07, there were 8,500 starters but at the Six and a half hour cutoff their appeared to be only 5,000 odd finnishers, certainly i had seen many of the more elaborate costumes appear to pull out after only 10 or so K's (and some didn't appear to have numbers so possibly were only there to add colour), all finishers get a souvenier bottle of red wine, a finishers wooden plaque, a pair of thongs (very handy as mine were falling apart) and a Medoc Backpack to put it all in (though we got our finishers T Shirt the night before !), strangely enough it looks like the knee needed the faster hitout as sure enough as i type it's actually pretty good.

By the time the last member of our tour party had got in it was well within 6 hour time so it had been a long day, though interestingly speaking to a number of people with Garmins looks the course was just over 44KM (not hard to believe as every K was marked and i swear some were extra long).

Funny enough as though yesterday hadn't been enough today was the traditional post race stroll through the vineyards we had run through so it was back to Medoc at 8 for a 9:30 start (this time limited to 4,000 starters), we were given a tasting mug (yet another Medoc Marathon Souvenier) and walked, never had a clue we would be out there for another 3 Hours though, would have been around 15K's through the vineyards with thankfully a winestop at 5 chateaus, certainly wasn't worried about the fact we had only reds today and usually had 2 different ones at each stop (and in some were able to look at the barrel and processing rooms), was very happy that lunch was under a shaded marque as though it was cooler than yesterday it was getting warm towards the end.

Was happy to get back to the Hotel at 3:30 and even better a soak in the bath, bit of a walk along La Garonne (the main river) and i think it's early night tonight as tomorrow it's off to St Emilion and it's wineries tomorrow.