Sunday 23 October 2016 - The International Toulouse Métropole Marathon

Warning: some readers may find this entry long and tedious; if so please move on!

Saturday night's tagliatelle au saumon at Pizzeria Vecchio took a bit of getting through after our mid afternoon giant lunch. But I manfully consumed it, as an intrinsic part of the training plan laid down by Sue. A plan that involved no running at all. It was two late for that. If I'd known Alistair hadn't bothered with anything else after the carbo loading lunch, I may have managed with just a pasta salad from the Monop' shop.

Anyway, after a couple of croissants and a cup of coffee for breakfast I made my way down to the start for soon after 9. There was lots of security, so meeting up with Alistair was a bit fraught, and handing over fleece and valuables to Laurence had to be done after we'd started.

Ali and I ran together for about the first 10 km, tracking the 'yellow sails' of the 4 hours 30 minute pacers. Ali finally went ahead of them, as did I after stopping for a pee and deciding a drink every 5 km was sufficient. The pacers were stopping at every drinks station - at 2 to 3 km intervals.

We were going at a pace of about 6 minutes per kilometre for the first hour. Conditions were good - not to hot, with a breeze to evaporate the sweat. There were no steep hills, though the course did undulate. My GPS, usually pretty accurate, shows ascent totalling a modest 200 metres for the entire course.

I happily jogged along for a second hour, passing the 20 km marker after a little over two hours. Keeping to that steady pace was however becoming harder, and the half way point hadn't been reached. The official timing shows me reaching half way after 2 hours 10 minutes.

I did the Macclesfield Half Marathon seven years ago, again with no training, so I'd known that barring injury I could keep a steady pace for that distance. But now I was in new territory. I soon passed Alistair, who had moved into a run/walk mode. I was managing to maintain a pace of just over 6 minutes per kilometre. I was passing lots of people, breathing deeply from time to time, and munching a pocket full of jelly babies. That made me feel queasy so I switched to grabbing bananas at the frequent support points.

Right from the start I'd been walking whilst drinking or eating (I'd learnt on the Macclesfield run that this was the antidote to choking), otherwise I ran all the first 30 km, passing that milestone after about 3 hours 5 minutes. Near here, Laurence and Monique were cheering me on, and from time to time the crowds shouted encouragement. Having your name (an easy one) on your bib is great...
"Allez Martin, bon voyage" or similar.

After 30 km I continued to run but my pace slowed, and at 35 km I had to accept that I couldn't physically run the whole distance, so I briefly lapsed into a walk. Friends had advised that if I found I couldn't run any more it would be an easy transition to a fast walking pace. Not after running for 35 km I'm afraid. So after about 20 metres walking, I relapsed into a slow jog, marginally quicker than a moderate walking pace, that was just as easy as walking apart from the need for lots of very deep breaths.

With about 4 km to go the yellow sails of the 4 hours 30 minute pacers went past. I wonder how I would have got on if I'd stayed with them all the way? Who knows? I might have expired like one of those yellow pacemakers that I passed near the finish. With gritted teeth and occasional pauses for drinks and a few metres of walking, the run continued. I didn't particularly enjoy this bit, but the mutual encouragement and camaraderie helped. There was one long avenue where runners stretched ahead into the far distance that was particularly tedious, especially as by now the leading relay teams had started to come flying past.

Near the end - maybe 500 metres away, though you couldn't see the finish (I knew it must be imminent as my GPS said we should have finished) I was given a push by a younger competitor. Vincent Carlier cajoled me into speeding up to the fastest pace I'd managed in the entire race. Every time I slowed he slowed with me and pushed me to an even faster pace. The orange carpet soon arrived and I'd like to think that was where we overtook one of the elite relay teams.

Thank you Vincent, whilst I didn't particularly enjoy it at the time, it was a memorable finish. Just desserts I suppose, as from time to time I've done the same to a few parkrunners in an effort to push them to personal bests. I finished at well inside 5 minute kilometre pace for that last 500 metres!

Getting out of the race compound was a bit of a struggle. I was later glad I'd eschewed the plentiful food on offer as I was still a bit queasy. I found a bollard to stand on and attempted to record Alistair rounding the final corner. Laurence and Monique were cheering us both on, though as I was distracted by Vincent I hadn't seen them at the end.

Here are a couple of relay teams going through, with Alistair just behind them, gritting his teeth to reach the finish.



Our times are somewhat academic as we aren't exactly elite runners and neither of us had done any training, though I'd probably had more exercise recently than Alistair, who works full time as a teacher in France near Geneva.

Martin: 4.32.40 (Half was 2.10) The ‘official time’ is a couple of minutes longer as that takes no account of the two minutes it took us to reach the start line.
Position 2067 out of 2637 participants, and 48th out of 78 in my 60-69 age group.

Alistair: 4.52.35, position 2378 (Half was 2.09).

We all met up, Guy appearing from somewhere, and I nipped back to my hotel for a shower before we took the subway to Ramonville for an excellent Sunday lunch with yesterday's team at Laurence's mother's house, where we were joined by Didier's son Florian.

Alistair and I were keen to absorb some of the Corsican beer that was on offer, and to show off our medals in the afternoon sun.



A trip to a spacious park next to the Canal du Midi provided Ali and me with an opportunity to loosen up (it worked) and a chance to meet Guy's son Jerome and his family (Corinne, Matis (5) and Romane (2)).

Lyra was also there, and she won a hastily convened Dog Hurdling Championship. Well done, Lyra.

By the time we left the Canal du Midi, the light was waning.

Then it was back for a welcome cup of tea at Monique’s house before returning to Hotel Ours Blanc for a good sleep before the journey home.

When I started this project a month ago I thought I might raise just as much money for the Cape Town township schools by sitting at home and writing out a cheque equivalent to the cost of this trip. But the response and the donations have been amazing. I've increased the target four times, and as I write the donations from 93 people amount to £1748, with a bit more to come. Thank you so much. I didn't know I had so many friends!

Readers are of course free to donate if you haven't already. It's a good cause:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Martin-Banfield2

There’s a slideshow covering my whole trip, here. If you click on the first image you may be lucky enough to be able to scroll through the pictures and see the captions, but if you find the ‘slideshow’ setting you are unlikely to see the captions. Google really are in a mess with this, I’m going to try alternatives when I have time.

PS Here’s the route, different from previous years, I believe, perhaps for security reasons.

And here’s the Garmin download giving timing splits, etc.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1419007751

The Toulouse Marathon - I finished!

Very quickly, as I've just nipped back to the hotel for a shower before heading off to Laurence's mother's house:

We both finished. My time was about 4 hours 32 minutes. Success, and only painful for a relatively short period (I hit a wall at 35 kilometres).

A Lazy Day in Toulouse

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday brought little contact with others, as Alistair and Laurence, who I was due to meet after they had driven from Geneva, suffered a breakdown en route.

After leaving Julia at 6.30 my only significant interaction was with Graham and Catherine, from Bodmin, on the flight from Bristol. They were good company. I have a good book (The Rosie Effect) but it wasn't opened. I enjoyed your company, G and C, and I hope you had a great weekend. They were considering nipping up to Bagneres on Sunday before flying home. It's great to be able to visit the Pyrenees for a weekend, though personally I prefer a bit longer!

The day had started well with easy traffic and as pleasant an airport as I've encountered. Once in Toulouse I got the shuttle bus and disembarked at a random stop in the big city. I'd forgotten to bring a decent map so I wandered aimlessly. After five minutes I came across the 'Marathon Village' and after another five minutes the Hotel Ours Blanc appeared. It's clean, friendly and convenient -  a good choice.

Having established that I probably wouldn't see Alistair until today, I enjoyed a 7 km stroll, heading along part of the significantly pedestrianised city centre to the Pont St-Pierre over La Garonne, and on to the start of the Marathon route. It's about a half hour stroll from the hotel. Just suitable for warming up tomorrow.

The afternoon sun was beaming down on lots of folk lining the east bank of the river. I joined them for a while.

Sue will understand when I say that finding a place to eat here is the exact opposite of our problem in finding a restaurant in Buenos Aires nearly twelve months ago. Within 400 metres of my hotel are a seemingly infinite number of restaurants, and across the road is a Monop' (like a Spar) shop. The restaurants range from high end to kebab joints. I chose a pizzeria (Pizza Papa) that served me an interesting  chicken and goat's cheese curry pizza and a marvellous trio of pannacotta. (Stop dribbling, Sue.)

Today, after a lie in, I met up with Alistair and Laurence. Alistair and I collected our numbers, timing chips and goodie bags. Mine was very straightforward, but Alistair appeared to have entered the disabled race. That took a while to sort out. He's not disabled, he's my cousin, and he's run in at least 25 marathon races.

We were joined for a lavish lunch by Laurence's brothers, Guy and Didier, and their wives, Monique and Ada. It was a lovely relaxed occasion. Guy very generously treated everyone. Thank you Guy, that was exceedingly generous.

I was invited to return with them to the suburbs (I'll do that tomorrow) but I opted for a quiet evening in the centre. I've been for another stroll for an hour or so and will soon go foraging for a bowl of pasta.

Today's pictures, taken around Toulouse, should be self explanatory.

Toulouse Marathon - The Village

I'm in nearby Hotel Ours Blanc, in sunny Toulouse, after a smooth journey via Julia's in Tewkesbury and a nice meal at the Swan, then an easy journey via Bristol and the eponymous airline.

The International Toulouse Métropole Marathon – Sunday 23 October 2016

Well, by the time you see this, I will have set off on my journey to Toulouse. It’s Tewkesbury tonight. Thanks Julia. Then EasyJet from Bristol in the morning and plenty of time to look around Toulouse before setting off at the back of the field on Sunday morning.

Last year the winner, Stanley Kiprotich, took 2 hours 15 minutes, and by the time the curtain fell after 6 hours, some 2561 runners had passed the finishing line, of whom 78 were in my (60 to 69) V3H age category.

Looking at the website, it seems that there’s a ‘Yellow Sail’ – a pacemaker with a yellow banner who will be running at 4 hours 30 minutes pace. He or she is the last of the pacemakers and I may try to keep up with that person for as long as I can.

The Marathon website is here (not particularly easy to follow), and it says the results will be available on line by Sunday evening.

I’ll be in touch before then, and am continuing to raise funds for the township schools in Cape Town that are supported by the small Levana Partnership charity. I know that many readers have now contributed, and I thank you all, but if you haven’t, and you would like to, my fundraising page is here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Martin-Banfield2

Wednesday 19 October 2016 – A Slide Show for SWOG

Our latest offering – 8pm tonight at Hazel Grove Civic Centre – is advertised as:

Puerto Montt to Santiago - More Chilean Mountains Lakes, waterfalls, snow-capped and active volcanoes, and a sprinkling of flowers and graffiti: Come and hear about the Chilean Lake District, the Central Cordillera and colourful Valparaiso.

All are welcome, and here’s a taster:

Enjoy!

Ramsoc Weekend at Malham – 15/16 October 2016

This is an annual event, currently organised by Sue B, with help from Sue W, who previously organised it for many years. It’s a reunion of the Sues’ University walking group. When I started coming on these trips there were lots of small children. Now most of them are at universities themselves…

There were about thirty of us on this year’s outing. Sadly Dick didn’t quite make it due to a fracas involving his car.

Saturday morning – we assembled outside Malham YHA annex, wondering where to go as nobody had paid much attention to planning a route. But in a rare bout of efficiency, Mike had somehow acquired some lunch.

A fair number of people wanted to visit Goredale Scar, which would be easier than usual to climb by virtue of the long spell of dry weather, so about 25 of us set off to Janet's Foss.

There was a mildly successful attempt at a group photo, shown at the top of this posting.

The day was heavily overcast, but with an earlier forecast of rain we considered ourselves lucky. Goredale had as little water in it as I can remember.

The slippery rocks at the bottom of the short scramble seemed to pose more difficulty than the scramble itself, which was very easy today.

There was still plenty of time to chill out as about twenty of us clambered up the rocks.

Then it was an easy staircase up to the limestone plateau.

Richard and I enjoyed a walk along the pavement whilst most of the others preferred the grassy path.

The others took a direct route to Malham Tarn, but Richard joined me on an alternative route via Middle House Farm. My last gesture towards ‘training’ for next Sunday’s marathon.

There was a view of Malham Tarn, under a thick layer of cloud.

We soon caught up with the others, apparently descending on them from a height!

Pete and Mary swept past on their tandem, briefly swelling our numbers to about twenty seven.

Some took a short cut beyond High Trenhouse, so by the time we stopped for lunch just below the cloud base near Black Hill, numbers were back down to about twenty.

The path to Gorbeck was a bit boggy, but trail shoes (with a waterproof liner of course) were adequate. The distinctive outline of Penyghent was just visible through the gloom. We were following a group of students from Durham, who we encountered from time to time thereafter. A missing member of their group would later receive reports that ‘Aunty Sue, Uncle Phil and Uncle Mike were looking out for you today’!

We passed lots of tasty looking mushrooms. We would have appreciated Heather’s expertise here, but she was busy guiding a large group around the Three Peaks.

The ground conditions improved as we wound our way towards the caves above Settle, first passing Jubilee Cave then going up to Victoria Cave, now fitted with safety barriers and an information board briefly describing its use over the last 12000 years.

As we made our way along the good path below Attermire Scar, the cloud suddenly dissipated and the sun came out.

There was a fine view up to Settle Scar, and the resident cows were a picture of contentment.

A well camouflaged little owl flew off from a stile just as we approached. Later, vociferous tawny owls were seen around the hostel in Malham.

I joined Tom for a while on top of Rye Loaf Hill. Julie was apparently also there, but I didn’t spot her (she's very small, hiding behind the trig point?).

The main group was re-joined on Pikedaw Hill, from which we enjoyed a sunny descent to Malham in excellent late afternoon light.

What a difference a bit of sunshine makes…

I was impressed that nearly 20 of the group had managed a walk of a good 24 km - rather further than usual, I think.

Here's my route - 26 km, 700 metres ascent, in a little over 7 hours.

We ate in the hostel, where the helpful staff also provided a series of pots of tea for us in the lounge. Costs for the weekend – two night’s B&B plus evening meal was about £50 a head, so despite the YHA charges being much higher than they used to be, the cost was about half what might be paid for a B&B plus a pub meal.

Sunday – the poor weather forecast drove many people home, as it started to rain whilst we were chatting outside the hostel. Sue and I decided on a short walk from Grassington. Many readers will recognise the path shown below.

After all the recent dry weather the River Wharfe wasn't exactly in spate.

We strolled along the Dales Way path towards Hebden. Despite the gloom, there were some nice autumn colours.

We took the path to Bank Top, then past Mossy Moor Reservoir, from where the good path led down to meet Hebden Beck by some mine workings where we joined a track.

A nice field path by-passed Yarnbury, and after a short stretch of tarmac we descended through more fields towards Grassington and past this relic. Curiously, we later saw an almost identical vehicle on the road near our house in Timperley.

By the time we reached Grassington Bridge to re-join the Dales Way path, the sun was out. We watched a gaggle of kayaks descending the weir before struggling lower down due to the paucity of water.

We left them to it and returned to Grassington for lunch in the sunshine.

Here's our route: 13 km, with 350 metres ascent, in around 3 hours - a good morning stroll.

There’s a 64 image slideshow here. (I’m still struggling with Google+ and am looking for a better alternative. If only the old Picasa system still worked… ho hum.)

Other Ramsoc events are recorded here.

Next year – Helmsley?

Thanks go to Sue, helped by Sue, for organising – which requires more work than you might imagine…

Graffiti from the Southern Half (21)

The graffiti in Valparaiso covers many subjects (and many buildings!).

Graffiti from the Southern Half (20)

Currently ‘resting up’, so it’s back to some more of the excellent graffiti in Valparaiso.

I’ve heard that there is some in sunny Salford, so I’ll get down there soon.