Race Report: Marathon du Médoc 07/09/2013

 The Virgin’s view.

Ok, So this must be the most difficult race report that I have had the pleasure of writing, difficult in the sense of placing so much joy and fun in to such a small report.

I was told about the Marathon du Médoc a few years ago by Grant, and it sort of floated my boat. The idea he told me was to run a marathon through loads of chateaus and drink red wine at each chateau, listen to some music and then carry on.

So I had planned to do the 30^th anniversary Médoc in 2014 and didn’t think it possible to get a place for this year. However, Danny had succumbed to a persistent injury and very gracefully offered his place and full holiday package. As grateful as a one legged man with a size 8 left foot, meeting a one legged man with a size 8 right foot, in a shoe shop buying the same pair of shoes, I needed no encouragement to pay the transfer of flight, add a bit to Danny’s charity as a way of saying thank you and get my training started.

The small problem that I had was that I would actually be in the USA for 2 weeks before the “race” returning to the UK on the Tuesday going to work on the Wednesday and then flying off to France from Luton on the Thursday. Now bearing in mind that we were flying from Luton, I had been feasting in the USA on pancakes and doughnuts for the whole 2 weeks, the Médoc “race” was not going to be easy.

Anyhow, enough about all my personal problems let’s move on to the event itself. I met with Mik on Thursday morning for the drive to Luton. Team (a) which consisted of Terry, Catherine, Clare and the Bulleys had set off at some unearthly hour in the morning. Mik and I went for the more relaxed approach of setting off with plenty of time to spare; after all we were in a Fiat Panda so speed was no problem if we required it.

We hit Luton with plenty of time to spare and met with team A. After a bit of breakfast and dare I say it “a Krispy Kreme doughnut” we were on the plane and sat ready to go. This was to be Terry’s first ever flight and I was told he was a bit nervous, but it never showed. Before we knew it and having missed the onboard wine due to being asleep we arrived at Bordeaux. A quick pick up of a hire car and we were off to the mansion that Jo had arranged for us to stay in. This place was something else, big and beautiful, although it missed a flushing toilet due to some problem. Still it was ok though as we simply used the downstairs one in the garage, a bit like having an outhouse for 9 people was in fact quite a laugh and a throwback to the old days. We settled in and before long the (c) team arrived. This consisted of Chris and Jill whom had been holidaying in France, oh and whilst there Chris had done some crazy race called the 3cs which basically meant running about 60 miles nonstop through the alps.  So with all the team settled in, a few glasses of the Vino flowing we got to bed.

Friday was the day that we had to go and collect all our Marathon bits and bobs. So we headed off to what is called the Expo and picked up our race numbers and a few freebies along the way. We had a good look around the village hit a bit more shopping and then returned back to the house for a final night of rest before competition time.

Saturday morning saw us wake early and get put in to the car for the big event. Our house was approx 20 mins from the race start. At this point all the hard planning had paid off. For there was now 9 very very weirdly dressed and scary Striders. Fancy dress as I later found out was not obligatory, just something that you would look stupid not having put the effort in. It was a sort of role reversal of say, turning up at Congleton Park run in Fancy dress whilst everyone else wasn’t, a sort of Delboy batman and robin scene.

The theme for the event was science fiction. Mik and Chris had gone as some steam punk time travel people and Mik had even designed his hat to take smoke canisters which made many a Japanese runner demand a photo. I had chosen to go as a Cybot alien, there was Terry as a spaceman with his bum showing and accompanied by two seventies space chicks, Jo as an avatar and Jason as a terminator (I think) and Jill who seemed to be a space chick with pink hair. All around the start, all people would say is “Great costumes” as Mik got ready for our stage performance of “welcome Striders to Médoc” performed in front of several 1000 other competitors we lit another smoke bomb in his hat. 

Before long there were some trapeze type artists in large balloons performing some tricks and then 5,4,3,2,1 BANG, the loudest crescendo of noise and yellow bits of ticker tape were unleashed by the 100s and 1000s it was everywhere.

Very quickly I managed to lose the others and with only Jill in sight we began to run together. This proved quite handy as Jill had done the race before. Pretty soon we reached the first wine stop whereby we had a little tipple of wine before the other Striders appeared. This seemed to be the theme for the first part of the marathon. We would stop have a drink, meet the other Striders listen to some music played by the bands and then just carry on. Awesome is a word to be used but never overused throughout the event.  It went, Run, stop for wine, Run, stop for wine and listen to some music and keep going as best you could. Keep moving forward and just keep going no ifs or buts about it, tread forward and drink some more. Jill was doing fantastically well as she was not even sure she would start the race due to injury. She thought she would start and see how far she could get. The plan was working fine and at one point I needed a break and she went on ahead with Chris. A couple of miles up the road and there she was having a break herself.

Before I knew it the main event was over. We had crossed the finishing line to a rapturous applause from the 100s and 1000s lining the street. The goody bag was awesome, see there I go again, but it was awesome and included the nicest boxed bottle of wine in the world. Following this Jill and I hit the party tent to find the others. We soon managed to find Chris but the rest were nowhere to be seen? Eventually a very slurry looking MIk and the gang turned up. It would appear that for the first time ever in a marathon, I had beaten them. However, this was to mean nothing at Médoc. In fact I was actually disappointed that I had beaten them. Jill and I came in at 6hrs 10 minutes, the others came in at 6 hours 29 which is very close to the cut off which was 6hrs 30. This actually meant that they had been out enjoying the course for a full 19 minutes longer than Jill and I.

However, after a few breath tests by Jason to confirm that we were well and truly over the drink drive limit it was time to go back to the house. This meant the adventure was over for this year and that before long we would be hitting the road for home.

I can honestly say that I have never heard of Médoc before joining the Striders. I can honestly say that even after travelling to France for some 23 years nonstop, sometimes twice per year I still hadn’t heard of it. But now thanks to the kindness of one Strider, whom basically gave up his whole race package, some very thoughtful organisation by Jo in finding a place to stay I have experienced what I can honestly say is the most enjoyable awesome marathon ever.

This is no race; get that out of your head. This is where Marathon runners come to party for the weekend. A different experience of running all together, people from all over the world, I partied with Canadians Americans Japanese and even the Spanish whilst on the road. I managed to Kiss some very nice French ladies whilst running around to keep the entertainment going I managed to have my bottom slapped, listen to reggae and do so many other great things in one race… But, I never ate an Oyster.

I so hope that we can have more Striders doing this event next year, I am already planning it with a costume, accommodation etc. I simply cannot wait to get back and give it another go. 

For more information, visit the website.

Paul N