Médoc: grands crus, oysters and rib steak on the marathon menu

Twenty glasses of crimson wine, oysters and rib steak served in the course of the race: the Médoc marathon, reputed to be ‘the longest on the earth’, demanded a well-trained liver and kidneys on Saturday to swallow the 42.195 km of the course.

After two years of absence as a result of Covid-19 pandemic, 8,500 runners, most of them in disguise and strolling to the rhythm of the bandas (brass bands), took half on this race with schoolboy humor, which crosses the vines of the good wine appellations – Pauillac, Saint-Julien, Haut Médoc and Saint-Estèphe – of the left financial institution of Bordeaux, within the south-west of France.

Dressed as Rambo, a pirate of the Caribbean, or in costumes formed like big popcorn packing containers, many of the 1000’s of beginner marathon runners – together with many foreigners – performed alongside, donning eccentric disguises, to suit the theme’ the Médoc makes its cinema’ of this thirty sixth version.

If the winners Freddy Guimard, for the boys, and Sandra Gouault, for the ladies, accomplished the course in 2h29 and 3h10 – successful their weight in grand crus – nearly all of the members take their time to have fun. They’ve till 6:30 a.m. to cross the end line and depart with a bottle promised to all of the ‘finishers’.

‘Very very filling’

And it is a efficiency in itself, as a result of all through the occasion, 21 ‘wine-sports assessments’ – on this case tastings of grands crus supplied by the châteaux visited – then as much as 18,000 oysters, 200 kg of rib steak and ice cream are supplied to runners as provides.

‘There are plenty of provides… it’s extremely, very filling. We do kilometers, however there isn’t a notion of time, explains Nicolas Alain, an beginner runner who got here ‘on a soothing outing’. For winegrower Emeline Borie, who ran a provide level at km 20 on her property at Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste, ‘water is good, however wine is healthier’.

/ATS