Mfam is officially pooped today after a 1600km return car trip for a weekend of running and friends. Saturday afternoon was dedicated to cheering our under-sixteens around their 900m and 2200m runs. I was very jealous of their medals with storks wearing pink Puma shoes - only the children and the marathon runners got one. I did consider signing up for the children's run but had a feeling I might get rumbled, even if I did the run on my hands and knees. I also tried to negotiate with my friend's six-year-old yesterday but he refused to swap his medal for my bottle of Pinot blanc and a straw, and his mum told me off.
Sunday was ZE big day of the Molsheim Vineyard Marathon 10km. (I had planned to do the HM, but all the places sold out early). As indicated in the title, I ran naked! Meaning, of course, that I ran all 10 kilometres through gobsmackingly beautiful scenery without... my headphones (Gizmo the phone threw a loopy whilst we were waiting at the starting line, so I put the headphones away and decided to run without. It was the best decision I could make - the atmosphere was just amazing).
I ran with my pal Starman, who didn't say a word about my running technique, and lolloped happily alongside me, behind me and in front of me for the entire run. A good third of it was more like cross-country running, with lots of slippery mud and puddles. I was glad I'd taken the Purple Perils (my faithful old Kipruns). We stopped briefly to soak our friend at the water stand with a hosepipe, and give him a big sweaty hug.
Though I say it myself, we were the sassiest girls of all the 1300 runners. I'd say that at least half of the runners were in fancy-dress - there were cows, dogs, nurses, nuns, Jack Sparrows, super heroes, bunches of grapes and much more. There were a lot of women setting their pace behind a whip-bearing male stripper wearing nothing but trainers, socks, a black G-string, a bow tie and a hat, whilst another gaggle of girls were following in the wake of the local fire brigade, running with their helmets and full fire-fighting gear. There were also a good deal of punk wigs with various flag colour combinations on them - there was a gang of Germans hot on the tail of a French cockerel (I have since counted a total of 22 different nationalities on the board, and established that the runners were aged between 16 and 74!).
As for us, we settled for girly attire - I pinched an age 10 princess skirt from the kid's dressing-up box, tied up my hair in two panhandles on my head and went wild with a few spots of colour on my cheeks. The photo says it all - I had a whale of a time.
Time-wise, we came over the line together with a time of 1 hr 8 mins (official time) and just under 1h 5' according to Kermit the Garmin. We were light years behind Kiddo and his nationwide athlete BF, who cruised over the finishing line together at 48 minutes. Everyone is thrilled... and I need a siesta.
I'm now staring at my freebie t-shirt and bottle of wine, and pinching myself to believe it's true. 18 months ago, I couldn't even run for the bus, and decided that I would run this race in June 2016. So here I am. Thank you, C25K. And thank you to all you loons for supporting me along the way. You guys rock.
Yep, it was great fun. I'm all fired up to sign up for a new one now.
A Run in the New Forest ⚠️ Long post alert
Running naked in the rain 🙈
