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Race Report: Marathon du Médoc 2011

by Sandbach Striders on Tuesday 20th September 2011

On September 10th2011 the Sandbach Striders, represented by Jason, Alan and Mr & Mrs Noah (aka Michael and Grant) undertook what is billed as ‘The Longest Marathon in the World’ around the vineyards of the Médoc region of France.


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)


Monsieur et Madame Noah et son arche.
The day began with a parade of the runners in fancy dress, which may not have been compulsory, but you’d have looked pretty out of place in plain clothes. Then, after a fly past by the French air force (well 2 of them anyway), the race began.

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.


Famous for 15 minutes
For those who like statistics about the course.  It’s relatively flat, with only about 100m total climb, and about half is run on roads, the rest being on gravel tracks between the chateaux.  There were wine (and water) stops at least every mile, and several other refreshment stops including ice-cream.

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.

http://www.marathondumedoc.com/



Grant