Shanghai Running Magazine Volume 3 | Page 30

stopped at them all - which were all
reds but one and they were spectacular (and by the end even better and I
still felt no pain – ok maybe a bit of a
buzz by then). They all had live music
some rock bands or a person singing,
some jazz etc. We even had some
gourmet food at some of the wineries including steak, oysters, cheese
and ice-cream.
I was jogging slowly between the
châteaux and many of my friends
would pass me I would stop for a
shorter time for wine and pass them
and this continued for the next 25
or so km. During that time I tried to
find a runner who wasn’t wearing a
costume and I never saw a person in
just normal running gear – everyone
was dressed up having fun / this was
not definitely not a typical marathon.
The last 10km I caught up with my
Kiwi friend (not the KBC) this was her
first marathon and she didn’t train

much and was struggling a bit so I
decided to run (and mostly walk) the
last part of the course. We ended
back up in Pauillac and checking time
we still had about 20min to finish we
picked up the pace a little at the end
and finished together. It was her first
marathon and we finished in 6hours
11min which actually placed us in top
45% of all the participants (about 2k
did not finish in time) and we were
also the first out of my group to finish. It was my slowest marathon by
far but I really enjoyed the festivities
and I didn’t have pain so was great to
get some distance on my legs which
hadn’t done any mileage in 2 months.
Instead of medals you receive a Medoc carved labelled wooden box of
wine and really nice engraved extra
large wine glasses.

interested in this as a payout – they’d
only get a few bottles). I checked
the times and if you completed this
quite flat course in 4hours you would
be in the top 96.5% of finishers – but
again you’d waste the best part of
the course. My friends all finished
behind me and the Kiwi – the Pogue
who lives in SH though had a great
story. She ran just in front of the cut
off gate - since the weather ended
up in the upper 20s and all sun they
added 30min to the cut off time.
She ended up being the last person
through the finish as they closed the
gates, she still was able to enjoy the
22 wine stops and was given a bottle
of wine and glasses at the end and
then they still had free beer just to
add a little flavor on our pallets at the
end.

The winner came in at 2hr 28min
which really is a bit of a waste – they
do however receive their weight in
wine (probably why Kenyans are not

This was such a super experience
which I would highly suggest but take
your time (ie all 6.5 hours) and go
with friends – I am already targeting a
return for 2016. The theme for 2015
was just announced and 12 September 15 is “The Medoc marathon
dressed up to the nines!”
To see a video of the start click on the
link below:
http://www.marathondumedoc.com/
index.php

30

© Shanghai Running 2014