Luberon Marathon, Half & 10k

Sunday October 2

Scorching runs from Tom, 1^st.M55, and Andy,2^nd.M60, in the Marathon. The course contains no major climbs but is undulating, is partly off-road and contains a section, round the lake, on sand. Very picturesque but 29^o is not what you want. Yet both were close to the club record for their respective category. Their remarkable performances were put in context by those of us running the Half. Janine was 1^st.L45 and Nicky 1^st.50., yet we averaged five minutes slower than Macclesfield. In the 10k Amanda had one of her really good days, Roy found much better form than at either Birchwood or Sutton and Sarah chose a challenging day for PB, as she prepares for her Chester marathon.

The advanced party (a good choice of word) had left after the Macc Half to stay at Cat & Mike’s. Amanda & John followed them on the Monday. Tom & Frances led out the La Ferme du Bon Dieu group with the majority of us taking the Friday Ryanair flight to Nimes, and George & Stella driving across from Saint Maxime. You get a feel for the quality of our accommodation in that it commands €10,000 a week in peak season but Mike had arranged very favourable terms for the poor people of Wilmslow. The highlight was a magnificent old stone swimming pool around which we spent much of our time. The Les Mas de Verger party had had a week of eating, drinking and sun-bathing mixed with Cat organising them on running, swimming, cycling and exercise routines. We all ate two evenings at Cat & Mike’s and had pasta in the beautiful local old village on the eve of the race.

Up before light on Sunday, we joined Nicky, Janine and Richard for a quick breakfast. Tom, Andy, Roy, Frances and George were already on the road. We’d borrowed Tom’s sat. nav. which gave a little Zebedee bleep every time Anne trespassed over the speed limit. The centre of Pertuis was in festival mode with a band and lots of people in fancy dress. It was still reasonably cool for the 9am (8 to us) start of the Marathon, warming by the start of the 10k at 9:30 and, as 10am approached, I was thinking of how nice a 5k at Alexandra Park would be. We were meanwhile taken onto the stage for a formal introduction, Nicky gave a short speech and the compère said a few supportive words about Manchester City.

Whilst there was little shade there were plenteous water stations. To be strictly correct, feeding stations, there was a good choice of food plus red, rosé and white wine. We had been warned of the risk of gulping, in our rush, a cup of white wine. The 10k came in first Nina doing well despite struggling with the heat with Richard Ellis and Don both happy to be back in one piece within the hour and John Bradbury content to get round . Angela and I reversed roles; she started the faster whilst I closed some of the deficit in the second half. Kate and Cat beat the two hours. Frances did the 10k walk but was cautious, given the heat, of partaking of generous quantities of wine.

There was no goody bag but an athlete’s area with soft drinks, wine, a wide selection of sandwiches, fruit, cake and chocolate plus a bottle of wine. The award ceremony was somewhat protracted, it taking, even for the marathon runners, longer to wait for the prizes than run the race. Worth the wait though, we went home with an unbelievable 49 bottles of wine plus half-a-dozen pumpkins. 46 of the bottles were won by La Ferme but since we were excellently entertained by Las Mas for the celebratory party, honour was even.

Cat and Mike surpassed even themselves with their hospitality.

Marathon

10 Tom McGaff 3:09:51

18 Andy Watts 3:19:44

218 finished

Half – Marathon

120 Janine Ellis 1:40:49

140 Nicky Mowat 1:42:44

266 Angela Maziere 1:51:00

286 Ian Ashcroft 1:51:58

410 Catriona Marshall 1:57:57

411 Kate Sutton 1:57:58

905 finished

10k

119 Amanda Bradbury 48:12

232 Sarah Miles 52:52

258 Roy Pownall 53:45

309 Richard Ellis 55:22

399 Nina Birch 58:36

438 Don Bullough 59:57

698 finished