10 of us returned to visit George Livesey on the Cote D’Azur for this undulating 16K. The frost on the cars as we left at 7.15am was not expected and the 9am race start meant that warm-up t-shirts were worn during the race as well. Luckily the gusty wind and overcast skies of the previous day were replaced by blue skies and still conditions.
The race starts at the harbourside by the flash yachts and does a couple of laps around the twisting narrow streets of the town before going up to the citadel on dirt tracks. It’s therefore a great spectators course and we are cheered to see our support crew of Jackie Watts, Mike Marshall and Phillipe Kirschen several times throughout the race.
Andy Watts disappeared at the start and I tucked in behind George who is coming back from injury. Through the town I slowly got passed and was joined by Paul Ayres who then dropped back – blaming too much caffeine from breakfast and his sports drink… As we left the town for the loop out to Les Salins the descent from 8K was welcome but of course it’s uphill on the way back. Seeing Trevor and Penny’s husband Daniel as we made our way back allowed encouragement to be offered before the dash back through the cobbled streets and into the market square to finish.
The post-race refreshments of dark chocolate and wine were welcome after slowly recovering from the effort of the last hour or so. Catriona finished strongly despite being in tapering mode for Dublin marathon next week. Penny also recorded a PB even though she had a nasty virus. Trevor’s new WRC vest was remarked upon and Daniel exceeded his pre-race predictions for finish time.
At the post -race celebrations Mike Marshall said he will be running not watching next year – and Phillipe may be old enough too. The were numerous cups at the presentations – George taking 3rd in the V60. I was also pleased as 6th lady to get one for 3rd LV40.
Much eating and drinking later we had to get back to Nice the following day for the flight home. At least there’s the joys of training at Alderley Edge to look forward too….
- 69th Andy Watts 1:06:31 7th V50 67th M
- 130th Kate Sutton 1:10:33 5th LV40 6th L
- 165th George Livesey 1:12:25 3rd V60 157th M
- 169th Paul Ayres 1:12:33 38th V50 161th M
- 277th Catriona Marshall 1:17:45 9th LV40 13th L
- 279th Penny Hinke 1:17′:55 10th LV40 14th L
- 427th Trevor Faulkner 1:24:41 17th V60 384 M
- 573rd Daniel Kirschen 1:32:15 108th V50 473 M
- 766 finishers 559 Men 207 Ladies