No horses, but lots of running....

Continuing the marathonning theme that seems to have taken over this year, today Mike ran the Marathon du Mont St Michel. So we drove all the way up here on Friday, scouted things out and went to the pasta party yesterday, then got up stupid early to take him to the start today. As usual with these things, they organise road closures for maximum disruption and put up helpful little "déviation" signs that abruptly run out when you are in the middle of nowhere. Not to be foiled by this, I joined the queue of bleary eyed long suffering people driving their brightly lycra clad spouse/offspring/friends to the start. And promptly lost them all as I was the only one observing the 50km/h speed limit in all the villages and they didn't seem to think this would apply at 7am on a Sunday morning.......

Caught them up in the end as the police had started directing traffic which had the usual effect of making everything slower. Dropped Mike off in a freezing cold car park, and armed with my shiny new map of the area, set off for our first rendez-vous, in a sleepy costal town. The marathon runs from Cancale all along the bay to Mont St Michel. Unlike the London experience, there wasn't a soul to be seen on the route to start with apart from some bored looking officials. I took Choccy for a walk along the beach whilst we waited and she promptly rolled in what smelled like rotting shellfish.

We went back to the route and found the few other spectators content to stand well away from us, they sure didn't want to be downwind of the dog. Watched most of the marathon go by before Mike appeared, then got the hell out of there as a Breton bagpiper had started up.......

On to the second rendez-vous. This would have been a whole lot easier if some woman hadn't decided to try and drive down a road which had been made one way for the duration of the marathon. She sat there refusing to reverse back up until an irate driver behind me got out to talk to her and it turns out she couldn't reverse her own car. So the other driver had to get his mate to do it!! Finally got to where I wanted to be in time to watch most of the marathon go past again.......

Not so hot on fancy dress at this one, although this chap was up for it

and this guy was running with his dog

Mike didn't want Choccy, can't think why.......

Then it was on to the Mont. It probably would have been quicker to walk the whole way. Sat in a traffic queue for about an hour and a half to get to the shiny new enourmous car park they've just built. Waited ages for a flagging Mike to arrive then ended up yomping about a kilometre of the course with him whilst he found some more energy from somewhere. Have to say it was a spectacular view.....

Got separated for the last km or so and Choccy and I did the fastest walk we've ever done to try to get to the finish when Mike did, but just missed him......

Fab background for the "look I made it" photo!

Then we sat on some rocks and ate the food he'd purloined from the ravataillement tent then went for a wander round the Mont and found a bar.......

Decided to get the navette back to the car park, which although shiny and new is about 4kms from the Mont itself. Got on, and Choccy and I promptly got chucked off again by some jobsworth in a suit "Les chiens ne sont pas permis, Madame.....". Guess he'd caught a whiff of her......

So Choccy and I yomped back to the car park, we drove back to the hotel, snuck her up to our room without a mamber of staff getting close enough to smell her and stuck her in the shower.....then had a shower and changed all my clothes which also smell of eau de fruits de mer pourris......

And there we were thinking a weekend without the kids along would be easier.......