Set in the vineyards of the Medoc region on the Gironde coast north-west of Bordeaux, this marathon has a tagline of ‘the longest marathon in the world’. I can vouch for the fact that this race is the same 26.2 miles in length as other marathons, but it certainly takes a longer time than most if you do it ‘properly’! I can also vouch for the fact that the whole thing is bonkers. Totally bonkers!
Eleven Striders lined up on the start line in science-fiction-themed fancy dress (as suggested in the race literature) all looking a little bit bewildered by the whole thing. A fair few of us were not really in the best shape to be running a marathon, still feeling a bit hungover from the pasta party the night before which was a rather impressive marquee-based party with four-course dinner prepared by celebrated French chefs, music and dancing, magnums of local (and really really good) red wine on the tables and as much bread as you could eat followed by an impressive fireworks display in the grounds of the rather beautiful Chateau Lamothe-Cissac. The other participants standing around awaiting the start of the marathon the next morning looked as sleep-deprived, as crazily-dressed and as bewildered as us. Especially when a huge pirate ship was wheeled past with an associated group of about 10 pirate-runners shouting “Attention le bateau!” VERY loudly every 2 minutes, followed closely by a rather large car-sized flying saucer pushed by 10 runners dressed in lime-green alien outfits. This was clearly going to be no normal race!
The starting gun saw fountains of gold ticker tape, deafening cheering and jets of stage smoke explode over the waiting runners and we made our way slowly towards the timing mats. It was a very crowded start, but eventually we headed off into the Medoc countryside along rural roads past vineyard after vineyard and made our way through the crowds to the first chateau. There were over 50 chateaux visible throughout the race, and we ran past or through 29 of them who were kind enough to provide their own red wine for the runners to sample along the way. The first wine-tasting stop was after about 2k, before we’d barely got to jogging pace due to the congestion at the start, and we queued the mobbed ‘refreshment’ table for our first Medoc wine sample. Served in a plastic cup, we all had about ‘two fingers’ of the wine, and then jogged on to the next chateau. At this stage, Angela, John Hutch, Mike and Sue had split off from the group I was in, and Alister, me, Greta, John G, Emma Detch, Bill Ford and birthday girl Jill Ford (what a way to spend your birthday!) stuck together in our train and tried desperately not to lose each other in the crowds. The race continued in that way for the whole 26.2 miles: jog to chateau, stop and drink wine, occasionally drink some water, repeat. There was also a selection of nibbles available along the route including bananas, oranges, flapjack, energy biscuits, chips, cheese, bread, ham and cheese sandwiches, chocolate, ice cream, steak and oysters (yes, oysters – but with white wine, of course) on offer for the runners.
As we hit halfway, I was finding the going quite tough (the stopping and starting was really quite difficult!) so decided to get more into the spirit of things and attack the wine stops with more gusto (well, it was Jill’s birthday!). By 18 miles I was definitely feeling the Medoc spirit! The chateau ‘refreshment’ stops were getting more rowdy, with runners stopping to dance with the bands that were playing, and one particularly memorable one where runners were sitting on the floor passing other runners over their heads (I don’t quite recall why, but it all seemed very amusing at the time!). Alister joined me in the change of approach, but it turns out that, while I’m seemingly powered by red wine, it does all sorts of bad things to Alister, so by 21 miles I was singing, chattering, smiling and laughing, jogging backwards and skipping to try and encourage him along, while Alister’s woeful cries of ‘Jonesy, I’ve got nothing. NOTHING!’ rang out regularly across our (now really quite) merry bunch. The seven of us finally staggered across the finish line, hand in hand, in around 6 hours 20, give or take, making it round within the cut-off of 6 hours 30 and having sampled the wares at every single chateau. You can imagine how pleased we were to be presented with one of the prizes: a box of red Medoc wine! They obviously knew it was Jill’s birthday, though, because she got a rather wonderful one from the Lafite Rothschild vineyard. Very nice! We got the medals around our necks and, after meeting up with the remaining Striders, had the obligatory photo and then, after a wait for Alister to claim his free beer from the congested refreshment tent, made our way back to the accommodation. Apparently we did some more celebrating at the house that night with more Medoc red wine and lots of cheese, but I don’t quite recall…
You’d think that would be enough Medoc wine for any person but it really is very nice! Which is lucky, because the final part of our ‘marathon package’ was the 9k recovery walk followed by another lunch the day after. Again back at the Chateau Lamothe-Cissac, we arrived to be presented with a silver keepsake Medoc Marathon wine-tasting vessel and headed off back out into the countryside. After tasting a lot more of the wine at a more sedate pace, we were then treated to yet another slap-up meal in the banqueting marquee in the grounds of the chateau. There was more wine in bottles on the table, and, if it ran out, two enormous barrels from which you could help yourself and re-stock. These barrels were so big they could hold a whole Strider on top of them (see pictures!).
All in all a truly unforgettable experience (well, excepting the red wine blanks, of course). But overwhelmingly crackers. Crazy! Totally bonkers! I LOVED it!