The Night before and the Morning after

David had a quick shower before Aaron and Kirsten took him to Beauvais Airport. On the way back, they picked up Marc at Beauvais train station and brought him to our hotel in Cergy-Pontoise.

The afternoon was packed: Jan went for a last run – and got soaked in a thunderstorm. Kirsten cut Barry’s hair – without any incidents. Abbey got a second glass of wine while catching up with Marc 😉 – and went to bed early. While Kirsten, Aaron and Jan wanted to buy something healthy for dinner at a supermarket, learnt that (most?) supermarkets are not opened on Sundays, looked for a decent place to dine – and ended at the most chaotic McDonald’s ever!

The rest of the evening was relaxed sitting in the huge hotel lobby, listening to Barry farting, and checking last details of the route for the next day. Barry and Marc got up at 3 o’clock in the morning to have porridge, went back to bed and got up 3 hours later.

With Abbey, Barry, Marc and me sharing a room, the morning was busy with packing things, Barry farting, and preparing the runners. The breakfast at the hotel was fantastic offering croissants, fresh pan cakes, great cheese, fresh fruits, etc.

At about 7:20, we had everything packed and took off to the starting line in Marines. We arrived there about 20 Minutes later. It was wet and colder than the day before. The clouds must have been dense as it was pitch black when Barry and Marc started in the direction of Neuf-Marché.

1st Check Point

On Day 1, the routes through the outskirts of Parisian suburbs were sometimes hard to find. Today’s route followed a well marked country road and so the support team was a the 1st Check Point in no time.

The location was kind of a truck stop. Kirsten put the kettle on while we waited for the runners and we started watching “Bridesmaids” on the TV in the Aaron’s and Kirsten’s luxurious van.

Barry and Marc came – and went off.

2nd Check Point

The 2nd Check Point was at Gisors train station. We stopped at a supermarket on the way to buy some stuff. Just when we had entered the shop, Barry called: Marc had problems with his calves – just as he had during the training before – and needed assistance. Aaron and Abbey drove off right away while Kirsten and Jan kept on shopping.

While Abbey tried her best to get Marc back on the road, Barry made the difficult but – from a runner’s point of view – totally right decision to leave Marc behind for now and keep on running. Plan was to meet at the 2nd Check Point and catch up with Marc there.

But Marc’s calf muscles had got hard and there was no way to mobilize him again. The supporters discussed what to do. Luckily Aaron and Kirsten had brought their bikes with them and so Kirsten suggested to accompany Barry.

Aaron checked the bike while Kirsten got dressed. Abbey supervised Barry’s nutrition plan and kept an eye on Marc. While Jan planned the route to Check Point 3.

3rd Check Point

At the 3rd Check Point, we continued watching “Bridesmaids” while enjoying salami, goat cheese and baguette. Barry arrived in good mood but started feeling the kilometres more than before. Kirsten was relaxed and enjoying her private time with Barry.

The stop was short and we went for the next 10 kilometres.

Finish Line

The road to the Finish Line had lovely villages, great scenery – and quite a lot of slopes. The latter made us worry how Barry would cope with it.

We found a parking slot between an old school building and a beautiful church. The sun came out and Aaron and Abbey watched the rest of “Bridesmaids” in the van.

At 12:30, the support team walked to the Finish Line. As usual, Abbey walked ahead and disappeared behind a curve. A couple of minutes later, Aaron and me heard a familiar voice and we were all relieved to see Barry still running at a decent pace coming down a slope.

We all accompanied him to the imaginary Finish Line which he passed at about 12:40 (too exited for an official time). Considering what happened, 4:55 is a fantastic time for Day 2!

Recovery

Barry’s recreational program started right away: Jan walked with him to the church. Barry did some stretching. Abbey got his shake and walked some more with him to ease his muscles.

Finally, we got into the cars and drove to our hotel in Forges-les-Eaux. Here we will stay for two nights – and the location is ace: It’s a nice, small town and just before we turned into the street, there was a lake with a forrest around. The house is huge and has a nice garden all around. After unpacking the vans, we sat on the little terrace in the sun enjoying ourselves – except for Abbey who was preparing the next nutrition-proteine-vitamine-bomb for Barry.