It may not
actually have been the longest (except for Mr. Noah, who spent an extra couple
of kilometres searching for his ark at one drink stop), but it sure felt like
it, with temperatures in the high 20s. However, the fiesta atmosphere kept us
going (the French really know how to party)
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| Monsieur et Madame Noah et son arche. |
To get us in the
swing of things, the first stop for wine tasting was as 1km and PB’s were
measured on a breathalyser rather than a stopwatch as we staggered our way
around about 25 chateaux (including Chateau Lafite Rothschild) listening to the
bands, and sampling the wine and local cheese, meat and oysters at most of
them.
6½ hours later the race was over – medals round
our necks, and very nice bottle of red wine in our presentation duffel bags – and
to revive any tired bodies they had a tent serving food and beer to the
finishers. If you still had any energy left,
there was a free ball and fireworks in the evening. We gave this a miss (until next year) and
drove back to our chalet to spend an evening drinking yet more wine.
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| Famous for 15 minutes |
To sum up, this
marathon is a truly unbeatable festival of wine and running from long before
the start to the last midnight firework after the finish (actually they have a
leisurely recovery walk round some of the course the next day too, with more
tasting).
This race should
be on everyone’s top 100 list of things to do.
It’s now on my list another 99 times.
So book now for
next year.