I got to Normandy 1pm sat feeling battered after a 1am start , by car to Portsmouth then 7hr Ferry crossing to Caen the Brittany Ferries onboard full English breakfast rocks and is remarkably good value at a fiver. (wld def have it again) I was accompanied by my good mate Carl (and his wife ), whose Fallen heroes of Normandy.org project i am running marathon for we hit up the expo at Caen got run no. = 303 that is so apt for this race its size of a Lee Enfield rifle bullet and Squadron no. of 1 of the Polish fighter units that provided CAP (Combat Air Patrol over the landing beaches (military slang is all about TLA’s (Three Letter Acronyms))) apols for that v. geeky joke. We visited some invasion sites in the afternoon which was great as i am nuts about Military History anyway and Carl is a working accredited D-Day Battlefield Tour Guide so he could add great depth and colour to the experience.I retired to my hotel room early doorsish and In a typical personal pre-race ritual i cooked fresh pasta in my room by pouring a whole travel kettle over it in a big metal mug and leaving for 5 min while i heated a sachet of a well known ready made pasta sauce to go with the Tagliatelle. For reasons of strict YKH impartiality i will call the sauce Dolmio as thats what it’s called. wherever i go racing in the world this is my pre-marathon feeding drill. It means i always eat the same thing and keeps costs down = getting the WIN-WIN! in early there pilgrims lol. After a typical pre-race night of much broken sleep my alarm went 5am and breakfasted on 1 of those porridge versions of a pot noodle that you just add boiling water to (fab! they work and i have no link with Quaker Oats, i use ’em a lot on away missions ) 6am I was driven to meet the Mara shuttle bus at the Caen D-Day Memorial a big, impressive thing Riding the 1st bus i got to start at Counselle-Sur-Mer at 7am so got to waiit for 2 HOURS!!! in a park for the 9.10 start Gun.Therefore , packing a a drink and more food was essential ( i scoffed jaffa cakes , a 9 bar and a whole pkt Fruit Pastilles ) The gun went , Bekele of Ethiopia was off like a scalded cat (incredibly stylish runner) and us in the main bunch trogged along after him, The first 10 miles of course were along Sword and Juno invasion beaches there were flags and “welcome liberators ” bunting everywhere – the tagline for the race is ‘Run dans la traces de la heroes’ and it is a humbling and exhilarating running experience to do so , i found myself getting reet carried away with this and led the 3.15 pace group for about 4 miles until i remembered how wrong York Mara went for me and Bailed from it, LOL. At 15 miles we ran along Pegasus Bridge site of the legendary British Para Op where 3 gliders landed in the DARK! in an area that a Tesco delivery lorry would struggle to turn round in ,AMAZING! this was so moving i felt myself welling up, so shouted “VIVE L’AIRBOURNE” and manfully cracked on there was a lot of encouraging band motivational shouting going on in the runner peloton and this made for a cracking atmosphere. Many years ago i was turned down for the Paras for having flat feet (??? no, me neither) , a great loss for this fine Regiment i know but they seemed to have made a go of it without me lol .At the 20.5 mile point i threw up an Old Faithful (name of a famous Geyser in Yellowstone Park, US ) of Lucozade Sport Elite this was entirely normal and at the usual mile point for mw when running a Marathon i only lost 2 min and immediately feeling better , cracked on with run .the finish at the Caen memorial was fantastic with crowds lining the funnel to the line i got quite giddy and put in a Herculean sprint for line passing 5 rivals which really panned out as i came 399/1800 with a 3.31.21 instead of in the 400s – YAY!!! FOR ME. this was an incredible run i would heartily recommend to anyone, an unforgettable experience. ( 5 stars )
D-Day Marathon Race Report by STEF DURKIN
19 June 2014 by ·