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Days 9 & 10 Le Puy en Velay

I am happy to report that all of our runners successfully completed their runs and that we have been royally entertained by our French hosts

Saturday as expected has been all about the Trail race.

The runners over from Tonbridge parkrun were as follows

17km run

Peter Horne, Jamie Rogers, Pip Greenaway, Mary Pursell, Justine Norris & Catherine Moore

38km run

Dominic Boulle & Chris Greenaway

77km

Anthony Lester & Jim Pursell.

Luckily this morning the sky was clear blue and it was going to remain that way all day.

The runners all had to catch busses out to their various starts with the 77km guys out before 6am and seeing frost on the ground before the start

Caroline’s and my day started a bit more leisurely except it was my French godson Luc’s stag weekend and 8 of his friends turned up on the doorstep at 9 am and forced him into this duck outfit !! With the 17km runners due back first after starting at 9am we had time to have a wander round the market and get some provisions in for later ( although I later managed to leave my saucisson in a cafe)

We were able to follow the runners progress through an app set up by the organisers and were therefore able to ensure that we were at the finish when someone was due.

Our first finishers were Peter and Jamie who ran the whole way together. Jamie was not amused on finishing and looked as if he had been smacked in the face by a wet fish when I took this photo. Peter was super happy though.

Although Jamie was not the happiest bunny on crossing the line his mood was amazingly reinvigorated when a possee of French ladies came to lay at his feet. Swapping phone numbers he claims it was only because one of them wanted to send her son to the U.K. to learn better English, obviously not realising where Jamie was from, Peter emailed Catherine encouraging her to speed up to the finish!

Our next finishers were Mary and Pip who again had kept together during the run

Not all of the course was tough and Justine and Catherine took advantage of the lush grass to make angels before they came down the slide of death and up the hill to the finish.

All of our short course runners had now completed the route so we took advantage of a gap to had a coffee at a cafe at the bottom of the finish hill where the mayor seeing us in our Tonbridge-Le Puy outfits came over for a chat

We now were awaiting the two 38km guys and delayed lunch a little. Powering up the hill Dom came home in a confident and happy 69th position, ( 10th in his age group) having time to give Caroline a hug en route! What an achievement running 38km just after completing over 1000km cycling to Le Puy.

Chris was the next man up and never has Pip been so glad to see him safely home

With 8 of our ten runners home before 3 we only had our two long distance men out on course Incredibly the winner of the longest distance of 115km completed the course in under 12 hours having started at 1am in the morning.

Booking a restaurant at the bottom of the hill to stay close, the rest of us enjoyed a good meal outside in the glorious weather before our expected finishers.

Jim had been in touch with Mary and was concerned that they were cutting him short ( in fact they needed a detour for a farmer and his cows) Shortly after 8 Anthony came into view with the Tonbridge crew creating a wall of sound to encourage him and others up to the line.Finishing strongly Anthony was still smiling as he crossed the line

By this time Jim had fallen some way behind and was not due until around 11pm and whilst he had had a low point he was keeping Mary up to date with his progress as we were tracking him on the app. Finally there was a lightening in the mood as he sent in photos of the countdown markers at 3,2&1 km

Coming into view there was a roar from the Tonbridge crew as he ran up to, past the line and then on up all the cathedral steps to touch the door. Then ignoring advice decided to run down them too to get his free beer.

Everyone had finished and even if they had not enjoyed all the experience had completed a challenge with a number, Jamie included, vowing to train harder and come back next year.

Sunday dawned wet and we all breathed a sigh of relief that the weather had behaved yesterday.

My hosts daughter,Lise, had been out and brought our favourite brioche aux pralines for breakfast, little did we realise what more food we had in store.

Today we were entertained by the Le Puy Twinning Committee with a reception just outside the town again initially hosted by the Mayor where we exchanged gifts including handing over of the map of our cycling route linking our two towns before an aperitif and a five course meal and individual gifts for everyone who had come from the U.K. Can you see Our council being such good and generous hosts?

The big laugh and subject to a grand build up from the Chair of the Twinning Committee was the unveiling of the 50th anniversary cake

Apparently his English accent was so bad that the pattissiere thought that it was Tom Bridge’s birthday!

Following the meal we were then treated to a three hour guided tour round the Cathedral, the Cloisters, the Camino House, the Treasury and even a trip up the Virgin

We were not quite sure what these young clergy were doing up the Virgin but Jamie was happy enough though !

Following the athletic efforts over the past few days we had enjoyed our visit but were ready for a rest and his offer to show us even more sights was declined, but his generosity will not be forgotten.

A fabulous end to an unforgettable weekend for all of us present.