The first weekend in September saw me in Bordeaux with its background 'ting ting of the trams, with my local running group Outer Edge, for this iconic race that it took us 2 years to successfully get tickets for (thanks to Mark for that).
I attempted to prepare sensibly and put my head down at 11 last night but didn’t drop off until after 2, terrible night’s sleep. Just hoping I didn’t need it after a lot of sleep the night before. My alarm was at 5:15 to catch the 6:30am shuttle bus. It was great to see the fancy dress outfits start to congregate in the pre-dawn.
The race start was excellent - plenty of room for the 8,500 people without a crush, and a pre-race show with a band singing from a platform hung from a crane, with trapeze and ribbon artists swinging below.
Our group all started together which was brilliant, but the aid stations were all spread out over multiple tables and we lost each other at the second stop. The first wine was at the third stop (7km into the race), I had been needing the loo so joined the queue but only saw 2 people from the group go past, the others must be in front. The loo queue took 10+ mins (only 3 portaloos and somebody seemed stuck in the end one) so I figured I wouldn’t see my friends again, and I didn’t. The toilet queueing situation was the same all the way round the course so I had to go in vineyards which I wouldn’t normally mind at all only my costume wasn’t wild-wee suitable with a swimming costume over leggings!
After the wait for the first wine stop the rest of them came thick and fast, although there was usually a bottleneck at each one with not enough wine pourers to support the amount of runners! Annoyingly my right knee and back starting twinging. Not areas I’ve injured, pretty sure from the type of twanging it’s from the bed in my Airbnb bring on a slope, thankfully easy to run through but a bit of a nuisance. I had poles in my bag for my outfit so I got those out to take some weight off my legs.
I stopped to wait for an actual toilet again a bit later on and was surprised to see the broom carriage come past! So I left the queue and carried on running. My race focus was then to get some way ahead of the sweeper but it’s not really a fun way to be running. I considered stopping at the half way point, not least because the volume of the ghetto blasters on some of the buggies was uncomfortable for me and I couldn’t get away from them, but I ran on through. I eventually stopped for my missed wee, and even though I thought I’d gained some distance from it, the carriage came past again. I was a bit crestfallen and stood and watched it get further and further away. There were quite a few people following it at increasing distances and I wasn’t really sure why. The sun also came out at that point, the day had started overcast which kept the temperature down but now there was not a cloud in the sky so the temperature shot up into the 30s. I decided to quit and took a shortcut to the finish line (the route goes in a figure of 8 so I wasn’t that far from it).
I hadn’t been feeling this race at all from before I got on the plane. I’d been feeling out of sorts the previous 2 days with digestive issues and swollen glands, and I had big summer and was ready for a rest. I still wanted to enjoy it as it was really hard to get into, and a very bucket-list race to do, and I had been looking forward to it for 18 months, and I tried my best, but it was not to be, I wasn’t in the spirit. I did, however, manage 12 wine samples from 8 chateaus over the first 22km.
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